Billionaire buys his company’s idle stocks for JD2.5m

AMMAN — The  chairman of Masaken, a Jordan-based real estate developer, on Wednesday bought 587,000 shares of his company after their value plummeted, causing Amman Stock    Exchange’s  traders millions in losses.

A statement by the company said  Hasan Ismaik’s move to buy the stocks “came in response to an appeal published in local newspapers by traders, who sought his intervention to save the company and strengthen its financial position”.

The Abu Dhabi-based businessman had acquired 37 per cent of Masaken’s JD12.2 million capital and announced plans to raise the capital to around JD700 million, a statement that led the stock price to rise to unprecedented levels.

The Jordan Securities Commission, the market regulator, had to intervene by slamming a 5 per cent up and down limit on the trading in the stock to avert any shocks.

The share price, however, collapsed to catastrophic levels when Masaken’s general assembly decided to only double the capital and its chairman announced plans to establish another company with JD700 million capital. 

Traders on the Amman Stock Exchange blamed these decisions for the losses, then published the appeal, asking Ismaik to salvage their positions  by buying the idle stocks.

In Wednesday’s statement, the businessman said he had “confidence in the company’s performance, plans and future outlook and its ability to generate revenues”.

Moreover, the statement said that the general assembly is expected to meet to revisit the decision to establish another company, adding that the plan now is to increase the capital of the existing company to more than JD700 million within five years.