Saudi Arabia’s Rasan to lists 30% stake on local bourse

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Saudi Arabia fintech firm Rasan said on Sunday that it plans to sell a 30 per cent stake through an initial public offering (IPO) on the Saudi Exchange (Tadawul), as listings in the kingdom pick up after a short hiatus.

Rasan is offering 5.3 million new shares and 17.4 million existing shares to investors – equivalent to 30 per cent of the company’s paid-up capital.

The fintech firm said the offering price will be determined at the end of a book-building process. It is offering the shares in two tranches — institutional investors and retail investors— between May 12 and May 30.

Rasan said the proceeds from the share sale will be distributed to the selling shareholders, with the remaining to be used to finance its growth strategy. It has hired Morgan Stanley and Saudi Fransi Capital as joint financial advisers, bookrunners and underwriters for the offering.

“The company’s transition into a publicly listed company allows us to unlock our full potential for innovation and development. It will pave the way for exciting product launches and accelerate the realisation of our strategic ambitions, aligning with the opportunities in the markets we serve,” said Moayad Alfallaj, co-founder and CEO of Rasan.

Founded in 2016, Rasan operates online insurance platforms such as Tameeni and Treza. The company said its full-year revenues reached $68m (SAR256m) in 2023.

Tameeni provides motor, SME Health, travel and medical malpractice insurance services as aggregators while Treza offers insurance policy management solutions for leasing companies and banks.

Rasan joins Saudi booming IPO market

Meanwhile, Rasan is among four Saudi companies that recently announced their intentions to go public, amid a boom in IPO activity in the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia has been encouraging more family-owned and private companies to list in a bid to deepen its capital markets as part of reforms aimed at reducing the country’s reliance on oil revenue.

Last week, Saudi medical group Fakeeh Care Group started taking investor orders for its $763m IPO on Thursday, which was sold out within an hour.

Water treatment firm Miahona also closed institutional order books for its IPO of as much as SAR555.2m last Thursday, while Saudi Manpower Solutions Company announced its listing plans earlier this week.

Similarly, Rasan joins other tech companies in Saudi Arabia that are considering going public such as the buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) firm Tabby, e-commerce platform Floward and the online cosmetics retailer Nice One, according to Bloomberg.

The GCC region is set to see more equity capital markets activity in 2024 as more companies seek public listings, having been a bright spot amid a slowdown elsewhere last year.

Read: Saudi Arabia’s Fakeeh Care Group sets IPO price range, seeks to raise $763m