Middle East Equity

Saudi Arabia gave equity capital market bankers hungry for mega-deals something to look forward to on an otherwise bleak midwinter day of trading on Thursday, as its deputy crown prince touted the idea of a sale of Saudi Aramco shares.

Persian Gulf equity markets have so far failed to win a boost from last year’s inclusion of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar into the world’s main emerging market index, as well as the more recent opening up of the Saudi Exchange to foreign investors, market participants have said.

Equity market participants in the Persian Gulf are hoping for a quickening of activity in the final months of the year, after a disappointingly slow 2015 so far. But there is little certainty that many issuers will risk market conditions that could well remain volatile.

On June 15, and after months of anticipation, qualified foreign investors were for the first time able to directly invest on the Saudi Stock Exchange. GlobalCapital's Olivier Holmey and Jon Hay sat down with its CEO, Adel Saleh Al-Ghamdi, in London to discuss the reforms that have been introduced, and those still to come.

Saudi Arabia’s new stockmarket regime, under which qualified foreign investors can buy stocks listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange directly for the first time, began on Monday, June 15.

Emaar Misr for Development, the Egyptian property developer, on Thursday released the price range for its initial public offering in Cairo, which values the firm at the mid-point at about E£17.9bn ($2.35bn).

Oron Group Investments & Holdings, the Israeli civil engineering group, started trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange on Monday, after last week completing the country's first initial public offering this year.

Egypt’s Integrated Diagnostics Holdings rose 26% on Wednesday, its first day of trading in London, and has risen a further 11% since then, after the firm priced its massively popular rebooted IPO.

Mobin Petrochemical Co has floated 7% of its share capital in Tehran, the stock exchange said in a statement on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority is pressing ahead with a long-awaited plan to open up the Riyadh stock market to foreign investors. Market participants hailed the news as a strong signal of reform, but cautioned that a lot more had to be done if the Saudi bourse is to normalise institutional access to its stocks.

The IPO of Integrated Diagnostics Holdings, a firm that offers diagnostic services and radiology in Egypt, Jordan and Sudan, is covered at the full deal size, Deutsche Bank said on Friday April 24.

Deutsche Bank is tonight trading a block of shares in Al Noor Hospitals, as Ithmar Capital seeks to sell its entire stake in the Abu Dhabi healthcare group.