Latham & Watkins advises Saudi Arabian Mining Company

The Law Office of Salman M. Al-Sudairi in association with Latham & Watkins LLP advised the Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden) on a USD1.5 billion (SAR5.6 billion) rights issue with an offering price of SAR23 per share, representing a 26.3 percent increase in Ma’aden’s share capital which now stands at more than SAR11.5 billion. The rights issue by Ma’aden represents one of the largest rights issues ever in the Middle East and one of the few under the new tradable rights framework in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Ma’aden is the largest mining company in the Middle East and among the world’s fastest growing; since its IPO seven years ago, Ma’aden has grown revenues from SAR240 million to SAR6 billion. When the second of its two mega phosphate projects is complete, Ma’aden and its partners will have invested SAR49 billion in phosphate operations and made Saudi Arabia one of the world’s largest producers of phosphate.

This deal is one of the few issuances under the new tradable rights framework in Saudi Arabia and the first where shares were offered at a premium instead of at par. Only registered shareholders receive these rights, which grant their holder the eligibility to either subscribe to one new share at the offer price or trade such right on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) pursuant to the new tradable rights framework.

The Latham team was led by partner Salman Al-Sudairi, with partner Sami Al-Louzi and counsel Omar Elsayed. Advice was also provided by associates Ibrahim Soumrany, Lee Irvine, Jonathan Pride and Raya Al-Khatib. The team worked closely with HSBC Saudi Arabia as Financial Advisor and Lead Manager.