Kuwait’s supermarket chain Trolley didn’t just test investor appetite — it filled the cart to the brim.
The company’s market debut drew a staggering $2.87 billion in demand, prompting an increase in the size of the offering before the books even cooled. What began as a 30% stake sale was expanded to 35%, lifting the total number of shares on offer to roughly 96.3 million and pushing the final deal size to KD59.5 million (about $194 million).
Pricing landed at the very top of the indicated range, between KD0.60 and KD0.618 per share. At that level, Trolley commands a valuation of close to KD170 million — broadly in step with regional peer Spinneys, trading at roughly 15.5 times projected 2026 earnings.
The order book filled rapidly after opening on February 9, with demand visibility reportedly strong even before launch. By the time the short bookbuild wrapped up on February 12, the offer remained about 15 times oversubscribed — despite the increase in size — with around 3,000 lines recorded.
International investors alone were enough to oversubscribe the deal multiple times over, though allocations were scaled back significantly. Overseas accounts ultimately received about a quarter of the shares. Interest wasn’t limited to major Gulf hubs; investors from Oman and Bahrain were among those participating, alongside domestic Kuwaiti buyers.
A single anchor investor quietly secured around 20% of the offering. Several accounts were left empty-handed, as allocations leaned toward investors who had tracked the company through an extended early engagement phase.
There was no retail tranche attached to the sale, yet high-net-worth individuals showed notable appetite.
Trading is expected to begin on March 2, subject to regulatory clearance — a date that could mark the next chapter for a homegrown grocery brand that just proved it can draw heavyweight demand in a competitive IPO market.
