Oman Regulator Gives Nod For Power Plant Share Sales Worth $163m

The Omani regulator has approved the flotation of two electricity-generating companies worth a combined 62.7 million rials ($162.9 million), with the public offerings set to take place simultaneously next month.

Oman’s Capital Markets Authority said the sale of 35 per cent of Al Suwadi Power Co and Al Batinah Power Co would take place between May 11 and June 9 after their offer documentation was approved, according to local press reports quoting a statement to the state news agency.

Both companies are owned by mostly foreign consortiums. They became operational in April 2012 and under local rules majority foreign-owned power companies in Oman must conduct initial public offerings (IPOs) within five years of starting up.

Al Suwadi Power Co will raise 32.5 million rials through the sale of 250 million shares priced at 0.13 rials each, while Al Batinah Power Co’s offering of 236 million shares at 0.128 rials each would generate 30.21 million rials.

The offerings are open to both retail and institutional investors, the reports stated.

The listing of the two firms comes after another power company, Sembcorp Salalah Power and Water Co, raised 53 million rials from its 35 per cent IPO last September.

That deal was comfortably oversubscribed, according to a statement at the time, with shares closing on Wednesday at 1.97 rials, up 23.9 per cent from the IPO price. This compares with a 1.25 per cent gain for Oman’s benchmark stock index since the shares started trading.

Al Suwadi Power Co runs a 750 megawatt plant in Barka, north of the capital Muscat. Al Batinah Power Co operates a plant of the same size in the northern city of Sohar.

Both firms are owned by a consortium comprising GDF Suez with 46 per cent, local firm Suhail Bahwan Group with 22 per cent, Japan’s Sojitz Corp and Shikoku Electric Power Co, each with 11 per cent, and Oman’s state pension fund with 10 per cent