Scuffles broke out as Gulf Arab investors scrambled to subscribe to the region’s biggest ever initial public offering on Wednesday, but Qatari authorities maintained calm and kept riot police on standby.
A surge in the crowds shattered glass doors at a stadium hired by the arranger of Al Rayyan Bank’s $1.1 billion IPO, which was expected to spark the now customary frenzy among investors in the world’s biggest oil exporting region.
The two-week offer period began on Sunday and Qatar National Bank, the only bank authorized to accept subscriptions, said regional investors vying for a stake in the Gulf equity boom had run through 300,000 application forms by day four.
“We have 400 people working up to 17 hours a day handling applications and processing documents and we are extremely happy with the way this has been managed,” Ali Shareef al-Emadi, Qatar National Bank’s chief executive, told Reuters.
Because there is no system of electronic applications, investors from around the Gulf are flocking to Qatar’s capital Doha. Travel agents said flights from neighboring Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, were packed.
“One way or another, I’m going home with these papers today,” said Abdul Razzak al-Nader, a Saudi who had driven across the border and joined the queue.
Officials served coffee to men and women queuing separately in a light sandstorm to buy the 10 riyal ($2.75) shares representing 55 percent of the $2.06 billion company.
Tempers flared at times but authorities dealt with scuffles quickly. Baton-wielding riot squads, ambulances and the fire brigade were on stand by. One police officer put the crowd at more than 4,000.
Eighty percent of the issue is reserved for Qataris and the rest is open to investors from Oman, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, whose applications were being processed at the stadium.
Although Saudis accounted for most of the crowds, markets across the region felt the pinch as investors liquidated holdings to buy Al Rayyan shares. Brokers blamed Wednesday’s 2.5 percent dip in Dubai’s benchmark index partly on the IPO.
Doha’s key index is down 5.8 percent this year for largely the same reason. Qatar’s stocks climbed 70 percent in 2005 as cash from soaring energy exports poured into Gulf bourses, which have a combined capitalization of around $1 trillion.
Despite the equity boom, public share offerings are relatively scarce, creating huge demand for almost any IPO.
In September, UAE police pushed back crowds of unruly investors clutching applications for the $560 million offering of energy firm Dana Gas.
The Dana IPO, then the Gulf’s largest, was 139 times oversubscribed, and the shares shot to four times the offer price in the first hour of trading.
