(Bloomberg) -- As the eyes of the world were on the blockbuster market debut of Saudi Aramco, two much smaller Middle East stock listings snuck in underneath the radars of many investors.
Dairy producer Baladna fell 1% in Doha after raising $390 million in an offer that was restricted to locals, erasing gains at the open of as much as 5.9%. And in Cairo, a pharmaceutical company known as Rameda lost as much as 13% after raising about $109 million.
The stocks’ debuts indicate that listing activity is picking up in the Middle East after what has been a quiet year. The most recent listing in Saudi Arabia for a company bigger than $100 million was in June, while no IPOs happened in the United Arab Emirates this year.
Baladna is the only company to list in Qatar in 2019. The dairy producer became famous after its parent airlifted thousands of cows to Qatar to ensure residents had access to dairy products after Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations imposed a boycott in June 2017.
Rameda, or to give it its full name Tenth of Ramadan for Pharmaceutical Industries and Diagnostic Reagents, said it will use the proceeds of its initial public offering to fund operational expansion, including potentially acquiring other companies.
But of course it’s Aramco that’s making all the headlines after the oil giant’s stock jumped 10% from the offered 32.50 riyals. Here’s just a little more to read on the world’s biggest-ever IPO:
- The Wall Street Bankers Who Burst Aramco’s $2 Trillion Bubble
- Aramco Soars in Debut to Hit Market Value of $1.88 Trillion
- Aramco Celebrates IPO as Questions on Valuation Persist: TOPLive
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