Mohammad Al-Osaimi: Listing of family-owned businesses will take place this year
The CEO of Boursa Kuwait Company, Mohammad Al-Osaimi, revealed that by the end of this year, fixed-income market for corporate bonds and sukuk will be launched, as well as index funds and the introduction of a central counterparty service. Derivative products, such as index and single-stock futures, would come a year later.
In an interview conducted with Al-Arabiya, Al-Osaimi expected market makers to increase from 5 to 8 companies, which will increase trading activities.
He added that Boursa Kuwait has a dedicated team that contacted 60 commercial and family-based companies last year, noting that the rate of positive responses reached 50%, expecting that some family-owned businesses to be listed this year, some other family-owned companies are currently restructuring their investments, so that they may launch IPOs and list their stocks on the exchange over the next couple of years.
He highlighted that the listing rules are flexible and have been standardized to streamline the listing of two types of companies: family-owned businesses and public-private partnerships.
He also pointed out that Boursa Kuwait focuses on assets and investments that follows Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) guidelines. “We are closely following the investment climate changes in the coming years”, especially since many investment banks stated that after 2024, they will not engage in any investment that isn’t in line with ESG guidelines, so last October the exchange published its ESG guide and next month, the exchange will issue a separate sustainability report.
Al-Osaimi attributed increased trading values in 2021 compared to 2020, by more than 26.6%, to the fact that most of the transactions were executed on the main market, which increased by more than two folds. This was reflected positively on Boursa Kuwait’s revenues and net profits.
He pointed out that Boursa Kuwait’s quarterly profits was up by 5%, reaching KWD 4.2 million. As for the annual performance, profits stood at KWD 15.9 million for the financial year ended 31 December 2021, up by 26.3% compared to KWD 12.6 million adjusted for the one-time Gain on Business Combination of KWD 13.2 million, which came as a result of the remeasurement of Boursa Kuwait’s previous shareholdings in Kuwait Clearing Company (KCC) during the third quarter of 2020 upon the conversion of the investment in KCC from an associate to a subsidiary.
مصدر الخبر: Al-Jarida Newspaper, Kuwait