Bupa Arabia for Cooperative Insurance Company started the trading of its newly 16 million shares, representing 40 percent of its capital, on Saturday. The company is registered within the insurance sector with the symbol 8210, with an unrestricted price limit only for the first day of trading as per CMA regulations. Bupa Managing Director Tal Nazer, was optimistic about the extensive trading of Bupa shares since the company is a unique provider of health insurance that owns a huge stake in this vital sector serving more than half a million clients in the Kingdom alone. Traders' expectations of the share value are wide ranging. Bupa Arabia for Cooperative Health insurance has a paid up capital of SR400 million. Its IPO earlier was oversubscribed by 921 percent in March 2008, which involved over 2.5 million subscribers pumping SR1.4 billion. The outstanding performance clearly had a positive impact on the medical insurance sector in Saudi Arabia in particular and the Gulf Region at large. Bupa Arabia has earned a number of awards including “The Best Insurance Company” by the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as well as “The Best Work Environment” granted by Prince Faisal Bin Salman Bin Abdul Aziz. Bupa is the only Saudi company that has been granted the award for the “Best E-business” in the Middle East Region. __
