ACE Arabia Cooperative Insurance Company plans Initial Public Offering

The IPO will take place on 18th April 2009 and will run until the 27th April 2009.

ACE Arabia will list with capital of SR100m ($26.6m) and four million shares will be offered to the public which represents 40% of the company shares.

Giles Ward, ACE's Regional Managing Director for Mena said, "This development marks an important stage towards the finalisation of the establishment of ACE Arabia as a locally-domiciled company in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has been a key market for ACE in the region for many years and our team there have done an excellent job in building a company with a strong track-record of profitable growth. The completion of the IPO is the next stage in this history of success, and it marks our continuing commitment to a market which we believe has much potential, especially in ACE's areas of product strength."

ACE has had a presence in the Saudi Arabian market for 30 years in partnership with the Elkhereiji Group whose Executive Director, Abdul Aziz Elkhereiji said, "With our long track record of joint venture partnership and agency operation with the ACE group, we are very much looking forward to the incorporation of the Saudi-registered 'ACE Arabia Cooperative Insurance Company' in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with our historic partner."

ACE's Mena operations are headquartered in Manama, Bahrain.