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AMJ advised Phoenix Power Company, owner of the Sur IPP, Oman’s largest power plant, on its recent IPO which raised OMR56.3 million ($146.3 million) through the public offering of a 35% stake (511,910,511 shares) open to individual and institutional Omani and foreign investors. The flotation, which closed on June 8, was Oman’s first this year and expected to be the largest in 2015. It was heavily oversubscribed, attracting over OMR1 billion ($2.6 billion) of bids from investors inside and outside the country.

AMJ’s Corporate and Capital Markets team advised Phoenix on the IPO as well as its conversion to a joint stock company and listing on the MSM which was successfully concluded on 22 June 2015. The team assisted Phoenix in securing key consents and approvals for the public offering from a range of regulatory bodies and was involved in extensive review of the prospectus to ensure all stakeholder requirements were satisfied. AMJ also advised the Company on its successful application for an approval under Oman’s Sector Law to reduce the public offer to a 35% stake from the usual 40% statutory minimum applied to IPOs outside the power and water sector.

Phoenix Power was awarded a 25-year agreement to build-own-operate the 2000-megawatts Sur power plant in 2011 and has a contract with the government to supply power to the Main Interconnected System (MIS) until March 2029. The plant has been in full commercial operation since December 2014 and was officially inaugurated on April 27 this year. It represents an investment of OMR 620 million (USD 1.6 billion) and provides around 27.8 per cent of Oman’s MIS total current contracted power capacity.

Prior to the IPO, which was arranged by Bank Muscat, the Company was owned by a consortium comprising Japan’s Marubeni Corporation and Chubu Electric Power Co, Qatar Electricity & Water Company, Q.S.C, and Multitech LLC (part of Oman’s Suhail Bahwan Group). The IPO was undertaken to comply with the project founders’ agreement between the consortium members and Oman’s electricity regulator, the Electricity Holding Company (EHC).

The Phoenix IPO was the first public share sale in Oman since the simultaneous flotations of Al Sawadi Power Company and Al Batinah Power Company in June 2014. Both IPOs were handled by AMJ Corporate and Capital Markets team for which it was crowned Middle East Equity Team of the Year at the IFLR Awards in 2014.

The AMJ team was led by senior partner Mansoor Malik assisted by partners, Ardeshir Patel, Ahmed Hashim and senior associates, Mir Nasar Ahmad and Abhishek Kalla.