Wednesday, Jun 05, 2013
(This article was first published on Tuesday.)
DUBAI (Zawya Dow Jones)--Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications Co., or Zain, will establish an Iraqi holding company that will eventually list a quarter of the share capital of subsidiary Zain Iraq on the local stock exchange, according to a Zain company spokesman.
Zain will set up an Iraqi holding company, called Khatam Communications, to legally hold the assets of Zain Iraq ahead of an initial public offering of 25% of the company. As part of the regulatory process to list shares in Zain Iraq, Zain will offer 55.9 million shares at one dinar each in the holding company for an offer period starting on June 4 and running for 30 days, the company spokesperson said Tuesday. Iraqi laws do not allow foreign-owned companies to list on the Iraq Stock Exchange, or ISX, the spokesperson added.
All three Iraqi telcos had been required to float a quarter of their shares by August 2011 as part of their licence agreements with the Communications and Media Commission, but Zain Iraq and Korek, an affiliate of France Telecom, have yet to announce firm dates for offerings or listings on the ISX.
Zain Iraq's closest competitor, Asiacell Communications, successfully listed shares on the ISX in February, raising about $1.3 billion in a fully-subscribed offering, the largest IPO in the region since 2008.
Asaad Ahmed Al-Banwan, Zain Group's chairman, said following the group's annual general meeting in April that the company was aiming to list Zain Iraq by the end of 2013.
Write to Rory Jones at rory.jones@dowjones.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
05-06-13 0349GMT
