Iraq Conference funding event postponed

The conference hosted by Rabee Securities was due to take place at the Grand Millennium Hotel in the Kurdish city of Suleymani from October 15 to October 16.

Iraq’s biggest brokerage has postponed until further notice an annual high-profile event that links international investment banks and funds to local companies listed on the country’s stock exchange.

The decision comes as Iraqi Arab and Kurdish forces, with the help of US airstrikes, battle Islamic State militants in the northern part of the country.

The Iraq Conference hosted by Rabee Securities was due to take place at the Grand Millennium Hotel in the Kurdish city of Suleymani from October 15 to October 16. Typically, the event would showcase Iraqi publicly listed companies and provide them with opportunities to present their businesses to international investors.

“Iraq is going through difficult times,” Rabee Securities said in a statement to clients. “Many countries are warning their citizens against travelling into Iraq. Although we work and live in Erbil, Suleymani and Baghdad and frequently travel between these cities, we feel that it is prudent of us to postpone our yearly conference.”

Rabee Securities is headed by the Kurdish businessman Shwan Taha, who has worked for the investors Mark Mobius and George Soros and spearheaded the US$1.3 billion Asiacell initial public offering last year.

Among the previous guests which attended last year were HSBC, The National Investor and the Iraq-focused funds Euphrates, InvestAD and Funds Management Group.

At last year’s event some European wealth management banks were trying to get a “feel for Iraq and see if it was something they wanted to pitch to their clients”, said a UAE-based fund manager who spoke on conditions of anonymity.

“Selling the Iraq story is going to be difficult for the industry, but apart from that, market has had normal trading and there has been foreign participation. The flow is there.”

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