Depa (ticker DEPA) (‘Depa’ or ‘the Company’), one of the world’s leading interior contracting companies, announced today a significant change in the availability of its shares for trading.
From Sunday 11 July 2010, NASDAQ Dubai registered brokers will be able to trade Depa shares on the Dubai Financial Market’s X-Stream platform. This will help Depa attract more liquidity in its shares from retail investors who trade primarily on the Dubai Financial Market (‘DFM’).
This change will ensure Depa’s shares are visible to all DFM brokers and it is hoped will encourage all qualified DFM brokers to apply to become members of NASDAQ Dubai.
Mr. Mohannad Sweid, CEO of Depa, said:
“This is a very significant change for our Company and our shareholders. We expect this to improve the liquidity in our shares and we encourage retail investors to ensure their DFM brokers register to trade Depa and other available NASDAQ Dubai listed equities. We are encouraged by the steps DFM and NASDAQ Dubai are taking to increase liquidity and open the market to a wider set of investors.”
There will be no change to Depa’s listing status and the Company will still be regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority. Clearing, settlement and custody of Depa’s stock will be outsourced to the DFM. As a result settlement will reduce from three days to two.
In order to facilitate trading of shares, the Company is also seeking approval to redenominate its ordinary shares from US Dollars to UAE Dirhams. Should redenomination approval be given, Depa will also undertake a 2 for 1 stock split resulting in the issuance of one additional ordinary share for every outstanding ordinary share. The proposal was planned by Depa and approved by shareholders on 15 March 2010 and subsequently postponed on 28 March 2010, pending confirmation of the DFM platform migration.
