Service Long March Tyres Officially Listed At PSX After Historic IPO

Service Long March Tyres Limited (SLM) has made history on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) after successfully completing the country’s largest initial public offering (IPO), raising Rs. 7.78 billion amid overwhelming demand from both institutional and retail investors.

The IPO attracted approximately 35,565 applications across the book building and retail segments, marking the highest investor participation ever recorded in Pakistan’s IPO market.

Investor demand exceeded expectations, with the book-building portion oversubscribed by 16.7 times and fully subscribed within just five seconds. The retail portion was oversubscribed by 7.6 times and received around 33,190 applications from investors across the country.

The offering comprised 389.7 million ordinary shares, representing 5 percent of the company’s post IPO paid up capital. While the IPO floor price was set at Rs. 14.25 per share, strong investor demand pushed the strike price to Rs. 19.95 per share, increasing the transaction size from Rs. 5.55 billion to Rs. 7.78 billion.

SLM, Pakistan’s largest truck and bus radial tyre manufacturer, attracted participation from commercial banks, mutual funds, insurance companies, development finance institutions, brokerage houses, high net worth individuals, foreign investors, and retail investors. The broad-based participation reflected strong confidence in the company’s business fundamentals, growth prospects, and Pakistan’s manufacturing sector.

Speaking at the listing ceremony, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb described the IPO as a significant milestone for Pakistan’s capital markets and manufacturing sector. He said the company, which was established with Chinese investment and expertise during the Covid period, is expected to achieve exports of $100 million next year. He added that the successful listing demonstrated growing investor confidence in Pakistan’s economy and export led growth strategy.

Pakistan Stock Exchange Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Farrukh H. Sabzwari said the IPO came at a time when investor participation in the stock market was rising rapidly.

He noted that Pakistan recorded more than 563,000 unique investor numbers during the current fiscal year and highlighted the strong response from both institutional and retail investors as evidence of confidence in the country’s equity markets.

According to Arif Habib Limited, which acted as the lead manager and book runner, the IPO attracted investor interest of approximately Rs. 85 billion from nearly 36,000 investors. The transaction also became the largest private sector IPO and the largest private sector listing by market capitalization in Pakistan’s history, with an estimated market value of around Rs. 155 billion.

Market participants said the successful completion of the IPO is expected to strengthen confidence in Pakistan’s capital markets and encourage more companies to tap the equity market for growth capital, further broadening investor participation in the years ahead.