Qatari bank Dukhan set to list on Doha’s main market

• Dukhan Bank approves listing plan at extraordinary meeting
• The bank, which is the country’s fifth largest, has assets of $27.5bn

Dukhan Bank, Qatar’s fifth-largest bank, is planning to go public and list on the Doha stock exchange.

The bank, which has total assets in excess of QR100 billion ($27.5 billion), agreed the proposal at an extraordinary general assembly meeting on Sunday. Its share capital will be listed on the main market of the Qatar Stock Exchange and the level of foreign ownership will rise to 49 percent.

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The bank’s chairman, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Hamad Bin Jassim Al Thani, said the listing and “conversion into a joint stock company is in line with our overall strategy, the characteristics of which were defined with the completion of the first merger in the Qatari banking sector in 2019. Today, we wanted to share the returns of Dukhan Bank’s continued growth with a broader base of shareholders in Qatar and beyond.”

He added: “We consider the listing as a new step that will strengthen the bank’s position globally, with our commitment to environmental governance, social responsibility and corporate governance framework.

“We have offered our shareholders one of the highest dividend rates in the market over the past few years and now we offer them the opportunity again to increase their profits and liquidity by offering part of their investments in the market.”

The bank said in a statement on Tuesday that it would now seek to complete the legal and regulatory steps and would provide a timeframe for listing “in due course”.

The meeting also approved the appointment of several new board members, including representatives of Al Thurwa Trading Co, Advanced Specialised Projects Co, Al Adeed Real Estate Investment Co and the General Retirement and Social Insurance Authority.

Dukhan Bank is the third-largest Islamic bank in Qatar, offering Shariah-compliant services including retail, corporate and commercial banking, business banking, private banking, real estate finance, structured finance, investments and asset management.

Last week Meeza, the IT services provider part-owned by Qatar’s state telecommunications company Ooredoo, said it would begin a book-building process this month with the goal of raising up to $250 million from an IPO. 

The process will allow the company to offer between 30 and 50 percent, with the final price per share to be determined on January 26. 

Brad Watson Mena strategy and transactions leader at EY, said in October that he was seeing increased signs of future activity in some of the smaller markets of the region, including Qatar.

A PwC report said the short to mid-term outlook for Qatari banks looks positive but added that banks need to act quickly and transform into a digitally enabled version of themselves amid the rise of alternative fintech players.

“In pursuit of convenience and leveraging new technologies, customers are increasingly demanding digital features… Banks and challengers are to seek a ‘phygital’ equilibrium that will take the best of both worlds and respond to evolving market needs in order to remain commercially viable,” analysts said.