Restaurant Operator Americana Seeks To Raise Up To $1.8bln In UAE, Saudi IPO

The price range for restaurant operator Americana Restaurants International’s IPO has been set at between $0.68 and $0.71 per share (AED2.50/SAR 2.55 and AED 2.62/SAR2.68) potentially raising up to $1.80 billion from the first-ever dual listing on the Abu Dhabi and Saudi stock exchanges.

The final offer price, which will be determined through a book building process, is expected to be announced on November 23, 2022, the operator of Middle East KFC and Pizza Hut said in a statement on Monday.

The price range implies an equity valuation of $5.73 billion to $6.01 billion on listing, it added.

The subscription period will be between November 14 and 21 for retail investors and until November 22 for institutional investors. Of the total offering, 5% will be allocated to the UAE retail investor and up to 10% will be allocated to Saudi retail investors and 85% will be allocated to the institutional investors.

Listing on both ADX and the Saudi Tadawul is expected to take place on or around December 6.

Americana is owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and an investment consortium, Adeptio, led by Dubai businessman Mohammed Alabbar, founder of Dubai-listed Emaar Properties. Americana was acquired by Adeptio in 2016, while Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund bought a 50% stake in Adeptio later that year.

Adeptio expects to sell 2.53 billion shares, representing 30% of the company’s issued share capital. The statement said the sellers and the company reserves the right to increase the size of the UAE retail offer and decrease the size of the institutional offer at any time before the subscription period ends.