Qatar Telecom Raises Stake in Iraqi Subsidiary

Published on: 4th Feb 2013

­Qatar's Qtel has raised its stake in Iraq's AsiaCell to 64% as a result of the Iraqi network's stock market floatation this morning.

Asiacell sold a quarter of its shares through the government mandated stock market floatation, and as previously suggested by the company, Qtel took the opportunity to raise its stake the company.

Qtel said that it had raised its stake from 53.9% to 64.1% which would suggest that it bought up around a quarter of the shares offered for sale.

The IPO was fully subscribed, and the shares jumped by 10 percent on their first day of trading on the Baghdad Stock Exchange.

Foreign investors bought about 70% of the shares on offer, which was supposed to be a way for the government to increase local ownership of large companies.

The countries other two mobile networks are also required to sell a quarter of their shares through IPOs.

 

Tags: [asiacell]  [qatar telecom]  [Iraq]