The Al Ghurair family holds a controlling stake of 70 per cent at Mashreq, while 20 per cent are free float. Steve Crisp / Reuters
The Al Ghurair family holds a controlling stake of 70 per cent at Mashreq, while 20 per cent are free float. Steve Crisp / Reuters



Mashreq will allow foreigners to own up to 20 per cent of its shares following approval from the market regulator, a move that is expected to boost trading activity for an otherwise illiquid stock.

In a regulatory filing, the lender requested the Dubai bourse to "kindly initiate necessary process" that would result in the foreign ownership limit increasing from from 1.9 per cent to 20 per cent, effective from yesterday.

Mashreq’s shares are illiquid and have traded on just 13 days so far this year. The decision to open up the bank’s foreign ownership limit is expected to alleviate challenges for investors who typically struggle with entry and exit positions.

The Al Ghurair family holds a controlling stake of 70 per cent, while 20 per cent are free float, according to Bloomberg data.

“Foreign ownership is one angle, another is the free float and obviously increasing the investor audience,” said Fadi Al Said, the head of equities at ING Investment Management in Dubai. “In my opinion, the issue with Mashreq is its free float.”

After the last trade, made on August 25, there was a surge of 10.4 per cent to Dh54 a share.

“Mashreq’s stock is very cheap,” said Mr Al Said. “Because its illiquid, it corrected after the global financial crisis and stayed at the bottom, whereas peer UAE banks are trading at one to two-year highs.” The shares currently trade at 0.58 to 0.6 times book value, he said.

The decision comes just three months after the UAE was upgraded to emerging market status by MSCI, whose equity indexes are tracked by investors with about US$7 trillion in assets.

It was previously designated as a frontier market.

“This is a global trend and it will happen for the rest of the UAE companies like Etisalat,” said Fathi Ben Grira, the chief executive at Mena Corp, an investment company in Abu Dhabi. “The fact that the bank [Mashreq] did it provides a signal for other companies to follow,” Mr Ben Grira said.

Mashreq lent more during the second quarter than during any full-year period since 2008 as the Dubai economy recovered.

The bank reported net profits for the second quarter of Dh402.5 million, an increase of 25.6 per cent compared with the corresponding period a year earlier.

The bank forecast its upcoming profits to be driven by the increase in loans.

halsayegh@thenational.ae

The%C2%A0specs%20
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Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha

Starring: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Shantanu Maheshwari, Jimmy Shergill, Saiee Manjrekar

Director: Neeraj Pandey

Rating: 2.5/5

Match info

Costa Rica 0

Serbia 1
Kolarov (56')

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MATCH INFO

Manchester United 1 (Greenwood 77')

Everton 1 (Lindelof 36' og)

MATCH INFO

Liverpool 2 (Van Dijk 18', 24')

Brighton 1 (Dunk 79')

Red card: Alisson (Liverpool)

MATCH INFO

Delhi Daredevils 174-4 (20 ovs)
Mumbai Indians 163 (19.3 ovs)

Delhi won the match by 11 runs

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Company%20profile
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When is VAR used?

Goals

Penalty decisions

Direct red-card incidents

Mistaken identity

The biog

Family: He is the youngest of five brothers, of whom two are dentists. 

Celebrities he worked on: Fabio Canavaro, Lojain Omran, RedOne, Saber Al Rabai.

Where he works: Liberty Dental Clinic 

Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
Director: Venkat Prabhu
Rating: 2/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
 
Started: 2020
 
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
 
Based: Dubai, UAE
 
Sector: Entertainment 
 
Number of staff: 210 
 
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4
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The specs

  Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now

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