Borse Dubai likely to seek 40% stake in Karachi Stock Exchange

Dubai: Borse Dubai, the holding company for Dubai's stock exchange business, could seek 40 per cent of the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) when Pakistan's biggest bourse is turned into a company.

Borse Dubai is one of the several foreign companies interested in acquiring a stake in the exchange, KSE managing director Adnan Afridi told Gulf News yesterday.

As of last December 31, KSE had 654 companies listed with the market capitalisation of $70 billion. "A number of exchanges have expressed interest and Dubai is one of them. We have not had any formal discussion on this topic.

"They have expressed an interest that as and when the process begins they will be interested in participating," Afridi said.

Presidential nod

"We are waiting for the ordinance to be signed by the president to go into law. After that we will have 120 days to corporatise," he said.

The process of picking a "strategic investor" will run in parallel with the process to corporatise.

"We would be selling up to 40 per cent," Afridi said, adding that KSE could take more than one investor on board.

Borse chairman Eisa Kazem declined to comment when asked about Dubai's plan to invest in KSE.

On his company's recent deals related to Scandinavian and Baltic exchange operator OMX's merger with US-based Nasdaq, he said Borse Dubai is in the process of rebranding the Dubai International Financial Exchange.