The Kuwaiti Investment Authority (KIA) said Wednesday it planned to sell most of its stake in a local cement firm as part of a revived privatization plan to shed state holdings in domestic companies, reported the Gulf Daily News.
KIA, the state's investment arm, said it would offer 110 million of its shares in Kuwait Cement Co. by public subscription at 265 fils a share.
The one-month subscription will open on September 16.
Kuwait Cement shares ended the week down 10 fils at 280 fils, compared with a year high of 300 fils in July and a low of 146 fils in February.
KIA has a stake of about 35 per cent in Kuwait Cement, which has total subscribed shares of 377 million.
Earlier this year, KIA re-launched its privatization plan, which was halted in 1998, by selling half of its 49.2 percent stake in the country's largest mobile telecom firm, Mobile Telecommunications Co.
The state has key stakes in some 20 listed firms worth well over one billion dinars ($3.3 billion) in addition to similar holdings mostly acquired in a rescue plan after a spectacular bourse collapse in 1982 – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
