(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Shares in Saudi Arabia's Lumi jumped as much as 30% above their listing price on Monday after the auto rental company raised $290 million in an initial public offering.

Lumi, which listed 30% of its shares in the IPO, is a unit of Saudi travel company Seera (1810.SE), which was formerly known as Al Tayyar Travel Group.

Lumi's shares rose as high as 85.8 riyals ($22.87) in early trade on the Riyadh bourse, after opening at 72.6 riyals. Its IPO price of 66 riyals was at the top of its indicative range.

The auto rental company's IPO prospectus said it ranked as the third-biggest operator in the country, with a market share of about 7%, based on its fleet size in 2021.

The Saudi car rental market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8.6% up to 2027, to reach a market size of 9.8 billion riyals, according to research from Glasgow Research & Consulting.

Lumi's listing comes as IPO activity in the Gulf is starting to pick up after a slow start to 2023, as Dubai's privatisation programme went quiet and Saudi Arabia had a slow start.

Issuers from the Middle East and North Africa raised more than $5 billion in the first half of this year, consultancy EY said in a report earlier this month, with the bulk coming from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

This was 60% lower compared with the first half of 2022, which was an exceptionally strong year for the Gulf IPO market.

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