Vodafone Qatar will raise QR3.38bn by selling its 40% stake through a two-week-long initial public offering from April 12. The company plans to sell 338.1mn shares at QR10.25 each, Vodafone Qatar chief financial officer John Tombleson told Gulf Times. He said each share would be offered (at the IPO) at QR10 plus an offering cost of 25 dirhams. “This is what the joint venture partners and government elected institutions had already paid,” Tombleson said. Vodafone, which won the bid for Qatar’s second mobile operator licence in December 2007, sold a 15% stake to three Qatari funds and Qatar Foundation in June last year. The Vodafone-Qatar Foundation joint venture has a 45% stake in the company. Vodafone plc stake in the joint venture is 51% while it holds a 22.95% stake in the company. Tombleson said he expected Vodafone shares to be listed on the Doha Securities Market after two weeks of the closure of the IPO. “I hope Vodafone shares can be listed on the DSM after mid-May,” Tombleson said. He said HSBC and QNB would act as the joint financial advisers, joint lead managers and joint lead receiving banks. Twelve other local lenders will also involve in the Vodafone Qatar IPO as receiving banks. The list of receiving banks and branches will be published shortly. Tombleson said potential investors would have the chance to learn more about Vodafone Qatar’s IPO at the “IPO open night” tomorrow. The event will be held at a specially erected tent on the Corniche. Vodafone had planned to sell the stake in the operator in October last year but did not receive the required approvals from Qatar Financial Markets Authority (QFMA) due to difficult market conditions. Commenting on the IPO, Vodafone Qatar chairman HE Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Saoud al-Thani said: “This is a significant IPO as it will become one of the largest IPOs in Qatar. Furthermore it marks the next step in the deregulation of the telecommunications sector in Qatar, by bringing competition to the market.” “Qatar Foundation’s strategy of partnering with high technology businesses that will help develop the growth of the knowledge-based economy is fostering many opportunities for Qataris. We expect there will be much interest in this upcoming IPO,” said Qatar Foundation vice president (Administration) and Vodafone Qatar board member Rashid al-Naimi. http://gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=278974&version=1&template_id=57&parent_id=56 ILQ covered this yesterday :) http://iloveqatar.net/forum/read.php?28,6517

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