Oman’s largest power generation company, SMN Power Holding, has listed on the Muscat Securities Market. Trading of shares in the company commenced on 23 October. The IPO was subscribed 1.7 times raising RO40.9m ($106.2m) against the target size of RO24.6m.

Following the IPO, 35 per cent of the shares of SMN Power Holding will be held by public investors. The remaining 65 per cent will be held by the founder shareholders of the company, the UK’s International Power, the UAE’s Mubadala Development Company and National Trading Company of Oman.

The company owns two units, SMN Barka Power Company and Al-Rusail Power Company (RPC), which run power assets in the sultanate.

SMN Barka is an independent water and power project (IWPP) situated at Barka, about 50 kilometres northwest of Muscat. Also known as Barka II, the combined-cycle power plant is designed to generate 678MW and 363MW in open cycle. The water production capacity is about 26.4 million gallons a day (g/d). The facility entered full commercial operation in November 2009.

RPC is a 665MW natural gas-fired power plant, the first state-owned power plant to be privatised in Oman. In December of 2006, the shareholders acquired the shares in RPC from the government. The plant is located inland, about 40km west of Muscat in an industrial area. Power capacity and production are sold to the Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP) under the 17-year PPA ending in March 2022.

In total, SMN Power Holding provides one-third of Oman’s power grid and one-fifth of the main water network needs.