The Kuwaiti Investment Authority (KIA) is reportedly planning to liquidate its shares in a number of Jordan firms and financial institutions, including the Jordanian Housing Bank for Finance and Trade and the Jordan National Bank, where the KIA owns 18.7 and 11 percent of the institutions' capital, reported Al-Hayat.
Jordanian sources, however, denied that KIA wished to divest its stake in the banks. Director General of the Housing Bank Abdul Qadir Dwaik told the Jordan Times that his institution was unaware of any such plan by their Kuwaiti "strategic partners".
Other equity sales may be in the Jordan Phosphate Mines Company and the Arab Potash Company. KIA’s decision to liquidate its assets in Jordan is part of a worldwide restructuring scheme. The Jordan Times quoted analysts who said the move followed "corruption cases" discovered in the London-based Kuwait Investment Corporation (KIC), which handles the emirate's multibillion dollar worldwide investments.
KIA sold off its 400,000 shares in Jordan's Arab Bank in July, to Jordan's state-run Social Security Corporation (SSC), for 68.6 million Jordanian dinars ($96.7 million). The move increased SSC's stake in the bank from 5.8 percent to 9.8 percent. Kuwait's Gulf Bank earlier sold its 100,440 shares in the bank to the corporation at a price of JD167 ($235) per share, reported the MEES. — (Mena Report)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
