The Law Office of Salman M. Al-Sudairi and Latham Advise on the First Ever IPO of a Technology Start-Up in Saudi Arabia
The Law Office of Salman M. Al-Sudairi and Latham & Watkins LLP have advised Jahez International Co. for Information Systems Technology (Jahez), the leading Saudi online food delivery platform, on its SAR1.6 billion (approximately US$428 million) initial public offering (IPO) and listing of ordinary shares on the Saudi Parallel Market, Nomu.
The IPO involved the offer and sale of 1,888,523 shares, representing 18% of the Jahez’s share capital after the offering, in addition to allocating 204,590 over-allotment shares to institutional qualified investors to implement the price stabilization mechanism. Of the total shares sold in the IPO, 85.6% were allocated to institutional investors and the remaining 14.4% to retail investors. The transaction also marked the first cornerstone investment in an IPO in the Saudi market, where Hassana Investment Company undertook to acquire 4.99% of Jahez’s total capital as part of the offering. The final offer price was set at SAR850 per share.
Jahez is a homegrown Saudi business that utilizes disruptive technology to connect over 1.3 million active users with its platform’s network that includes over 12,000 merchant branches and more than 34,000 delivery partners in 47 cities across Saudi Arabia as of 31 March 2021. In almost 5 years since its launch, the orders delivered through Jahez exceeded 68 million, with 36 million orders delivered in the first nine months of 2021 alone, totaling SAR3.2 billion of Adjusted Gross Merchandise Value including VAT and delivery fees.
The capital markets team was led by principal and Latham partner Salman Al-Sudairi with associates Noor Al-Fawzan, Homam Khoshaim, Najla Al-Gadi, and Aya AlHumaid.
Al-Sudairi commented: “We are delighted to have advised Jahez and its shareholders on this landmark transaction. The IPO represents a significant milestone in the development of the high-growth technology sector in Saudi Arabia.”