Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding Company, a unit of state-owned Qatar Petroleum, plans a listing of its shares on Qatar Exchange on February 23, said a report.

The announcement comes after Mesaieed Petrochemical received the approval of Qatar Financial Markets’ Authority (QFMA) for the listing. With this, the number of listed companies on Qatar Exchange will rise to 43, said the Qatar bourse in its statement.

The IPO, open only to the Qatari citizens, raised a total of QR3.2 billion ($880 million). It was conducted between December 31 and January 21 with the offer price of the shares set at QR10 each, plus listing costs of 0.2 riyal per share.

According to Mesaieed, all 323.19 million shares offered, amounting to 25.725 per cent of Mesaieed, were sold amid a solid demand from  investors.

Qatar Exchange said Mesaieed will be listed in the industrial sector nexty week with a symbol MPHC, the statement added.

As usual, price floatation for MPHC will be permitted only for the first day of listing however; price fluctuation on the second day and thereafter will be permitted by 10 per cent up/down as the case for all other listed companies, according to Qatar Exchange.

On first day of trading, the standard procedures of IPOs will apply. Brokerage companies will be permitted to enter any buy/sell orders for MPHC shares in the pre-open session at 8:30 am for the listing morning day only. The pre-opening session for all other listed companies will remain as business usual at 9:00 a.m.

An official source at the Qatar Central Secutities Depository said Mesaieed's shareholders number 199,000 currently.

Their data has been registered in the shareholders accounts at the QCSD which has provided the brokerage firms with special systems allowing them to know the shareholders numbers (NIN) and the number of shares allocated to them in order to facilitate trading process, he stated.

The data will become available at the brokerage firms from February 23, so investors will be able to submit their buy/sell orders directly to the brokers as of that date, he added.

Mesaieed Petrochemical’s authorized and issued capital amounts to QR12 billion which 100 per cent paid up.

The Qatari firm holds stakes in ventures that manufacture polyethylene, caustic soda and other chemical products. Its partners in the ventures include the US company Chevron Phillips Chemical Company.-TradeArabia News Service