Oger Telecom postpones DIFX listing

Oger Telecom has called off its proposed listing on the Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX) at the last minute amid increasing concern over the volatility of local markets.

The company – which provides services in Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Turkey – had recently planned to declare details of pricing and a listing date.

Oger had previously announced that it would offer US$1.25bn in shares on the DIFX and in Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) listed on the London Stock Exchange.

It was expected that Oger would offer shares at between US$1.15 and US$1.42, and GDRs - each representing ten shares at between US$11.50 and US$14.20. The float would have valued the company at up to US$8bn.

The decision to pull the listings was made at around 4am London time, just three hours before the company was due to announce a date for the IPO in a statement to the London Stock Exchange. A press conference scheduled for Dubai was also cancelled.

Oger Telecom blamed ‘regional volatility’ as the reason behind the decision in a statement made.

“Despite over-subscription throughout the price range, with good support from investors in the Middle East, in the light of increasingly challenging and volatile regional market conditions, the company and principal selling shareholders deemed that it was no longer advisable to proceed,” the company said.

The company controlled by Lebanon’s Hariri family had previously expressed acquisitive ambition when it headed a consortium to buy a US$6.55bn controlling stake in Turk Telekom, Turkey’s former state-run telecom monopoly. It outbid Etisalat, one of the UAE’s two licensed telecoms operators, in acquiring the stake.

Mohammed Hariri is chairman of Saudi Oger, which owns 40% of the telecoms company while Simon Duffy is non-executive director of the group.

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