Institutions snap up share of Fakeeh Care Group IPO in minutes

• Saudi health company valued at $3.3bn
• 21% of shares to be sold in IPO
• Biggest Saudi IPO so far this year

Institutional investors snapped up their slice of shares in the Saudi healthcare conglomerate Fakeeh Care Group within minutes of the start of the book-building process for the company’s IPO.

Fakeeh Care Group, which was founded in Jeddah in 1978, has set the price range for its initial public offering (IPO) at between SAR53 ($14.13) and SAR57.5 per share.

At the bottom end of that range, the company would be valued at around SAR 12.3 billion ($3.3 billion).

The IPO will run on May 21 and 22, HSBC Saudi Arabia, the financial adviser, bookrunner, underwriter and lead manager, said this week.  

The book-building process for institutional investors started on May 2 and was to run to May 8, HSBC Saudi Arabia said in a statement to the Saudi stock exchange. 

But Bloomberg reported that institutional investors snapped up the shares on offer to them within minutes, calling it the biggest Saudi IPO so far this year. 

A supplementary prospectus said Olayan Saudi Investment Co. and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) had pledged to subscribe as cornerstone investors. 

HSBC Saudi Arabia said the final price for the retail offer later this month will be decided after the book-building process, but it will be within a range of SAR53 to SAR57.5 a share. 

Fakeeh Care Group, one of the largest private healthcare groups in Saudi Arabia, is selling a 21.47 percent stake through existing and new shares in the IPO. 

The group, which owns four hospitals in the kingdom, intends to offer 30 million new shares and 19.8 million existing shares to investors on the kingdom’s main market, Tasi.

The company’s four hospitals in Jeddah, Riyadh, Neom and Medina have 835 beds and 900 doctors. In total, 1.5 million patients were treated in 2023, up from 1.2 million in 2020.