MTC to quit Kuwait due to investor laws

Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC) is considering moving its headquarters out of Kuwait because the country's laws deter investors, its deputy chairman was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

MTC, Kuwait's largest publicly traded company, said on Tuesday it could move to Dubai or Bahrain, the Gulf's financial centres, or to Amsterdam, headquarters of its subsidiary Celtel.

"The Kuwaiti business environment repels investment and the country's laws are not good for a financial hub," Kuwait daily Al Rai quoted deputy chairman Saad Al-Barrak as saying.

MTC spokesman Ibrahim Adel could not be reached for comment.

The second-largest Arab telecom operator by market value did not say when it would make a decision.

"MTC is today thinking on the global scale... especially since Kuwait accounts for only 15 percent of its revenue which will fall below 7 percent in the next two years," Barrak said in the newspaper.

Kuwait has been dragging its feet on reforms to create a more transparent stock exchange. The head of a committee appointed to draft a new bourse law said last month a version approved by the cabinet would create a toothless regulator and could undermine efforts to attract foreign investment.

Another Kuwaiti law imposes a 55% tax on foreign investors.

In June the stock exchange said it had found no violations after investigating record trading volumes in MTC's stock. It gave no reason for a spike in trading and did not say who was behind it.

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