The SR 300 million ($80 million) public offering is being managed by the Consulting Centre for Finance & Investmentand will open on 22 May. Riyad Bank, The National Commercial Bank and Samba Financial Group- formerly Saudi American Bank - have been mandated to receive the public requests for shares.

Sahara was recently established by the local AH Al-Zamil Groupas a holding company dedicated to investing in the domestic petrochemicals sector. The placement represents 20 per of the company's SR 1,500 million ($400 million) capital with the remaining SR 1,200 million ($320 million) coming from a heavily oversubscribed private share offering. Zamil holds a 10 per cent stake.

'From the signs we have been getting so far it should be oversubscribed,' says Al-Zamil finance director Adib al-Zamil. 'There is a lot of demand. The local markets are extremely active. People are hungry for paper. We believe petrochemicals in the Eastern Province is a good place to invest because of the availability of feedstock and because we feel we can add value.'

Sahara is well advanced with plans for two major petrochemicals plants in Jubail - a polypropylene (PP) and propane dehydrogenation (PDH) plant and an olefins complex. Last year, the company signed four memoranda of understanding for the PDH/PP plant, which is due to come on stream in 2007. Sahara is putting up 75 per cent of the capital with the remainder coming from international sources.

The olefins complex will cover an ethane cracker with capacity of at least 1 million tonnes a year as well as polyolefins units. Sahara will invest in the project in partnership with National Petrochemical Industrialisation Companyand Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem), both local. In mid-April, the US' Fluor Danielwas selected to provide project management consultancy (PMC) services for the complex.