RIYADH: Dubai’s road toll operator Salik has increased its initial public offering size from 20 percent to 24.9 percent of its share capital, with the government continuing to own the remaining 75.1 percent.

The number of shares offered in the IPO increased from 1.5 billion shares to 1.8 billion.

Salik has also received approval from the Securities and Commodities Authority to allocate the increase of the offer size in a first and a third tranches with an increase from 120 million shares to 145.7 million shares

The second tranche will increase from 138 billion to 1.7 billion shares.

The new offering size was determined by the selling shareholder, following Salik’s decision to set the offer price at 2 dirhams ($0.54) per ordinary share on Sept. 13.

Subscriptions will open on Sept. 13 and end on Sept. 20 for retail investors and on Sept. 21 for qualified investors. The company is likely to list on the Dubai Financial Market on Sept. 29.

Following a record-breaking first half for Gulf IPO proceeds, Salik’s will challenge investors’ demand for the UAE equity markets.  

Mattar Al-Tayer, chairman of Salik’s board of directors, said on Sept. 5 that the deal is part of a broader plan to list 10 state-owned companies to boost the country’s financial market and double it to 3 trillion dirhams.

The road-toll operator’s starting market capitalization is expected to be 15 billion dirhams.