Qatar Increases Foreign Ownership Limits Before MSCI Upgrade - Bloomberg

Qatar Increases Foreign Ownership Limits Before MSCI Upgrade - Bloomberg:



"Qatar raised the foreign ownership limit for shares listed on Doha’s stock exchange, less than a week before an MSCI Inc. upgrade to emerging market status. The benchmark index rose.



Investors outside the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council will be able to hold as much as 49 percent of a company listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange after Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani gave instructions to raise the limit from 25 percent, state-run Qatar News Agency reported late yesterday. The Ministry of Economy and Commerce and the Qatar Financial Markets Authority will take necessary measures to put directives into effect, the news agency said.



“Clearly, it’s done with the MSCI in mind,” Julian Bruce, head of institutional trading at EFG-Hermes U.A.E. Ltd. in Dubai, said by phone. “If normal convention is followed, each individual company has to hold an extraordinary general meeting to approve the change in its structure. With the MSCI event right upon us, you would assume that it might not be able to go through in time.”"



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