Zain Iraq will list on Baghdad's stock market on June 23, the bourse said on Thursday, ending a four-year wait for Iraq's number one telecom operator by subscribers to go public.

The country's three mobile firms were required to float a quarter of their shares and join the Iraq Stock Exchange (ISX) by August 2011 as part of their 15-year licences awarded in 2007.

So far, only Ooredoo unit Asiacell has floated, joining the ISX in February 2013. Daily fines for not doing so are being levied against the other operators: Zain Iraq and Korek, the smallest of the three.

Alkhatem -- a local joint-stock company formed to hold 100 percent of Zain Iraq's shares -- received regulatory approval on April 28 to list on the ISX and was given two months to do so.

The company will list on the ISX and start trading on June 23, the bourse said in a statement on its website on Thursday.

In May, Kuwait's Zain -- majority owner of Zain Iraq -- said Alkhatem would list all its shares on the ISX and that the parent would be the main seller.

The share sale, which differs from the book-building process Asiacell used in 2013, is going ahead despite vast swathes of the country falling under the control of Islamic State. – Reuters