The Qatari and Bahraini stock exchanges signed three bilateral cooperation accords this week. The first arranges for the listing of the Qatar Telecommunication Company (Q-Tel) stock on the Bahraini securities market. For the Qatari joint stock public company this is the first time it will be listed outside of Doha.
The second contract deals with the depositing of Q-Tel’s stock at the Bahraini stock exchange depositing center, while the third agreement relates to enhancing the legal cooperation between the two securities markets, reported Al-Sharq Al-Awsat .
The listing of Q-TEL's share at the Abu Dhabi Securities Market (ADSM) is also in its final stage. Q-Tel will be the first non-UAE company to secure such a listing. Q-Tel shares would be available for trading over the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) too, since ADSM is linked electronically to the DFM.
This move is expected by Q-Tel’s chairman, Shaikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al-Thani, to positively affect the pricing of the share. “We are confident that the anticipated increase in growth of the local and regional economies during this year… will result in a strong business performance during the remainder of 2001. We shall meet and exceed our shareholders expectations.“
During the second quarter of the 2001 financial year, Q-Tel's revenues increased by 13 percent reaching 380.7 million Qatari riyals compared with QR337.6 million in the corresponding last year. The main drive for this growth was attributed by the company's chairman to “the phenomenal demand for our prepaid GSM service which has expanded by 100 percent since end of 2000 and stood at around 50,000 subscribers by 30 June 2001, and is continuing to grow at a faster pace than we expected.”
The net profit for the second quarter was QR 221.5 million compared with QR 183.6 million in the corresponding quarter last year. — (menareport.com)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
