DUBAI: Asiacell Communications, the Iraqi telecom operator majority-owned by Qatar Telecom, plans to raise 1.49 trillion dinars ($1.3 billion) in the Middle East's biggest initial public offering in more than four years.
Some of Asiacell's founding shareholders will offer 67.503 billion shares, or 25% of its equity, at a minimum of 22 dinars a share, the Sulaymaniyah-based company said in an e-mailed statement on Tuesday. The offer opens on Jan 3 and closes on Feb 2 and is open to all individuals and institutions with a trading account in Iraq, according to the statement.
Asiacell's Baghdad IPO is the biggest in the Middle East and North Africa since Saudi Arabian Mining Co, or Maaden, raised $2.5 billion in Riyadh in June 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Asiacell obtained a 15-year mobile telecommunications license in 2007 and had 43% market share by revenue at the end of September with 9.9 million individual and corporate subscribers. "We've built a stable and growing business across Iraq," Faruk Rasool, Asiacell's MD, said in the statement. "Iraq's mobile industry continues to grow and we look forward to welcoming a new set of investors in 2013."
Doha-based Qatar Telecom, known as Qtel, agreed this year to double its stake in the Iraqi mobile-telephone operator to 60% for $1.47 billion. Qtel, which owns stakes in companies from Tunisia to Indonesia, has sought to grow outside its home market, where it faces competition from Vodafone Qatar.
Asiacell had a net income of 474 billion dinars in the nine months through September compared with 505 billion dinars in 2011, according to the statement. Revenue was 1.56 trillion dinars compared to 1.84 trillion dinars, respectively. The 22-dinar offer price translates to a price-earnings multiple of about 11.8 based on the company's 2011 earnings, according to Bloomberg calculations. Qatar Telecom trades at a multiple of 9.74 to its 2011 earnings, data compiled by Bloomberg shows.
original source: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-12-26/news/36008128_1_qtel-qatar-telecom-dinars