Government goes for initial public offering of Dhiraagu shares

The government has decided to initially offer 33 per cent of its shares in Dhiraagu, the telecommunication and broadband internet business leader of the Maldives, to the public.

In a meeting organized by the government and Dhiraagu, and held at Traders’ Hotel last night, Ahmed Inaz, Minister of Finance said that the first round of share offerings to the public would take place during the coming October, and that both local and foreign parties would be eligible to buy shares. He did not give details as to how much shares would be reserved for locals, and as to the prices of shares.

However, Mahmood Raazi, Minister of Economic Development and Trade, said that studies were being made in order to decide the prices of shares and to decide the ratio of shares to be offered in the country and abroad. He assured that share prices would be “at a level affordable to individual buyers”.

When asked whether there would be any controls on how shares are to be bought and sold in order to ensure that no buyer would obtain a majority of shares sold, Minister Raazi said that “the offer would be conducted in accordance with the government’s economic policies, and we would not portion the sale and say that this person can buy this much, and that person can buy that much”.

Minister Raazi also stated that as Dhiraagu was an especially strong company, buying its shares would greatly benefit the people.

The Maldivian government previously held 55 per cent of shares in Dhiraagu, while the British company Cable and Wireless held the remaining 48 percent. However, when President Nasheed won the election in 2008 and came to presidency, his government decided to sell 7 per cent of the government shares to Cable and Wireless, reducing government share percentage to 48.

The government estimates that some 1.46 billion Rufiyaa would be raised from the prospective sale of Dhiraagu shares this year.