Kuwait Food Co management unaware of offers on its shares

The Kuwait Food Co (Americana) said on Thursday its managers did not know of any offers to buy half of its shares. The Kharafi Group company said in a statement to the bourse its "executive management is not informed about this". It did not elaborate, but it said it was reacting to media reports about the topic. Americana's shares are up 16 per cent this week. Independent analyst Ali al-Nimesh said the announcement did not tell the whole story.

"It is the owners who negotiate. They are the ones that buy and sell. The executive management doesn't get offers to buy or sell," he told Reuters. Kharafi owns 67 per cent of Americana, acoording to bourse data. The firm could not be reached for comment. Nimesh said the family conglomerate needs liquidity and could make around 900m dinars ($3.13bn) from selling 50 per cent of Americana's shares. He said Kharafi, a major stakeholder in Kuwait's Zain, supported the telecom firm's $9bn sale of most of its African assets and was likely open to sell more.