Al Mazaya pushing ahead with IPO

PUSHING AHEAD: Al Mazaya will go through with its planned IPO in Qatar next month. (Getty Images)

Al Mazaya Holding plans to go ahead with an initial public offering in Qatar in November despite turmoil in financial markets and will launch $9.5 billion of Dubai projects as it mitigates slow growth in Kuwait.

"We will not delay. Our capital is 500 million riyals ($137.4 million) and we need to raise it to 1 billion riyals to be able to list in Qatar," Salwa Malhas, executive vice president of Al Mazaya Holding, which is already listed in Dubai and Kuwait.

"There is panic in the market and it is being transferred to developers and investors, but we have projects and are confident," she said.

Al Mazaya Qatar, a new unit of the developer, said in August it would launch the IPO as it looks to benefit from a real estate supply shortage in the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas.

The sharia-compliant real estate investor will offer 50 million shares at 10 riyals each before listing on the Doha bourse.

Global Investment House is managing the process, she said, adding that the firm was negotiating a development in Qatar's Lusail project worth more than $1 billion.

Malhas said then the company planned to list on the Doha Securities Market in December, but might delay the listing depending on market conditions.

Al Mazaya has a project portfolio of about $25 billion, Malhas said, although only $1 billion of it is in its home market Kuwait as rules and regulations were not "made for developers", she said.

The company, which last month set up a 2.5 billion Saudi riyal affiliate ($666.7 million) in the kingdom with other Gulf investors including Dubai Holding and Global Investment House, also plans to launch a $8 billion project in Downtown Jebel Ali and a Dubai Waterfront project worth $1.5 billion.

"Dubai has strong foundations and most of our investments are in the Emirates and are sold out," she said.

Al Mazaya will launch its second fund worth $100 million next week to help finance its expansion, Malhas said adding it would be a five-year fund. (Reuters)

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