Saudi staffing company SMASCO sets final IPO price at 7.50 riyals per share

Saudi Arabian staffing company SMASCO announced its final IPO price at 7.50 riyals per share via the Saudi Exchange on Sunday.

The company aims to raise as much as 900 million riyals ($240 million) in its initial public offering on Riyadh's main bourse, it said earlier this month.

SMASCO plans to offer 120 million shares representing a 30% stake.

The individual investors subscription process will begin next Sunday and end next Monday, the statement said, with 10% of total shares available to individual investors.

There have been a number of IPOs across the Gulf this year with Saudi flour mills company Modern Mills, UAE supermarket franchisee Spinneys, and Kuwait's BIG Holding coming to the market, among others.

The growth of IPOs in the region comes as part of broad plans to deepen capital markets, grow the private sector and attract investment.

However, despite the many new listings there has been a slowdown in the market this year as companies domiciled in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region raised $1.2 billion in IPO proceeds in the first quarter of this year, down 66% compared from a year earlier, according to data from consulting firm EY.

($1 = 3.7503 riyals)