Emirates Post delays IPO

Citing "current market conditions", Emirates Post has postponed an initial public offering (IPO) that it had planned for this year, a top executive said yesterday.

"We were planning to launch an IPO this year, but we have now delayed our plans looking at the current market conditions," Emirates Post Holding Group President Abdullah Al Daboos told Emirates Business in a telephone interview.

"We will see how the market performs in the next two quarters and then decide on the timing. It will most likely happen next year."

Emirates Post Holding Group, the holding company of Emirates Post, will appoint a consultant to rework overall group strategy, Al Daboos said. Consulting firms on the shortlist are McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group and Booz & Company.

"We will appoint one of them in the next two weeks; they will then work on revising our internal strategy and on whether to go public or not," said Al Daboos.

The group is also planning to apply for a banking licence, Al Daboos had told this newspaper earlier this year.

Abu Dhabi-based Al Qudra Holding on Tuesday said it had shelved plans to offer its shares to the public.

According to Ernst & Young, the Middle East markets raised $4.72bn (Dh17.33bn) from 13 IPOs in the second quarter of 2008 compared to $3.9bn in the same period in 2007.

Saudi Arabia's Al Inma Bank was the largest IPO in the Middle East in the second quarter of 2008 raising $2.8bn, which amounted to 60 per cent of the total funds raised. Saudi Arabia's Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Company and Mobile Telecoms Company Saudi Arabia combined accounted for 75 per cent of the capital raised in the first quarter of 2008.