Al Khaliji, the new Doha-based bank, has allocated shares following last month’s highly successful Initial Public Offering (IPO).

The IPO, which closed on the April 29, attracted 86,547 Qatari investors, who applied for shares worth QR1.37 billion – leaving the offer 2.28 times oversubscribed.

The offer, for 120 million shares, or 17 per cent of the bank’s authorised capital, was worth an initial QR600 million, paid at 50 per cent.

Seeking to take a fair approach to the widest number of potential investors, the number of shares each individual could apply for was limited to 5,000 in order to give as many investors as possible the opportunity to participate in the offer, the bank said. 70 per cent of the shares are being allocated across the board and 30 per cent on a ‘prorata’ basis.

This means that investors who applied for between 500 shares and 1000 shares will receive their full allocation. Those who applied for between 2,000 and 5,000 shares are being allocated between 1,220 shares and 1,880 shares respectively.

Al Khaliji’s chairman, Mr Tariq Al Malki, commented: “The publication of the breakdown of the shareallocation
is a first in the local market and underlines Al Khaliji’s commitment to financial transparency and its
responsible approach to raising capital in the market.

“It is important to note that everyone – especially the small investor – has received shares and noone
has been left disappointed. We intend to maintain this high level of investor relations with the prompt reimbursement for shares not allotted to individuals and through the ongoing communication of developments at the bank as we move towards the launch of our services by the end of the year.”

David Proctor, head of Al Khaliji’s executive team added: 'When we embarked on this IPO, we set out not just to raise capital, but to set a new benchmark for fairness towards individuals and responsibility towards capitalraising
in the market. This is why we capped the number of shares investors could apply for, as we did not wish to pull liquidity out of the local stock market – or indeed individuals’ pockets. Nor did we wish to raise any more money
than Al Khaliji has need for.

“I believe we have more than realised our ambitions with an offer that, while over two times oversubscribed, provides a template for the conduct of future IPOs in the region seeking to build longterm value for investors.”- TradeArabia News Service