The leader in Middle Eastern primary market action in August came — as has been the case for several other months of this year — from Saudi Arabia. The initial public offering of Methanol Chemicals Co (Chemanol) was worth $193 million and accounted for 79% of the aggregate amount of $245 million available last month in IPOs around the region. Different to numerous other recent IPOs which were green-field ventures, the Chemanol flotation originated from a company that has a substantial history of manufacturing activity — it was established in 1989 — which sought a flotation to obtain new capital for corporate expansion. Its area of activity may be less splendorous than Islamic banking, but Chemanol allocated 70% of the offering to retail buyers, demonstrating confidence that it would be able to get retail investors interested in its offering at a price of SAR 12 ($3.2) per share, which included
