Etihad to sound out investors as Gulf carriers race towards IPOs

DUBAI/LONDON, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Etihad Airways and flynas are gearing up to list on local stock markets this year, marking the first IPOs by Gulf carriers in nearly two decades, with Etihad sounding out investors next week ahead of a potential sale of around a 20% stake, two sources said.

Etihad is looking at a listing this quarter, the people with knowledge of its plans said, with one of them saying the airline would target both local and international investors.

It could raise around $1 billion in what would be the first airline IPO in the Gulf since Kuwait's Jazeera Airways (JAZK.KW), opens new tab in 2008, one of the two people and a third source said.

Saudi Arabia's budget carrier flynas, backed by Kingdom Holding, the investment company of billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, could also list this year, another person familiar with its plans said.

Qatar Airways, one of the region's biggest carriers, could go public before the decade is out.

The four people declined to be identified because the plans are confidential.

Etihad, and its owner, Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund ADQ, declined to comment. Flynas did not respond to a request for comment.

Kingdom Holding's CEO told Saudi state-owned broadcaster Al Arabiya TV on Wednesday that the company was in the final stage of getting approval from the Saudi market regulator to list in Riyadh.

Flynas is worth at least $2 billion, Prince Alwaleed posted on X earlier this month.

Dubai's Emirates has also previously been flagged as a potential IPO candidate. Its chairman and chief executive Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum told reporters last year that an IPO was not his decision to make and that this would be a Dubai government decision and he would go ahead if asked to do so.

The potential listings are driven in part ...
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