Kuwait's Capital Markets Authority set new procedures for companies planning to acquire more than 30 percent of a listed stock, including requiring an independent opinion, according to a circular published in local newspapers. The stock exchange and its regulator must be informed of the offer after an initial agreement between two companies, according to the circular. It must be approved by the competition protection authority, the markets authority and shareholders, it said. The offer must also be announced on the Kuwait stock exchange's website and published in at least two local newspapers, the circular said. Meanwhile, Kuwait's bourse will launch a new trading system on May 13, backed by The Nasdaq OMX Group Inc , to help trading of financial instruments such as derivatives and Islamic bonds, it said Tuesday. The new “X-stream” trading system costs 18.3 million dinars ($65.6 million) and will help modernize the exchange which is planning an initial public offering, officials said. “This will make the stock exchange more flexible,” Kuwait bourse's President Faleh Al-Roqobah told a news conference. Officials said the new platform would enable the trade of products such as international futures, options, exchange-traded funds, fixed income and sukuk, perhaps as early as next year for some of them. It will also allow trades of as little as one share at a time, the exchange said in a statement. Kuwait's stock market suffered heavy losses during the global financial crisis. The country's new markets watchdog, Capital Markets Authority (CMA), ordered several, mainly financial, companies to delist recently after they failed to report earnings on time. The CMA hired HSBC Holdings early this year to advise on plans to privatize the Gulf Arab state's stock exchange and sell a stake in an initial public offering. The privatization plan, if completed, would make the Kuwaiti exchange the second listed bourse in the region after the Dubai Financial Market. Kuwaiti investment houses were hit especially hard during the financial crisis, which prompted the government to approve a rescue package worth 1.5 billion dinars in 2009. Kuwait is home to some of the largest investment groups in the Gulf region such as Kuwait Projects Co. (KIPCO) and Global Investment House.
