DUBAI, Oct 20 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s Al Sulaiman Group has hired Moelis & Co ( MC.N ) as an adviser as it weighs an initial public offering of its IKEA business franchise next year, two sources told Reuters.
The company plans to invite investment banks to sell its shares to the public at the beginning of next year, said the sources, who declined to be identified because the matter is not public.
The talks are at an early stage and it is not yet known how much the company intends to float or raise from the deal, the sources said.
Al Sulaiman Group did not respond to a request for comment by Reuters on Wednesday. Mollis declined to comment.
IKEA entered Saudi Arabia in 1983 as a family business owned and operated by the Al Sulaiman Group for the Swedish furniture manufacturer in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
Saudi Arabia is encouraging more family companies to list in order to expand its capital markets in a move to reduce the kingdom’s dependence on oil revenues.
In the year The kingdom has surged in IPOs in 2019 after it bought oil giant Saudi Aramco ( 2222.SE ) for a record $29.4 billion.
The Gulf is in the midst of an IPO boom, with issuers raising more than $15 billion from IPOs this year, according to Refinitiv data.
While global markets remained volatile amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the region’s IPO revenue outpaced European floaters in the first half of the year, data showed.
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Reported by Hadel Al Sayegh; Editing by Robert Birsle
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