Aabar advances plans to delist

Aabar advances plans to delist

Board agrees plan, now set to go to shareholders.

June 26, 2010 12:37 by Samuel Potter

Aabar Investments’ plan to delist from the stock exchange has taken another step forward, reports the National.

The government owned company, which bought 5 percent of Italy’s largest bank last week, plans to go private. The board of directors agreed at a meeting at the end of last week to sign off on the plan, which will see the company removed from the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange, where it has been listed since 2005. The company has now scheduled a meeting for July 26 to put the question to shareholders. The company is about 70 percent owned by the International Petroleum Investment Company, itself fully owned by the Abu Dhabi government.

“The board of Aabar considers this step as essential in the life of the company to provide Aabar with greater operational flexibility required to ensure the ongoing success of the company’s investment strategy and its ability to effect opportunistic acquisitions both in the UAE and abroad,” said Mohammed Badawy al Husseiny, Aabar’s chief executive, in a statement.

According to the paper, in addition to the go-ahead from shareholders, Aabar would need approval from the Ministry of Economy as well as a nod from the Securities and Commodities Authority, which regulates the UAE’s stock markets, before officially becoming private. The process could take months.