GIH approves stock delisting from Kuwait bourse

Shareholders in Kuwait's Global Investment House have approved the delisting of the stock from the Kuwait bourse, nearly a year after firm's shares were suspended from trading.

"(The general assembly) agreed to authorise the board of directors to cancel the listing of the company on the Kuwait Stock Exchange," a stock market statement said on Sunday, following a board meeting.

Global's shares have not traded in Kuwait since last December, when the bourse suspended the stock after Global accumulated losses exceeding 75 percent of its capital.

Last month, the firm said it would ask shareholders to approve delisting its shares from the bourse after failing to secure the regulatory waiver needed to implement its restructuring plan.

Global shareholders in September approved a debt-for-equity style plan to create new special purpose vehicles to carry the company's debt. Under the plan, Global will offer new shares worth 122.2 million dinars ($433 million) to creditors.

However, Global said on Monday it had been unable to get an exemption to rules requiring it to allow existing shareholders to take part in any new equity offering.

Global, whose major shareholders include the governments of Kuwait and Dubai, is undergoing a second restructuring in three years after the company asked creditors in September 2011 to suspend payments under a $1.7 billion debt plan agreed in 2009.

Global's shares are also listed in Dubai, Bahrain and London, the latter through global depositary receipts.