Al Qudra delays initial public offering

Al Qudra Holding has postponed its plan to issue an initial public offering (IPO), said the head of the Abu Dhabi-based investment company.

Speaking to Emirates Business, Mahmood Ebraheem Al Mahmood, CEO of Al Qudra Holding, said: "There is no time ceiling to announce the company's listing. In our current situation we do not need to convert to a public joint stock company. If it is decided to go IPO in the future, the percentage of the company's share capital offered to the public will be small – definitely less than 55 per cent – so that the investor's profits are not reduced.

"The members of our general assembly have asked us to maintain our investments and maximise their revenues, not to convert the company into a public joint stock company. Besides, the new company law is not issued yet and the percentage of foreign ownership has not been decided. However, we are still studying the possibility of an IPO, but this needs time and is not a useful proposition for us at present."

Al Mahmood said the company has started to implement a new strategy that does not depend only on the real estate sector, but on five main fields covering property development, infrastructure, facilities and services, industrial development and agricultural development. He said Al Qudra Holding currently has 31 subsidiaries covering these five sectors. Al Mahmood said the growth rate in Al Qudra's projects has more than doubled since the beginning of the year and added that the company is continuously attracting global investors.

He said Al Qudra has started to concentrate on the agricultural sector in many countries around the world. By the end of this year or during the first quarter of 2009, the company will acquire a total of 400,000 hectares of agricultural lands in countries such as Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea and Syria.

Al Qudra is also negotiating to buy farms in Vietnam, Pakistan, Philippines, Australia, Ukraine, Croatia and in other countries of Central Europe to produce rice, wheat and vegetables.

"We try to ensure that our projects represent an added value to UAE nationals and expatriates in UAE, or for countries in which we invest," Al Mahmood said.

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