HSBC completes first accelerated book-building in Saudi Arabia

HSBC Saudi Arabia said it has completed its first accelerated book-building (ABB) process to sell 16 million shares, representing 2 percent of Almarai.

The bank said it acted as the sole bookrunner in the transaction, announced by Savola Group on 12 September and executed the next day.

“Through the execution of this deal we have attracted significant investment inflows to the Kingdom from international institutional investors and the deal was well received by institutional investors across Europe and North America and generated a strong demand locally as well,” Faris AlGhannam, head of investment banking advisory at HSBC Saudi Arabia, said in a statement.

He added that ABB is a common process in international markets, in which a competitive offering is conducted in a short period of time for pricing and selling blocks of shares in a listed company.