The Qatari subsidiary of the Vodafone Group has submitted a revised timetable for its initial public offering (IPO) after the capital markets regulator asked it to delay the offering due to adverse market conditions. Vodafone had planned to sell a 40% stake in the operator in an IPO this month, but did not get the required approvals from the Qatar Financial Markets Authority (QFMA), a Vodafone spokesperson told Reuters. ’The QFMA asked us to submit a revised timetable due to market conditions … and we are waiting,; Matthew Harrison-Harvey, director of regulatory and external relations at Vodafone Qatar said.
Vodafone, which in December won a bid for Qatar’s second mobile phone licence with a bid for USD2.12 billion, also intends to sell a 15% stake to local institutional investors, which will leave it and its local partner, the Qatar Foundation, with a 45% stake. The group went on to win the country’s second fixed line licence in June.