Officials attend a press conference in Kuwait City, Kuwait, Sept. 29, 2019. Kuwait will launch the initial public offering (IPO) of 50 percent equity stake on a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project, the Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (KAPP) said on Sunday. (Photo: Xinhua)

 
Kuwait will launch the initial public offering (IPO) of 50 percent equity stake on a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project, the Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (KAPP) said on Sunday.

Mutlaq Al-Sanei, general manager of KAPP, said at a press conference that Shamal Azzour Al-Oula is the first company to be established as a Public-Private Partnership project and the first PPP to be offered for public subscription.

The public subscription period will open for 60 days, starting from October 1, 2019 to November 29, 2019, he noted.

Once the transaction concludes, and depending on the final level of demand, up to 50 percent of Shamal Azzour Al-Oula's shares will be owned by Kuwaiti citizens, he said.

The remaining 50 percent will continue to be owned by current shareholders, he added.

The public offering is mandated by Laws, which form an integral part of an overarching governmental effort to include citizens in the ownership of megaprojects that are offered to private-sector institutional investors, he said.

Shamal Azzour Al-Oula is the owner and operator of Az-Zour North One Power and Water Plant, a gas-fired combined cycle power and water desalination plant of Kuwait.

The facility commenced commercial operations in November 2016 and currently supplies about 10 percent of Kuwait's installed power generation capacity and about 20 percent of the country's installed water desalination capacity.