About 1,500 investors have registered for Vodafone shares on the first day of the IPO on Sunday, company CEO Grahame Maher said. They are seeking 2.7mn Vodafone shares valued at QR27mn, he told Gulf Times. “The feedback from banks mandated to handle our IPO is that the response from investors has been very good. The first day’s registration indicates it is a good start.” Vodafone Qatar plans to raise QR3.38bn by selling its 40% stake through the two-week-long initial public offering, which closes on April 26 (at 1pm). The company plans to sell 338.1mn shares at QR10.25 each. The IPO is limited to Qataris and Qatari institutions. All branches of QNB and more than 90 branches of 11 other banks operating in the country have been chosen by Vodafone Qatar to manage the IPO. Asked whether the IPO timing was right, Maher said, “we originally planned the IPO in November last year. “But due to market conditions we delayed it. The way the markets worldwide behaved in the last few months more than proved our decision was right. “We are very optimistic our IPO will be oversubscribed. The recent initial public offering by a telecom company in Kuwait was heavily oversubscribed. It is a case in point.” He said shares allocation based on the IPO could be made by May 10. The participating banks would start making refunds by then, he said. “Although the exact schedule for listing the company shares on the Doha Securities Market has to be drawn by the DSM authorities, we hope it will be done by June first week,” Maher added. http://gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=284498&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

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