Ominvest unit IPO delayed to September; shares slump

Ominvest unit IPO delayed to September; shares slump

Shares in Ominvest, which was planning to offload a significant portion of its stake in the IPO, fell 5.6 percent on the Muscat Securities Market on Sunday.

June 10, 2012 5:51 by Reuters

Oman Arab Bank, the banking arm of Oman International Development and Investment Co (Ominvest) , has delayed its initial public offering (IPO) until September, according to a report published by the Oman News Agency.

The bank sent a letter to the Capital Markets Authority informing the regulator of its decision to postpone the offering on the Muscat bourse, the report on the state-run news service said, although no reason for the move was cited.

Shares in Ominvest, which was planning to offload a significant portion of its stake in the IPO, fell 5.6 percent on the Muscat Securities Market on Sunday.

“It had been expected by the end of this month. There is no clarity on why the IPO was postponed,” said Adel Nasr, brokerage manager at United Securities.

Oman Arab Bank had been cleared to float 25 percent of its capital on the local bourse, its chief executive said in August.

The company was planning to offer 290 million shares in the IPO, with Ominvest offloading 243.6 million shares, or 21 percent of the company’s share capital.

Separately, Bank Nizwa, Oman’s first listed Islamic bank, rose 12.8 percent on its first day of trading after a 60-million-rial ($155.9 million) IPO which was more than 11-times oversubscribed.

($1 = 0.3850 Omani rials)

(Reporting by David French; Editing by Dinesh Nair)