Tuesday, May 15, 2012
BEIRUT (Zawya Dow Jones)--Kuwait's Aref Energy Holding Co. (AREFENRGY.KW) said Tuesday that its board considers the offer made by the local Development Enterprises Holding Co. to acquire the company's entire shares to be a fair and appropriate offer.
DEH is a fully owned unit of Kuwait Finance House (KFIN.KW)--the Gulf state's largest Islamic bank, according to KFH's website.
The offer to buy the share at 0.134 Kuwaiti dinar ($0.48) is a fair offer should Aref's shareholders decide to conclude the sale's deal, Aref said in a statement posted on the Kuwait bourse website.
The company said its board came to this conclusion after it reviewed a report by BDO Al Nisf and Partners, whom it had appointed as advisor to assess the fair price of its shares.
DEH made its offer after it received the approval of Kuwait's Capital Markets Authority, the statement said.
KFH is already Aref Energy's major shareholder through its 53.1%-owned unit Aref Investment Group (AIG.KW) which holds a 40.5% stake in Aref Energy, according to Zawya.com data.
Aref Energy said last week its total assets fell 20% on the year to KWD86.47 million at the end of March. The company, which began reporting losses since the first quarter of 2011, said these were mainly due to the continuous losses suffered by its Sudanese unit Higleig Petroleum Services and Investment Co.
Shares in the company, which said that it expected to complete the sale of its 64.25% stake in Higleig in the near future, ended 3.1% lower at KWD0.126 in a higher market Tuesday.
-By Shikrallah Nakhoul, Zawya Dow Jones, +961 1 985757, shikrallah@zawya.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
15-05-12 1545GMT
