The companies in the Middle East region raised a total of $1.29 billion through five initial public offerings (IPOs) in the second quarter of 2012, up 344 per cent when compared to the same period last year, said a report.

This is almost three and a half times more than the $374.77 million raised in the second quarter of 2011 and 15.46 times more than the $82.8 million raised in the first quarter of this year, according to the Ernst & Young’s Mena Q2 2012 IPO update.

A total of $1.37 billion was raised in the IPO markets by regional companies in the first six months as compared to $396.47 million in the first half of 2011- a growth of approximately 3.5 times.

Saudi Arabia’s Al Tayyar Travel Group led regional IPO deal sizes with its $364.65 million listing on the Tadawul, followed by Saudi Airlines Catering’s $354.09 million and the Kingdom’s Najran Cement Company’s $226.58 million IPO, also listed on the Tadawul.

UAE-based NMC Healthcare that listed on the London Stock Exchange in April, came in at fourth position with a $187 million IPO followed by Oman’s Bank Nizwa which raised $158.49 million and listed on the Muscat Stock Market.

Phil Gandier, the Mena head of Transaction Advisory Services, E&Y said, 'The sudden spike in IPO activity in the second quarter was an exceptional event within a consistently depressed Mena IPO market. There were only four IPOs in the second quarter whose ticket sizes made the difference while most country markets remain slow.'

'The summer period is traditionally quiet so the third quarter will most probably bring these levels down again,' he remarked.
 
'Equally, the Bank Nizwa IPO was a result of the regulatory changes in Oman’s banking sector which has recently approved Islamic banking, while the NMC Healthcare listing did not raise funds in the region, but in London. We expect the Saudi market to continue listing a steady but modest flow  of new companies during the remainder of 2012,' Gandier added.

According to him, the global IPO activity saw an improvement in the second quarter. 'So far this quarter, a total of 206 deals has raised $41.8 billion, an increase of 5 per cent by deal numbers and 141 per cent higher by capital raised compared to the first quarter $17.4 billion,' he stated.-TradeArabia News Service