MPHC to debut on QE today

26/02/2014 08:45 AST

Qatar Exchange (QE) will list Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding Company (MPHC), a unit of state-owned Qatar Petroleum (QP), today. With the listing of MPHC, the total number of listed companies will rise to 43 on QE.

H E Dr Mohamed bin Saleh Al Sada, the Minister of Energy and Industry and QP Chairman and Managing Director, is expected to ring the bell to mark the opening of today’s trading session.

The bourse yesterday informed brokers and investors that un-priced orders must not be entered into the trading system during the pre-opening of MPHC, from 8.30am to 9.30am, on its first day of trading.

“All buy and sell orders entered during the pre-opening of MPHC must have a price limit. This limitation only applies to MPHC on its first day of trading”, it said. The QE also reminded market participants that they cannot modify or cancel orders during the last five minutes of the pre-opening.

The listing of MPHC will be in the ‘Industrial sector” with a symbol of “MPHC”. As usual, price flotation for MPHC will be permitted only for the first day of listing, however, price fluctuation on the second day and thereafter will be permitted by 10 percent, either up or down, as the case for all other listed companies.

Qatar Central Security Depository (QCSD) said data on MPHC’s approximately 199,000 shareholders have been registered in the shareholders accounts at the QCSD. The depository has provided brokerage number of shares allocated in order to facilitate trading process.

Between December and January, QP offered MPHC’s 323,187,677 existing ordinary shares through initial public offering and raised QR3.2bn. These shares together represent 25.725 percent of the total issued share capital of MPHC.

“There’s a strong demand in the market for Mesaieed, because there wasn’t a lot of inventory to go around,” Reuters quoted Ahmed Shehada, head of trading at QNB Financial Services as saying. “Retail investors have been selling in the market to release cash to buy into the new listing. A large number of IPO subscribers have gone to the exchange to release 50 percent of the shares.”

Subscribers must hold the bulk of their allotted shares to qualify for a 50 percent bonus share issue after five years and a similar bonus after 10 years.

Mesaieed’s IPO price was QR10 per share, and Shehada said fair-price valuations for the stock ranged between QR18 and QR21. Foreign investors were not allowed to buy the stock in the IPO but can buy in the secondary market.

The Peninsula