Dubai: Afkar Capital has signed with Al Mal Capital PSC as their latest liquidity provider on Afkar S&P UAE UCITS ETF (UAETF), marking the appointment of Al Mal Capital as the third exchange-traded fund (ETF) liquidity provider based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and GCC.
The fund was launched on the new ETF trading platform of the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) in March 2017 and has quickly grown to become the second-largest ETF in the Arab world in less than three months of its launch.
The DFM’s ETF platform provides a robust legal and operational model for ETF trading. Listed in June 2016, UAETF was the first physical and transparent exchange-traded fund listed in the Middle East under UAE regulations. UAETF offers single security like exposure to one of the world’s premier financial and commercial hubs by investing in three UAE markets: the Dubai Financial Market, the Abu Dhabi Exchange and Nasdaq Dubai.
The addition of a new liquidity provider will further facilitate the creation and redemption of UAETF’s shares, keeping its fair value in check, and allowing the firm to efficiently meet the growing market demand for ETFs.
“We are very happy to see Al Mal Capital joining the DFM ETF Platform as a liquidity provider for UAETF,” Afkar Capital’s CEO Seif Fikry said in a statement. “The joining of Al Mal Capital and its expertise in the financial services industry would bring great value add and generate a lot of interest for the growing investor base in the UAE markets.”
Al Mal Capital CEO Naser Al Nabulsi said: “It gives us great pleasure to join the DFM platform as liquidity providers for the UAETF. Such a role brings in a lot of challenges and competition which we will hopefully be able to overcome and achieve mutual targets for all parties. ETFs in the region need to be focused on and wider exposure would help investors benefit from such products.”
In addition to Al Mal Capital’s appointment, the other existing UAETF liquidity providers are Beltone Financial and Al Ramz Capital. The existing UAETF authorised participants include EFG Hermes Brokerage UAE, Al Safwa Mubasher Financial Services, NBAD Securities, Al Ramz Capital and Union Brokerage Company.
