Kuwait Stock Exchange Plans Share Sale as Early as This Year

(Bloomberg) -- Kuwait, which was classified as an emerging market by index provider FTSE Russell in September, plans to sell a stake in its stock exchange as early as this year.

The Capital Markets Authority is conducting studies for the initial public offering through the end of April, Vice Chairman Mishaal Al-Usaimi told Bloomberg TV. “From that we will have a very clear timeline taking us to the IPO, but we are hopeful that we will complete that by the end of the year.”

Kuwait’s bourse is competing with Saudi Arabia’s to become the second in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council after the Dubai Financial Market PJSC to raise cash through an IPO. The nation expected inflows of hundreds of millions of dollars from investors after the FTSE upgrade, and while Al-Usaimi said interest in Kuwaiti stocks remains “buoyant,” he acknowledged that liquidity “remains an issue.”

The nation’s benchmark index has 156 members, at least 40 of which have been unchanged by the close of trading since 2006, when Bloomberg began tracking the data. The gauge last year rose 11 percent, the most since 2013, and posted an annual profit of 3.5 million dinars ($11.7 million). That “comes on the back of several years of losses,” Al-Usaimi said.

The share sale in the exchange will consist of an offering as much as 50 percent to the public and up to 24 percent to state entities, the CMA said last month. It also hired a consortium led by Tri International Consulting Group to advise on selling as much as 44 percent of Boursa Kuwait to a foreign exchange operator.

Two or three companies may sell shares through IPOs that could raise about 80 million dinars this year, the exchange’s Chief Executive Officer Khaled Abdulrazzaq AlKhaled said at a conference in Dubai. The bourse also plans to start the second phase of reforms on April 1, which will include separating equities into three categories based on market capitalization and trading volume, he said.

--With assistance from Hussein Slim

To contact the reporters on this story: Yousef Gamal El-Din in Dubai at ygamaleldin@bloomberg.net, Abbas Al Lawati in Dubai at aallawati6@bloomberg.net, Filipe Pacheco in Dubai at fpacheco4@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Shaji Mathew at shajimathew@bloomberg.net, Dana El Baltaji

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