Home Industry Finance Saudi Arabia’s Modern Mills to sell 30% stake in IPO on local bourse The company appointed HSBC as the sole financial adviser, global coordinator and lead manager on the deal and Emirates NBD Capital as joint book runner and underwriter by Kudakwashe Muzoriwa February 7, 2024 Image courtesy: Mohammed Almuaalemi/ Getty Images Saudi Arabia’s Modern Mills said it plans to sell a 30 per cent stake through an initial public offering (IPO) on the Saudi Exchange (Tadawul). The milling company said in a statement, that it received approval from the Capital Market Authority to offer 25.5 million shares, representing 30 per cent of the company’s issued share capital. Modern Mills hired HSBC Holdings as the sole financial adviser, global coordinator and lead manager and Emirates NBD Capital as joint book runner and underwriter on the deal. Similarly, Al Rajhi Bank and Saudi National Bank are receiving agents for the individual investors’ tranche on the Modern Mills deal. The company said the final offer price will be determined following the book-building period. Modern Mills was previously owned by the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. It was acquired by a consortium of MADA Holding and UAE’s Al Ghurair Foods in 2021. “Since its restructuring in late 2020, Modern Mills has been on a transformative journey focused on optimising operations, protecting and strengthening our market share, generating top-line growth and implementing best-in-class governance,” Osama Ashi, the company’s CEO said in a statement. “We have made tremendous progress across all fronts – by the end of 2022, Modern Mills’ flour market share in volume grew to 24 per cent, we recorded 50 per cent revenue CAGR between 2020 and 2022 and as of the first half of 2023, the company achieved 92 per cent capacity utilisation.” The company is set to be the second flour milling company to go public after the government privatised the industry. Saudi Arabia’s First Milling Company raised $266m (SAR999m) in an IPO that attracted bids worth SAR68.8bn from investors while Fourth Milling Company is reportedly working toward a listing this year. Modern Mills joins Saudi IPO rush Meanwhile, Modern Mills is the second company to list on the Tadawul this year, after MBC Group raised $222m and Avalon Pharma started book building for its listing of as much as $131m (SAR492m) last month. “As expected, 2024 started positively with the MBC listing, Avalon Pharma and the announcements of several IPOs on the MENA markets including large private and state-owned names,” said Gregory Hughes, EY MENA IPO and transaction diligence leader. Saudi Arabia dominated the Middle East IPO space in 2023 with 14 of the 19 listings in the last quarter of the year. ADES Holding Company marked the highest proceeds at $1.2bn, followed by SAL Saudi Logistics Services Company at $678m. The remaining 12 IPOs, which raised $140m in total, took place on the Nomu – Tadawul’s Parallel Market. The 2024 pipeline includes 29 companies across various sectors that unveiled their plans to list with Saudi Arabia and the UAE leading the way in terms of expected volumes. Read: Saudi Arabia’s Avalon Pharma sets IPO price range