Pizza Hut and KFC restaurant operators in the Middle East are preparing for a dual listing. Mohammad Alabbar, a Dubai-based businessman and Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, will sell 30% of their stake in the company.
Dual Listing
The first-of-its-kind dual listing initiated by Americana Restaurants International PLC will see the owners offload 2.53 billion shares in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh. The IPO can raise around $2 billion, per sources familiar with the developments. This will make the biggest IPO listing in Saudi Arabia in 2022. As per Bloomberg news, final discussions are still on, and things may change. The representative of Americana Restaurants declined to comment on the matter.
Americana will have the shares traded in Saudi Arabia, and Abu Dhabi Tadawul Exchanges have encouraged companies to dual list.
The offer will open from November 14-21 for retail investors in KSA and UAE until November 22 for institutional investors. Trading in these exchanges will start around December 6.
This year Americana is looking to pay out a dividend of about 75% of the net profit accountable to the parent company for six months ending December 31. It plans to pay a dividend for the whole year from 2023 onwards for a minimum of 50% of net profit.
IPO Rush in the Middle East
The Americana listing is part of the later IPO rush at the year-end in the Middle East, even though the worldwide economy is hit by inflation a d fears of recession. The oil price surge in 2022 and the increase in investor activities have helped to a flurry of stock listings in the Gulf. The first half of 2022 has been good for stock market debuts in this region.
The crowded IPO calendar in the region in which Americana is now joining will also see
district cooling company Empower offering $543 million, and Riyadh cables group and Taaleem Holdings PJSC, both measuring investor demand for their IPO this week
Americana also operates restaurants for other brands, such as Costa Coffee, Baskin Robbins, TGI Fridays, KFC, and Pizza Hut. It was earlier operated by Kuwait Food Co, which included food and restaurant businesses under the wider Americana Umbrella. The IPO will be for the food business only.
Americana earned revenue of $2.05 billion and a net profit of $204 million for the year ending December 2021. Adeptia AD Investments SPC Ltd, owned by Mohammad Alabbar, bought this company in 2016, while the PIF, Saudi Arabia, took a stake of 50% in Adeptia. Americana later delisted itself from the Kuwait Stock Exchange.
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC, and SNB capital are global coordinators, while EFG Hermes and HSBC are joint book runners.
