Saudi pharma retail chain Al-Dawaa surges in trading debut

Al-Dawaa Medical Services, one of Saudi Arabia’s largest pharmaceutical retailers, jumped on its trading debut in Riyadh after a $500m initial public offering.

The shares surged as much as 18 per cent to SAR86.1. The company had sold shares at SAR73, pricing it at the top end of a range after attracting more than $25bn in bids ahead of its retail offering.

Riyadh has been the hottest market in the Gulf for IPOs over the past two years amid pent up demand from retail and institutional investors.

Saudi Arabian companies raised almost $9.3bn from share offerings last year and the benchmark Tadawul All Share Index is among the best-performing gauges in the world this year.

Al-Dawaa operates a network of pharmacies with over 800 outlets across 130 cities in Saudi Arabia. It posted a revenue of about SAR5bn ($1.3bn) and profit of SAR246m in 2020 compared with SAR4bn and SAR233m year ago, respectively.