(Bloomberg) -- Kuwait Energy Plc, an oil and gas explorer, plans an initial public offering that would make it the first company from the OPEC nation to have its stock traded on the London Stock Exchange.
The company expects to raise about $150 million in the IPO, it said in a filing to the bourse on Wednesday. The shares should start trading in June, the independent energy producer said.
Kuwait Energy was founded in 2005 and has 10 exploration, development and production assets in Egypt, Iraq, Oman and Yemen, seven of which it operates, it said in the filing. It produced 24,432 barrels of oil equivalent a day last year compared with 24,988 barrels a day in 2015.
The company is opting for a London listing even as authorities in its home country introduce changes to attract more foreign investors to the local equity market. A successful IPO would be the first in London by a business domiciled in the Middle East since June 2016, when Israeli technology company Adgorithms Ltd. sold stock.
The Persian Gulf nation of Kuwait is the fifth-largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Numis Corp. and Bank of America Corp. are joint global coordinators and EFG Hermes Holding SAE is a bookrunner on the IPO, according to the statement. Companies in London have raised $2.4 billion from IPOs this year, compared with nearly $3 billion in the same period in 2016, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Read more: Kuwait Energy Said to Plan London IPO, Seek $1 Billion Valuation
--With assistance from Dinesh Nair
To contact the reporters on this story: Filipe Pacheco in Dubai at fpacheco4@bloomberg.net, Ruth David in London at rdavid9@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at cperri@bloomberg.net, John Viljoen, Bruce Stanley
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