Reuters
Moroccan house builder Residences Dar Saada plans to raise 1.13 billion ($128.08 million) in an initial public share offer in what would be the country’s first share sale this year.
Residences Dar Saada builds low-to-medium income housing. It posted 164 million dirhams in net profit in the first half of 2014, with sales reaching 778 million dirhams, up 73 percent on the year.
The offering may help Casablanca’s stock market continue its recovery from a lack of liquidity and foreign investors and the knock-on effects of the euro zone crisis.
Casablanca’s benchmark MASI index stands 9.35 pct higher than at the end of 2013, while Morocco has been downgraded to “frontier market” status by index provider MSCI due to a lack of liquidity.
Residences Dar Saada has hired three Moroccan banks — BMCE Capital, Attijariwafa bank, CFG Finance and Upline Finance — for the offering.
The company will sell 5.24 million new shares at 215 dirhams each in the IPO, set to start on Dec. 1.
Moroccan power firm Jorf Lasfar Energy Co (JLEC), owned by Abu Dhabi National Energy Co, raised 1.5 billion dirhams last year on Casablanca’s bourse, the only public offering in a almost three years.
(1 US dollar = 8.8225 Moroccan dirham)
(Reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi)
