Galfar IPO 11 times oversubscribed

by Reuters Tuesday, 11 September 2007

Investors offered about 11 times more funds than the $156 million that Galfar Engineering & Contracting wanted to raise in Oman's second-biggest initial public offering (IPO) ever, an official at the lead manager said on Monday.

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Oman's biggest construction company sold 100 million shares at 600 baisas each, or a total 60 million rials ($156.2 million), in a four-week sale that closed on Monday. The IPO values the 35-year-old firm at 150 million rials. There are 1,000 baisas per rial.
Investors offered at least 720 million rials for the shares, said an official at Financial Corporation, who declined to be named.

Individual investors were allowed to buy up to 60% of the stock and institutional investors the remainder. Investors from outside Oman were limited to 40%.

Of the shares sold, 60 million belonged to three existing investors and the rest were new, according to the sale prospectus.

Some of the funds raised will go towards buying equipment for the company. Following the sale, the founders hold 60% of the company and the public the rest.

Galfar, set up in 1972, posted a profit of 8.34 million rials in the five months to May 31, the prospectus said, without comparative figures. Its order book at the end of last year was worth 450 million rials.

Oman's biggest IPO was in 2005 when the government raised 280.8 million rials selling a stake in the then monopoly telecom provider, Oman Telecommunications (Omantel).

Bank Sohar, Oman's sixth local lender, raised 20 million rials in January in the country's only other IPO this year.



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