KUWAIT: Kuwait is to launch on Aug. 24 a much-delayed initial public offering for its third telecommunication firm, which has yet to start operations, two newspapers said yesterday citing an official decree. The government is offering 50 percent of the operator, which has a capital of 50 million dinars ($189 million), to citizens only. It sold 26 percent of the firm to Saudi Telecom for 248.7 million dinars last November. Kuwait had initially targeted February for the IPO.
Qatari firm confirms holding Mazaya stake
DUBAI: Qatar Real Estate Investment Co confirmed yesterday that it was holding an 8 percent stake in Al-Mazaya Qatar, which is planning to offer shares to the public later in 2008. The third-largest real estate company by market value was responding to a request for clarification by the Doha Securities Market. The firm said in a statement on the bourse website it had bought the stake in 2007. Al-Mazaya Qatar, a new unit of developer Al-Mazaya Holding, said earlier this month it plans to raise 500 million rials ($137.4 million) in an initial public offering in the fourth quarter.
Egypt’s Oriental Weavers profit soars
CAIRO: Egypt-based Oriental Weavers made a 16.7 percent increase in its 2008 first-half net profit to 172.3 million Egyptian pounds ($32.3 million), the stock exchange said yesterday. The company’s Chairman Mohamed Farid Khamis told Reuters last week that profit growth for 2008 would likely ease to between 10 and 12 percent from 21 percent in 2007 as US revenue stagnates.
Agility Q2 profit slides 9.2%
KUWAIT: Kuwait’s Agility, the Gulf’s biggest logistics provider by market value, posted a 9.2 percent decline in second-quarter net profit yesterday. Net profit in the three months to June 30, was 35.125 million dinars ($131.3 million), after 38.565 million dinars in the same period a year earlier, Agility said in a statement on the bourse website. The firm did not give the reason for the decline.