A short history of IPOs in Qatar

Doha Securities Market is the youngest bourse in the Gulf, and its first true IPO was the $24 million offering for Waqood in March 2002, which was eight times over-subscribed, although arguably the first public offering was the $720 million issue for Q-Tel in 1998.

If Q-Tel is included as a pre-bourse IPO, then Qatar has had 10 public share offers, including the most recent and by far the biggest, both for Qatar and the whole GCC, for Al Rayyan Bank which closes on January 29.

In 2002 there was one other very small IPO in May, for Qatar Technical Inspection, which came in at 10 times oversubscribed. The next year started with the two-times oversubscribed, much larger $660 million IPO for Qatar Industries in June; the highly successful 37-times oversubscribed $35m Mawashi IPO followed in September; and the $20 million Gulf Warehouse IPO in December, which was 30 times oversold.

Naqalit controversy

Oddly in 2004 there were no IPOs. But 2005 saw three public offerings, two of them big ones. The most controversial was in January for the Naqalit Gas Transportation Company for $377 million where subsequent revelations about insider trading led to ministerial departures, and 131 deceased persons were found to have applied for shares. Nonetheless the large Naqalit IPO was oversubscribed by a factor of 10.

Despite the scandals surrounding the Naqalit IPO, which precipitated a big DSM correction, two other IPOs were held in 2005: the $40 million issue for Dalalah, which was eight times oversubscribed; and the $293m Barwa IPO, covered four times by subscriptions.

Al Rayyan biggest IPO

It is against this background that Qatar National Bank has organized the $1.1 billion Al Rayyan IPO which is open to all GCC nationals with 20% of shares allotted to non-Qataris. Some 500,000 application forms have been printed, and are also available on the website www.rayyanbank.com, and 350 staff trained to handle applicants.

Acting Chief Executive of QNB, Ali Shareef Al Emadi commented:

'It is indeed an honour for us to be playing the dual roles of subscription and IPO manager for Al Rayyan's IPO. As such we are committed to offering the best of our organization to ensure that this is more than the biggest IPO, but more importantly, run in a very organized manner.'

The latest share offer is for individuals only; the minimum subscription is 500 shares and the maximum 50,000 shares.