Saudi’s ACWA Power jumps 30% on stock market debut

Saudi’s ACWA Power jumps 30% on stock market debut

DUBAI: Shares in Saudi Arabian renewable energy utility ACWA Power International 2082.SE jumped 30% on their market debut on Monday after a $1.2 billion IPO, the kingdom's biggest since Saudi Aramco's massive public offering in 2019. Shares in ACWA, which is partly owned by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund PIF, rose to 72.80 Saudi riyals ($19.41) in early trading, up from their initial public offering price of 56 riyals a share. ACWA builds, operates and invests in renewable energy plants and becomes the only renewables company listed in Saudi Arabia. It priced its IPO at the top of the range last month, successfully raising $1.2 billion from investors, the biggest since, but dwarfed by, Saudi Aramco's $29.4 billion IPO. The surge in ACWA's share price on its debut continued a trend seen in IPOs in Saudi Arabia, which are being oversubscribed from 50 to 200 times, said Mohammed Ali Yasin, chief strategy officer at Al Dhabi Capital. "The appetite for participating in the IPOs and the book building process is big. That pushes huge amounts to be subscribed, which results in lower allocations, which means people need to come back to the market to build their positions," Yasin said. ACWA