The Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), which owns a stake in telecoms operator Zain among other publicly traded assets, has no set plans to sell its positions in listed companies, a newspaper said on Monday.
Daily al-Qabas cited unidentified sources as saying the sovereign wealth fund, which sold its stake in an Islamic lender in July, had not established a plan to divest assets but considered each offer on an individual basis.
Any sale of KIA’s holdings would depend on profitability as well as how serious the offer was, the newspaper said, citing the sources.
‘There is no clear plan to this moment, we will study any presented offer very carefully,’ the paper cited a source.
‘We took the decision to sell our stake in Boubyan Bank when we received a lucrative offer.’
Kuwait Finance Minister Mustapha al-Shamali said last month that KIA may sell further stakes in local companies through an auction process.
Last month, local newspaper al-Rai cited unnamed sources as saying KIA may consider selling its 24.61 percent stake in Zain if the price is right.
Rai last week quoted Zain’s chief executive as saying the mobile operator is in talks with three major telecoms firms, including one from India, to sell all or part of its African operations.
