Markets Saudi’s First Milling order book hits over $18bn By Pramod Kumar May 31, 2023, 5:18 AM Unsplash.com Egypt is one of the world's biggest wheat importers, buying around five million tonnes of wheat annually from abroad Saudi Arabia’s First Milling Company has set the final offer price for its initial public offering (IPO) at SAR60 per share, implying a market capitalisation at listing of SAR3.33 billion ($888 million). The book-building process generated an order book of SAR68.81 billion ($18.35 billion) and resulted in a subscription coverage of 68.9 times of the total offered shares, the company said in a statement. First Milling, the first mill privatised in Saudi Arabia, will offload 16.65 million shares, resulting in a free float of 30 percent of the flour milling company’s share capital. The IPO subscription, which started on May 18, ends on June 7, with the listing date to be determined later on the Saudi Exchange. First Milling has a daily wheat milling capacity of 4,200 tonnes and a feed mixing capacity of 900 tonnes. It operates four large-capacity production facilities in Makkah, Al Qassim, Tabuk and the Eastern Region. The company was the first of several flour milling privatisations in Saudi Arabia sold to AlRaha AlSafi Food Company-consortium for $540 million in 2020. The consortium was led by Saudi Arabian firm Almutlaq Group, including AlSafi Holding Company, Abunayyan Holding and UAE’s Essa Al-Ghurair Investment.