Saudi's SMC struggles on debut: IFR
Specialized Medical Company continued a run of poor debuts on Tadawul with its shares opening below the SR25 issue price at SR24.50 following the company's SR1.88bn (US$501m) IPO.
Shares reached the issue price but closed 3.4% lower at SR24.16.
Nearly 17.4m shares changed hands, representing 23.2% of the 75m shares sold in the IPO.
EFG Hermes and SNB Capital ran the deal.
The Tadawul All-Share Index has fallen in recent weeks to lows not seen since the end of 2023 amid wider volatility surrounding the conflict between Iran and Israel and remains down nearly 9% this year despite some positive moves since the announcement of a tentative ceasefire.
SMC saw relatively low retail take-up with the 20% tranche only 1.5 times covered.
The weak debut follows low-cost carrier Flynas, which closed down 3.4% on its first day, though shares have since rallied past the SR80 issue price to close at SR80.60 on Wednesday.
Prior to that United Carton Industries shares closed just below the SR50 issue price and remain well below at SR38 despite some momentum in recent days.
The weakness is in stark contrast to the expectation of buyers and sellers in IPOs that shares should hit the limit of a 30% rise on debut – though of late even some that met that initial performance metric have fallen below issue, such as poultry producer Entaj.
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