Friday 12 February 2010

Awal Bank (Maan AlSanea) 7% Stake in Global Investment House "Disappears"


Friday's AlQabas carries a summary of a weekly statistical report prepared by Noor Investments Kuwait.  The report notes that two major shareholders in GIH no longer appear:
  1. Awal Bank (owned by Mr. AlSanea but under CBB Administration) no longer appears as a shareholder.  Previously, it held around 7%.
  2. As does Tarek Khalid AlHumaidi and others associated with him who once held 8.9%.
GIH's shares traded at roughly US$0.29 per share today.  At today's price that would make Awal Bank's stake worth something between US$25 million to US$27 million.  And Mr. AlHumaidi's between US$32 million and US$34 million.  If I'm not mistaken AB bought shares several years ago.  In those more happier days, GIH's shares traded for roughly 10X what they do now.  You can figure out the loss both parties sustained.

If you're like me, you probably wonder what happened.  It's unclear if all the shares were sold or just enough to cause the remaining shares to fall below a reporting threshold - perhaps 5%.  It would also be interesting to know who acquired these shares.  Have one or more new major shareholders  emerged?  Or an existing shareholder dramatically increased its position? Unfortunately, I can't find Noor's report to try and answer that question.  Nor can I find any reports at what I assume the source is - Maqasa.

If anyone out there can post a link to the report or the source data for the report, I'd be most appreciative.  Arabic language is fine.  If I get something I'll post a follow-up.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

how does one send you more info without an email address?