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World Business Quick Take

■STOCKS

Kuwait Telecom goes public

Kuwait yesterday launched an initial public offering (IPO) for the emirate’s third mobile phone company, which is expected to start operating later this year, officials said. Under the IPO, open until Sept. 18, half of Kuwait Telecom Company’s capital of 500 million shares will be available to Kuwaiti citizens only for a nominal price of 100 fils (US$0.37) plus a 5 fils premium per share. Salman al-Badran, head of the new mobile phone project, said in a statement the IPO would raise 26.25 million dinars (US$98.3 million). In November, Saudi Telecom, the largest Arab telecommunications firm, won a 26 percent stake in Kuwait Telecom Company after bidding 248.7 million dinars to become the main operator. The government will hold the remaining 24 percent.



■POLICY

Seoul, Beijing to cooperate

South Korea’s Finance Minister Kang Man Soo and his Chinese counterpart Zhang Ping (張平) agreed to cooperate on policies to counter a global slowdown. Kang, in an annual meeting with the head of China’s National Development and Reform Commission in Seoul yesterday, “shared opinions for the needs for policy cooperation to effectively counter global economic concerns,” the South Korean finance ministry said in a statement. The release was distributed to reporters on Friday in Gwacheon. “The two ministers agreed to closely cooperate and exchange information on the economy,” the ministry said. “They will strengthen cooperation in the environment sector and exchange views on the aging population.” China surpassed the US in 2003 to become South Korea’s largest export market, lifting its share last year to 22 percent from 18 percent in 2003.



■BANKING

NBK opens Dubai branch

The National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), the Gulf emirate’s largest bank, announced yesterday the opening of its first branch in the booming emirate of Dubai. NBK Chief Executive Officer Ibrahim Dabdoub said the new branch, the first in the United Arab Emirates, is part of the bank’s successful expansion strategy in the region. The bank now has more than 50 branches in 13 foreign countries including the US, Britain and France. In recent years it has acquired banks in Iraq, Qatar, Turkey and Egypt. Founded by Kuwait’s leading merchant families in 1952 as the Gulf state’s first commercial bank, NBK maintains the highest financial strength rating among Arab banks and emerging market banks from international rating agencies.



■INTERNET

BSI warns of security hole

The German Federal Agency for Security in Information Technology (BSI) in Bonn is warning about a new and especially tricky security hole affecting Internet users. The hole is related to the Domain Name System (DNS) and hence potentially affects all Web users. The DNS translates the names typed by the user into a numeric-based IP address. It’s has been no secret for some time that hackers can manipulate DNS servers to redirect users to different sites without the users’ knowledge. “But now there are malicious programs that actually exploit this hole in the DNS,” says BSI’s Matthias Gaertner. “And unfortunately, not all providers have patched the hole on their DNS servers.” Internet users may not be able to control whether their provider has updated their DNS servers, but they can at least check to see whether they are at risk. The site DNS-OARC (www.dns-oarc.net/oarc/services/dnsentropy) tests whether the user’s provider has dealt with the issue.


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