KUWAIT: Kuwait is seeking financial advisors to manage the IPO of its stock exchange, according to Reuters quoting unnamed sources.
Selected advisors will be working on a tight deadline as the current law dictates that the exchange’s privatization would have to be concluded by June 2018.
Under a law passed in 2010, the Capital Markets Authority is supposed to offer 50% of the shares to Kuwaiti citizens and the remaining 50% to 10 companies already listed on the stock exchange.
The Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) may, however, offer up to 44% of its shares to a company that has experience in operating bourses when it goes public. This could bring in international exchange operators, such as NASDAQ or Euronext, to take up a stake.