Vodafone Qatar’s USD930 million IPO fully subscribed

Vodafone Qatar has announced that its QAR3.4 billion (USD930 million) initial public offering (IPO) has been fully subscribed, following the closure of the subscription period, reports TradeArabia. The start-up cellco will release further details on 3 May and allocation of shares will be finalised on or before 10 May. The British-Qatari venture offered a 40% stake split into 338.1 million shares to Qatari nationals at QAR10 each, in an offering from 12 April to 26 April. ‘We are delighted by the huge interest from both individual and institutional Investors and look forward to Vodafone Qatar’s listing and trading on the Doha Stock Market,’ said the company’s CEO, Graham Maher, adding that ‘the success of this IPO also proves the underlying strength of the Qatari market and investor confidence in Vodafone.’ Vodafone Qatar switched on a trial GSM service in March this year and expects to launch commercially by 1 July, and achieve 98% 2G/3G population coverage by 1 September, partly via a network sharing agreement with Qatar Telecom (Qtel), the existing sole operator in the country.