Saudi-owned Aujan Industries Co, which makes the popular Vimto drink, said it has delayed plans to sell shares in an IPO until towards the end of 2008.

The move follows volatility in markets.

Aujan, which sells 20 million bottles of the berry concentrate during Ramadan, has completed the due diligence in preparing for an initial public offering, company president Kerry Anastassiadis said on Thursday on Dubai Eye radio.

He did not give more details. Aujan also makes the non-alcoholic beer, Barbican.

Company chairman Adel Aujan told Reuters in June that the beverage firm planned to raise as much as 800 million riyals in ($213.3 million) in an IPO by the end of 2007.

The company, which appointed Samba Financial Group as adviser and lead manager for the IPO, planned to sell a 30 percent stake for between 600 million and 800 million riyals, Aujan said at the time.

That would value the firm at between 2 billion and 2.67 billion riyals.

Around 40 percent of the turnover is generated in Saudi Arabia, 15 percent in Iraq and the remaining 45 percent in countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Algeria and India. - Reuters