UAE’s RAK Ceramics says big shareholder to sell 30.6% stake

Ras Al Khaimah Ceramics said on Tuesday that its founding shareholder had agreed to sell 30.6 percent of his stake in the company to Samena Limestone Co, a company incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands.

Sheikh Saud bin Saqr al-Qasimi, a member of the ruling family of Ras Al Khaimah, which is one of the seven United Arab Emirates, has agreed to sell 250 million shares in the company, RAK Ceramics said in a bourse statement.

The ruling family had been exploring a sale of shares in RAK Ceramics, sources had told Reuters in March. The sale still needs UAE regulatory approvals.

Members of the al-Qasimi family own at least 45 percent of RAK Ceramics, one of the world’s biggest makers of floor tiles and also a major producer of ceramic wall tiles and sanitary ware, according to Thomson Reuters data.

RAK Ceramics did not reveal a selling price for the stake, or any information about Samena Limestone or what it intended to do with the stake.

RAK Ceramics’ last share price in the market of 3.83 dirhams values the whole company at about $852 million. The shares are up 34 percent so far this year after nearly tripling in 2013.

In an interview a month ago, the company’s chief executive Abdallah Massaad told Reuters that RAK Ceramics planned to invest $80 million this year on plant expansions in India and Bangladesh as well as technology upgrades at other plants. It has a listed affiliate in south Asia, RAK Ceramics (Bangladesh).