Saudi Arabian Mining Co., the Gulf's biggest gold producer, soared as much as 60 percent in Riyadh on its first trading day after a $2.47-billion initial public offering to raise capital for expansion. Ma'aden, as the Riyadh-based company is known, rose to SR30 at 1:44 p.m. local time after jumping to as much as SR32. The company sold shares at SR20 each earlier this month. “There's enormous interest in anything commodities related,'' Giyas Gokkent, National Bank of Abu Dhabi PJSC's head of research, said in a phone interview today. “As is usual with Saudi IPOs, the stock was also priced to be very attractive.'' The former state-owned company on July 14 closed its IPO a day after saying sale managers JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Samba Financial Group had already received bids for more than the 462.5 million shares on offer. Saudi Arabia's Capital Markets Authority in May approved Ma'aden's plan to sell a 50-percent stake to the Saudi public as the company sought funds to help it expand into fertilizers and aluminum.
