By John Lee. The Telegraph reports that an encouraging update on its fund-raising plans provided some much needed cheer for Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) on the stock market. The Kurdistan-focused oil producer had slumped in recent weeks, amid speculation that the company’s key bond sale was running into trouble. The company announced last month that […]
Gulf Keystone has announced that it has mandated Deutsche Bank and Pareto Securities to arrange a series of fixed income investor meetings in the US, Europe and Asia commencing 20 March 2014. A debt offering of up to US$250 million in accordance with Reg S/144A is expected to follow, subject to market conditions. On 13 […]
By John Lee. Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) announced today the launch of an offering of senior unsecured convertible bonds which will be issued in a principal amount of US$ 50 million. The New Bonds are to be issued on the same terms (save for the issue price) as, and shall be consolidated and form a […]
By John Lee. Paulson & Co, the hedge fund run by John Paulson (pictured), has bought Cdn$70 million [$68.6 million USD] of WesternZagros 4.00% Convertible Senior Unsecured Notes ("Convertible Notes"). A portion of the proceeds from the Private Placement have been used to repay the remaining Crest Energy International ("Crest") debt of US$44.5 million plus […]
By John Lee. Zain Iraq has moved a step closer to launching its mandatory initial public offering (IPO), by establishing a new holding company in Iraq through which it will list 25 percent of its shares on the Iraq Stock Exchange (ISX) towards the end of the year. The new company, named Al-Khatem Telecommunications, floated […]
By John Lee. WesternZagros Resources has announced that it has entered into an investment agreement with Crest Energy International LLC, under which Crest will purchase, through a non-brokered private placement, 51,000,000 Common Shares in the Company at $1.25 per share for gross proceeds of $63.75 million. This price represents an approximate 25 percent premium to […]
John Lee. Zain Iraq's Chief Financial Officer, Wael Ghanayem (pictured), has told Bloomberg that the company plans to list 25 percent of its shares on the Iraq Stock Exchange (ISX) by the end of June. But Geoffrey Batt, managing director of the $44 million Euphrates Iraq Fund, told the news agency: “A more realistic estimate is […]
By Karin Laub, The Associated Press. Used with permission by Iraq Business News. An Iraqi telecom company raised nearly $1.3 billion Sunday on Baghdad's small stock exchange in one of the region's biggest share offers in years — a sign of investor confidence in the fledgling private sector despite violence that still plagues the country. […]
Rabee Securities listed Asiacell Communications PJSC yesterday (Sunday). The company started trading today under the ISX ticker "TASC", at a starting price of IQD 22. In total 67,503,000,000 number of shares were listed and sold, for a total of IQD 1,485,066,000,000 (around $1.24 billion). Asiacell's market cap is IQD 5,940bn ($4.95bn). Foreigners bought 70% of […]
By John Lee. Asiacell’s share sale has been fully subscribed before its closing date, according to the IPO’s organizer. Shwan Ibrahim Taha, chairman of Rabee Securities, confirmed to Bloomberg News: "The offering is now comfortably covered with a good mix of retail and institutional demand from within Iraq as well as institutional and high net […]
By John Lee. Asiacell's $1.35 billion share sale will be fully subscribed, bookrunner Rabee Securities has told Reuters. Shwan Ibrahim Taha, chairman Rabee Securities, said: "I knew there would be interest, I just didn't know how much - I can say that we will easily cover it. We will be fully subscribed ... We are […]
By John Lee. Shares in Asiacell, the first of Iraq's mobile phone operators to list on the stock exchange, are now open for subscription. According to a statement from the company: • Investors are now invited to complete and submit their application forms to subscribe • 67.503 billion shares, representing 25% of Asiacell's share capital, […]
