Wall Street finds Saudi Arabia still frugal when it comes to fees
Al Jazeera
Despite a blitz of offerings this year, Saudi IPO riches have yet to manifest for global banks.
The latest crop of Saudi Arabia’s market newcomers is proving just as frugal when it comes to paying investment bankers.
Despite attracting $125 billion in orders from investors for an initial public offering of Saudi Telecom Co.’s internet-services unit, banks including Morgan Stanley and HSBC Holdings Plc are set to share just about $12 million in fees, Arabian Internet and Communications Services Co., also known as solutions by stc, said in its prospectus.
That’s just 1.3% of the offering value, compared with an average of about 5% or more for IPOs in the U.S. or Europe. Morgan Stanley alone had a bigger payday during UiPath Inc.’s $1.54 billion IPO in April, which generated a total of $67 million in fees.
