Saudi Arabia’s National Air Services said on Wednesday it plans to sell 30% of its shares in an initial public offering valuing the firm at about $2 billion next year to help finance aircraft purchases.
“We are eyeing by mid-2008 to launch an IPO listed on the Tadawul,” company President Taher Agueel told reporters at an air show in Dubai. “Initial valuation of the company is $2 billion.”
Tadawul is the Arabic name for the Saudi stock exchange.
NAS operates a luxury airline called Al Khayala, low-cost carrier NASair, and a private aviation service that rents and offers part ownerships of jets in the Gulf Arab region.
The company confirmed a $1.3 billion order for 20 single-aisle A320 aircraft at the Dubai air show this week.
NAS said it also plans to borrow to finance aircraft purchases over over $4 billion in the next five years to increase its fleet to 167 by 2012.
“We are in final negotiations with a local bank which is supported by an international institution to provide financial services for us,” Agueel said, declining to name the bank.
Manufacturers reported orders worth around $85 billion at the air show, mostly from Gulf Arab carriers. NAS is latest regional airline to say it is considering an IPO to finance expansion.
Dubai-based Emirates, the largest Arab airline, intends to sell as much as 30% of its shares to the public, the airline’s chairman said on Tuesday. Any such sale would value the carrier up to $30 billion, its president said last month.
Bahrain-based Gulf Air said it is considering an IPO and United Arab Emirates-based Air raised $700 million this year in the first IPO by an Arab airline.
Air Arabia, a low-cost carrier, ordered 34 single-aisle Airbus aircraft last week with options for 15 more in a deal worth $3.5 billion to expand its fleet and tap growing demand for air travel in the Middle East.
Follow us on
