GFH Financial reverses Kuwait delisting plan after rules change

The decision was made at a board meeting on Tuesday and was passed in light of executive management’s recommendations and recent amendments to Kuwait’s Capital Markets Authority.

Kuwait has allowed listed companies to postpone the disclosure of material information without obtaining prior regulatory approval. Yasser Al Zayyat / Reuters

The board of GFH Financial Group has suspended its decision to delist from the Kuwait Stock Exchange, the company said on Wednesday.

GFH said the decision was made at a board meeting on Tuesday and was passed in light of executive management’s recommendations and recent amendments to the rules of the country’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA).

In a statement this week, GFH said the amendments “have resolved many of the shortfalls of the preceding regulations on disclosure and transparency, including those which were conflicting with GFH’s other regulators’ requirements”.

The amended Kuwaiti regulations allow listed companies to postpone the disclosure of material information without obtaining the CMA’s prior approval, if the information might damage the confidentiality of negotiations or implementation of a transaction, GFH said. Disclosure requirements were also eased in other ways.

In September, the Sharia-compliant investment group had said it would voluntarily delist from Kuwait to focus trading on its home market, Bahrain, and the main secondary market for its shares, Dubai. It said it also wanted to avoid any risk of violating rules in Kuwait that contradicted regulations in its home market.

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