Marna, a Shariah-compliant financing company in Saudi Arabia, has received subscription requests worth SAR 1.4 billion ($373 million) from both institutions and individuals, resulting in a coverage ratio of 456% for its initial public offering (IPO).
The company set the share price at the upper limit of the price range, SAR 14.6, which translates to total proceeds of SAR 312.86 million ($83 million). Marna announced that individual investors had covered 551% of their share allotment, leading the company to reduce the allotment of shares for institutions to 90%.
In December 2020, the Saudi Arabian Financial Market Authority approved Marna's request to offer 30% of its shares after increasing its capital, with the company planning to use the proceeds to support its financing activities.
Marna's IPO comes at a time when Saudi Aramco has withdrawn its much-anticipated IPO for its oil trading arm, which was expected to be one of the world's largest IPOs this year. Compared to last year, Gulf markets have witnessed a slowdown in IPO activity, with only $92.55 million worth of listings on the Saudi Arabian stock market since the beginning of the year, according to Bloomberg data.
Established in 2012, Marna offers Shariah-compliant financing to individuals and small- to medium-sized enterprises, and owns 80% of the digital payments firm Loop.
