Turkish delight

After a summer in which equity preachers in the Middle East and North Africa found their faith tested by an absence of offerings, Oman’s first initial public offering (IPO) in two years is welcome news indeed. Nawras, the sultanate’s second mobile phone player, has opened for subscriptions to 40 percent of its capital in a month-long offering from September 15 to October 14, with the intent of raising between $471 million and $609 million. The wide range in projected IPO revenue is because the company is using book building to determine the issue price for the $260 million shares on offer, a first in Oman’s stock market history. This method of setting the issue price also gives Nawras greater ability to stir interest among international institutional investors, whereas the region’s other IPOs in the year to date were either inaccessible or short on attractiveness for international money. But, for all