Kuwait’s BIG Holding to list 30% stake on local exchange

Image credit: YASSER AL-ZAYYAT/ Getty Images

Kuwait’s Beyout Investment Group (BIG Holding) said on Tuesday that it plans to sell a 30 per cent stake through an initial public offering (IPO) on Boursa Kuwait, in what is set to be the country’s first listing in around two years.

BIG Holding said the final offering price will be determined through a book building process to be held May 19-23. The company’s shares are expected to debut on the Kuwaiti stock exchange in June.

Founded in 1991, BIG Holding provides manpower solutions and manages real estate projects including build-operate-transfer and public-private partnership deals. Its customers include the US Government as well as the Kuwait Oil Company.

“The intended listing would provide investors with exposure to a diversified business, largely split between human resources and real estate services,” the firm said in a statement.

The holding firm has hired National Investments Company and EFG-Hermes UAE as joint bookrunners and joint global coordinators on the deal.

There has been a flurry of IPO activity in the GCC region over the past four years. Companies in the MENA region raised $1.2bn in IPO proceeds in the first quarter of this year, down 66 per cent compared to the corresponding period a year earlier.

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