Oman is joining the GCC listing spree. The nation’s sovereign wealth fund, the Oman Investment Authority (OIA) has revealed it is working on a new five-year divestment strategy, focusing on launching initial public offerings (IPOs) in strategic sectors.
In a post on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), OIA stated that the fund had generated revenues exceeding OMR 1 billion ($2.6 billion) in 2022-2023 through 12 divestments, including three IPOs and nine private placements.
The company also identified the focus of its 2024-2028 plan, which will see the introduction of IPOs in the energy, services, and logistics sectors. Moreover, the sovereign wealth fund will pursue private placements to attract strategic investors for the agriculture, aquaculture, and mining sectors
Thuraiya Ahmed Al Balushi, OIA’s manager for economic diversification, gave further details of the plan. In an interview with Bloomberg, she said about 30 assets are in the pipeline with the priority on IPOs. These include landmark deals in energy and logistics that are poised to exceed this year’s record-setting IPO from OQ Gas Networks SAOG.
“OIA aims to enhance private-sector participation and to deepen the capital market, paving the way for an upgrade by MSCI from frontier to emerging-market status,” Al Balush said.
OIA oversees about $47 billion in assets from real estate to technology and commodities across more than 50 countries, according to its latest financial results. Its holding companies include OQ Group, Oman LNG, Minerals Development Oman and Oman Airports.
The fund launched its divestment strategy in 2022 to attract foreign investment, expand the national exchange, deleverage and repay debts and reinvest revenues from divested mature assets.
The country’s part-privatisation is also part of a plan to enter into MSCI’s emerging market index, which requires eligible nations to have at least three stocks that meet certain size and stock liquidity thresholds. Currently, Oman and Bahrain are the only GCC countries not classified as emerging markets by MSCI.
“We are working towards upgrading the market to emerging status, which will significantly enhance our market cap and attract higher dividends,” Haitham Salim Al Salmi, CEO of the Muscat Stock Exchange (MSE) recently said during a panel at Dubai’s Capital Markets Summit.
Earlier this week, OQ Exploration & Production (OQEP), Oman’s largest oil and gas exploration and production company, announced it plans to offer 25% of its shares in an IPO.
