The long-awaited listing has been postponed from September.

The company staged a KD 7 million ($25 million) initial public offering (IPO) of shares in 2004 when it launched. The deal raised its capital to KD 10 million ($36 million). The offering was 12 times oversubscribed but, as yet, no trading in the shares has taken place.

'We wanted to establish a track record before we list,' says Marwan Boodai, chief executive officer of Jazeera.

The company also plans to list in Dubai in 2008 but has yet to decide whether this will be on the Dubai Financial Market or the Dubai International Financial Exchange. 'This is not to tap the market for financing but to reach the international capital markets,' says Boodai. 'We are not in a rush to list.'

The postponement of the listing follows the cancellation of an IPO of shares in the local Amanah Warehousing Company in early September.

The offering was abandoned because of a dispute between the logistics company and the government over whether it had requested land from the state.

The $112 million offering had already begun and was due to close on 17 September.