Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has raised $3.2 billion after completing a secondary share offering of the kingdom’s largest mobile operator.
Some 120 million shares in Saudi Telecom Company (STC) were sold by the country’s sovereign wealth fund, 6 percent of STC’s share capital, in the offering, the first of its kind in the Saudi capital market.
It was the largest equity capital markets transaction in Saudi Arabia since the 2019 listing of the country’s oil giant Saudi Aramco.
Yazeed A. Al-Humied, PIF deputy governor, head of MENA investments, said: “The strong interest that this offering has generated from domestic and international investors is testament to STC’s enduring strengths and exciting prospects for the future.”
The offering for the Riyadh-based telecommunications company was the largest secondary follow-on transaction in EMEA in the last three years and the largest secondary follow-on transaction in CEEMEA in nearly ten years.
Eng. Olayan M. Alwetaid, STC Group CEO, added: “I do not doubt that the increase in the company’s free float percentage to 29.84 percent will further enhance the company’s international investment case and help make its shares accessible to a wider range of investors and improve trading liquidity.”
The sale comes as Saudi Arabia pushes ahead with raising capital to diversify its economy, fulfilling Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s plan to move the economy away from oil. The PIF previously said it would invest about $40bn-a-year in the domestic economy until 2025. Prince Mohammed said in March the PIF plans to sell off large stakes in companies it has held for a long time, noting that they shouldn’t hold investments “forever”.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Technology Express staff and is published from a syndicated feed)
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