Legal Advisors and Baker McKenzie act for the underwriters on Arabian Drilling Company’s IPO

Legal advisors, Abdulaziz Alajlan & Partners alongside Baker McKenzie, London, have acted for the underwriters on Arabian Drilling Company’s (“Arabian Drilling”) initial public offering at SAR100 per share on the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) with an offer size of USD712 million (SAR2.6 billion). The syndicate comprised HSBC Saudi Arabia, Goldman Sachs Saudi Arabia and SNB Capital Company as joint financial advisors, bookrunners and underwriters. The offering comprised the sale of 30 per cent stake (26,700,000 shares) of the Saudi oilfield services provider and was marketed internationally under Regulation S, with trading in its shares commencing on November 7, 2022.

Founded in 1964, Arabian Drilling is a leading Saudi Arabian oil and gas drilling company offering onshore and offshore rigs drilling services. With a total fleet size of 45 rigs, Arabian Drilling is the number one player in the Kingdom with a market share of 17 per cent in terms of total number of rigs, with an annual average of 275 wells drilled over the last three years
The IPO was marketed to retail investors and buyers with an intention to use the net proceeds from the offering to further support the company’s growth plans. It consisted of a secondary offering of 19.89 per cent of the company’s total share capital through the sale of 17,700,000 shares, and a primary offering of 10.11 per cent through the issuance of new 9,000,000 shares. The final offer price per share was set at USD26.61 (SAR 100), which was at the top end of the price range announced in September 2022. The total proceeds raised by Arabian Drilling’s IPO were USD712 million (SAR 2.6 billion), with the book-building process having generated an order book of USD43 billion (SAR 162 billion) and resulted in a subscription of coverage of around 61x of the total offered shares.

The cross-border team was led by George Marshall (partner, Baker McKenzie, London) and Karim Nassar (Legal Advisors, Riyadh). Further support was provided by capital markets experts including Nadine Nassar, Lama Al Habib and Reema Al Salem of Legal Advisors, Riyadh and Charles Farnsworth (Of Counsel) of Baker McKenzie, London.