Kuwait might launch third telecom IPO

Kuwait could launch a much-delayed initial public offering for the country's third mobile operator by June and the new firm may be in business as early as October, an official at the ministry of commerce said on Sunday.

The government is offering 50 percent of the operator to the public. It sold 26 per cent of the firm to state-owned Saudi Telecom for $934.9 million last November.

Kuwait had initially targeted February for the IPO.

"If all went as planned there is a possibility that the IPO will be before the end of June," Daoud Al Sabej, head of the department for shareholding companies at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry told Reuters.

Kuwait is already home to Mobile Telecommunications Co, the third-largest Arab telecoms company, as well as National Mobile Telecommunications Cp (Wataniya). (Reuters)

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