As many as seven companies are currently planning an initial public offering in Abu, according to the CEO of Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX).
Rashed Al Blooshi, CEO of the Abu Dhabi bourse, said most of the seven firms companies are from the UAE, but are waiting to for the “right time” for a sale.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Al Blooshi said ADX expects to attract more bond listings from companies and member governments in GCC countries.
Al Blooshi, who announced ADX’s plans to enable trading of futures contracts on single stocks in 2019, revealed that 48% of the 966,000 investors registered with the bourse are from outside of the UAE.
The move to introduce derivatives are part of plans to lure more investors, with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia also introducing similar strategies.
Saudi’s Tadawul stock exchange, the biggest in the Middle East, announced last week that it will introduce index-futures trading next year, with the contracts and options on single stocks expected to be available by 2020.
Reforms of Saudi Arabia’s stock market will make that country’s exchange more “complementary than competition” to the UAE’s bourses, Al Blooshi said.
