Saudi airline flynas launches IPO to raise up to $1.1 billion, BA

Saudi Arabian budget airline flynas, backed by billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, is seeking to raise up to 4.1 billion riyals ( USD1.1 billion) from an initial public offering in Riyadh, it said on Monday.

The airline, which is selling a 30 per cent stake to investors in the first IPO by a Gulf airline in almost 20 years, said the price range had been set at between 76 and 80 riyals per share, implying a market capitalisation of up to USD3.6 billion.

Saudi Arabia has targeted tourism as a key pillar of its domestic economic agenda to reduce reliance on oil revenue. The kingdom, which attracts tens of millions of religious pilgrims a year to holy Muslim sites in Mecca and Medina, has revamped its tourism industry to attract non-religious visitors.

The listing would be only the third by a Gulf airline after the United Arab Emirates’ Air Arabia and Kuwait’s Jazeera Airways. The institutional book-building subscription period, which started on Monday, will close on May 18, flynas said, adding that 34 per cent of net the IPO’s net proceeds will be used to finance the airline’s growth strategy and for general corporate purposes.

Part of the remaining proceeds will be distributed to selling shareholders, which include Kingdom Holding Company, the investment company founded by Prince Alwaleed.