The initial public offering of the National Commercial Bank (NCB) was 6.1% covered at the end of the second day, said financial advisors and lead managers GIB Capital and HSBC Saudi Arabia.
A total of 166 thousand investors bought shares at a total value of SAR 824 million. Subscription to the shares allocated to retail investors started on Sunday, Oct. 19. The offering will run for 15 days until Nov. 2.
Saudi Retail investors started subscribing to 300 million shares, representing 15% of the lender’s capital.
The total number of offered shares reaches 500 million, or 25% of capital.
Economist Mohammed Alsuwayed earlier told Mubasher that the offering is likely to be 100% covered, indicating that the issue price of SAR 45 per share is below forecasts.
Alsuwayed added that the stock’s price target will range between SAR 50 and SAR 60 after listing.
The subscription impact on the market performance will be temporary, as it is supposed that SAR 22.5 billion ($6 billion) will be withdrawn from the liquidity during the subscription period. However, when the offering ends, the market will resume its normal performance, he noted.
Alsuwayed also indicated that the IPO will boost the market in the next period, expecting the index to reach 11000 or 12000 pts.