(Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabian retailer Fawaz Alhokair Group may raise as much as $1 billion in an initial public offering of its malls unit.

Arabian Centres Co. will sell 65 million existing shares and 30 million new shares via a book-building process and will list the shares on the Tadawul stock exchange, it said a statement on Tuesday, without saying what the offer price range will be.

The sale could “be in range of $1 billion” and might start around April 28, Chief Executive Officer Olivier Nougarou said on a conference call. The company will use the proceeds of the offering to reduce debt.

Fawaz Alhokair Group has been planning the Arabian Centres share sale since 2014, when it hoped to raise $2 billion from a 30 percent sale, Muhanad Awad, the then-CEO of FAS Capital, the financial and investment arm of Fawaz Alhokair Group, said at the time. Plans for the IPO were put on hold in November 2017 after its billionaire co-founder Fawaz Al Hokair was held in Saudi Arabia’s alleged corruption crackdown, people with knowledge of the matter said at the time.

Al Hokair was released from the Ritz-Carlton hotel last January, a senior government official who asked not to be identified said at the time.

Samba Capital, Morgan Stanley, NCB Capital and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc., Credit Suisse Group AG, EFG-Hermes Holding Co., Emirates NBD Capital KSA and Natixis SA are managing the offering.

Also from the statement:

• Operates 19 shopping malls spanning approximately 1.1 million square meters in gross leasable area
• To add over 300,000 square meters gross leasable area in next 12 months and a further 355,000 square meters in medium term
  • Adding four new malls and one extension in the next 12 months
• Revenue $576 million in fiscal year 2018; underlying Ebitda margin of 64.9 percent and underlying Ebitda of $374 million

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