Aldar denies rumours of delisting

Abu Dhabi: Aldar has denied reports that it is planning to delist from the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange.

The speculation, which saw shares in the developer plunge on the Abu Dhabi exchange, were branded "mere rumours" by an Aldar company spokesman reached by Gulf News last night.

Shares of the developer slumped 4.7 per cent in early trading yesterday, hitting a low of Dh0.79, before recovering to Dh0.83.

In the year to date, Aldar's shares have lost around 63 per cent, underperforming the Abu Dhabi market, which is down 12.7 per cent this year.

The company's share price was diluted after it converted a portion of bonds held by state fund Mubadala Development Co into shares. It could eventually take Mubadala's stake in the developer to nearly 60 per cent.

Shares dive

Marwan Shurrab, vice-president and chief trader at Gulf Mena Investments, told Gulf News that the gossip had caused investors to lose confidence and trust in the company's shares.

"Just today, Aldar shares fell by 3.5 per cent to Dh0.83 on ADX and have lost 17 per cent of their value over the last eight sessions, mostly on speculation of a possible delisting," Shurrab said.

He called on the company to either hold a board meeting to refute the rumours or send a clarification to the Security and Commodities Authority and ADX. The rout, he said, could hurt the company's year-end financial results.

Shurrab speculated that the rumours may be linked to the news of the Mub-adala convertible bond, which takes its ownership of Aldar up to 49 per cent.

In a statement posted on the Abu Dhabi bourse website last week, Aldar said it would convert bonds worth Dh2.106 billion at a conversion price of Dh1.75 and allot 1.203 billion shares in the property firm to its shareholder Mubadala.

"When Aldar share prices fall sharply, delisting rumours came on to the scene," said Mohammad Yaseen, chief investment officer at Abu Dhabi-based CAPM Investment.

The news comes after a rough year for Aldar, which was bailed out by the government of Abu Dhabi as it struggled to recover from the global financial crisis in 2009, which led to a 50 per cent slump in property prices in Abu Dhabi, according to some estimates.

Last January, Aldar announced it would sell about Dh10.5 billion worth of assets including its Ferrari World theme park to the government and place a Dh2.66 billion convertible bond with Mubadala.