Asiacell has launched what may be the world’s smallest ever public offering, raising about US$ 8,500 through the sale of 10,000,000 shares at IQD 1 each. The subscription period started on September 14 at the Baghdad and Sulaimaniya branches of Al-Shamal Finance and Investment Bank and will continue for up to sixty days. Obviously this […]
At the end of last month, the Iraq Securities Commission (ISC) announced new rules on stock suspensions. Effective September 1, trading is to recommence no more than four months after general assembly meetings when rights issues are announced and immediately otherwise. Pre-general assembly suspensions are limited to one week. This new schedule is a big […]
Last weekend two stories, one in Al Hayat the other in the Abu Dhabi paper The National, confirmed that Standard Chartered is in talks to take over Warka Bank (BWAI). (There's more on the story here.) While there have been rumors to this effect for over a year, this is the first time anything has […]
Winston Churchill once likened observing Soviet politics to “watching two dogs fighting under a carpet.” All you can say for sure is that something’s going on. The latest news on Warka Bank has exactly this 'subcarpet' quality. The ISC has ordered Warka’s brokerage subsidiary to stop its operations in the market effective July 26 following […]
On June 20, AK News published a cryptic article entitled “Iraq backs global bank’s initiative to encourage investment in stock market.” (See this link.) The Executive Director of the Iraqi Securities Commission (ISC) Abdul Razzaq al-Saadi was reported as saying that the global bank, “HHPT,” had “done the necessary groundwork and pledged to put up […]
Erbil property has been one of the best investments in Iraq over the past year. While the ISX is up about 50% over the last twelve months, prices for residential and office space in the Kurdish capital have more than doubled. 600 sq m single detached houses in the city’s Italian Village development, for example, […]
At the end of last month, a spokesman for the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) told reporters that a plan to redenominate the Iraqi dinar will be presented to the Council of Ministers in the near future. (See here and here.) The Council is then expected to submit the relevant legislation to Parliament for a […]
Recently ISX CEO Taha Ahmed Abdul Salam told reporters that foreigners now hold 19% of ISX-listed shares. (See this link.) This seems like a big percentage but in fact reveals that foreign institutional participation in the market remains quite limited. As of the end of last month, strategic shareholders in the eight foreign-invested banks held […]
On June 7, HSBC announced that it would be subscribing in full to Dar Es Salam Bank’s (BDSI) 46.9% rights issue. The “world’s local bank” will be buying 23.7 bn new BDSI shares at IQD 1 each for the equivalent of about US$ 20.3 mn. (See this link for the announcement .) The HSBC subscription […]
On May 30 Rabee Securities’ new office in Erbil successfully connected to the ISX network and began trading. This was an important step forward for the stock exchange. For the first time, a brokerage branch outside Baghdad is now online. In a country like Iraq, the expansion of brokers’ branch networks to other cities is […]
In March ISX-listed Qimma Financial Investment (VQUF) announced that Warka Bank’s majority shareholder, Saad Al Bunnia, had appointed it to “begin a formal auction process following a due diligence report carried out by Price Waterhouse Coopers.” The announcement, which was posted on Qimma’s website, went on to say that Mr. Bunnia was “interested in entertaining […]
Last August, the government announced it was making available a total of US$ 300 mn to renovate six Baghdad hotels in preparation for the Arab League Summit. The six—the ISX-listed Palestine (HPAL), Babylon (HBAY), Baghdad (HBAG), Mansour (HMAN), and Ishtar Sheraton (HISH) hotels, and the unlisted Rashid Hotel—were to receive 75% of the new funding […]
