Dubai: After many achievements last year, Hamed Ali, the chief executive of Nasdaq Dubai still has a full plate and is optimistic about 2017.
Just over three months into the year, Nasdaq Dubai is on a firm footing with six listings so far.
“We are performing really well. 2017 would be a good year for us. We already have a good number of achievements and a good number of projects. We are looking at new things to be introduced in the market, be it for issuers, institutions, or issuers,” Ali said in an interview from his office at the DIFC.
Apart from additions to equity futures, Nasdaq Dubai is working on dual listing of companies, listing of Real Estate Investment Trusts, getting more companies on its Murabaha platform, and a possible launch of a Sharia-compliant Repo structure. Nasdaq Dubai also plans to tap into companies in the free zones like Jafza to raise capital.
“We will copy this template for other free zones, and our job is to facilitate growth for these companies,” Ali said.
Nasdaq Dubai is leaving no stone unturned to play its part in making the emirate the capital of the Islamic economy. In terms of bonds and sukuk, the exchange is number one by a huge margin.
On Thursday, with the listing of Indonesia’s $3 billion (Dh11 billion) sukuk, the exchange has more than $52 billion of listed sukuks.
About 85 per cent of globally listed sukuk are listed on Nasdaq Dubai. About 54 per cent of the listings are from companies in the UAE; the remaining came from international issuers.
But the competition is lacking in one or the other area. For example, Malayasia has a strong local market, but lags behind in terms of international listings. Ireland has too many overseas listings on their bourses.
“We have the gravity to attract equal amount from global issuers. That is our biggest achievement. This shows that we have the right market, right regulatory framework that works for us and others,” said Ali, adding “It’s one of our greatest achievement, to make Dubai number 1 in such a short period, and we see that continuing. We are the fastest and the biggest.”
The exchange is also looking regionwise expansion. In the Gulf, it is looking to expand in terms of getting companies in Saudi Arabia and Egypt on board.
“Saudi is a key market, and even Egypt. We are in constant discussion with potential issuers that could come to the market. We need to see how UAE and Saudi can complement each other. We can bring a lot of benefit to participants by working with Saudi,” Ali said.
Saudi Arabia is the biggest equity market in the region with market capitalisation of over $1 trillion. Analysts say Saudi Arabia’s stock market may get added to the MSCI emerging market in next few years.
Nasdaq Dubai is also looking to boost its tie-up with Tunisia, Kazakhstan, and Jordan.
Long-term view
Even with this, Nasdaq Dubai is very well diversified.
“We are not dependent on shares or fixed income. We have a very good mix of products that gives investors a very good choice,” Ali said.
And even his long-term strategy is clear. “Our long-term strategy is to benefit from the infrastructure, location, and environment. The right thing to do would be to become a destination for companies who want to grow in the region across multiple assets classes and stakeholders,” Ali added.
“We have stories that are growing in Dubai and we want to take them globally. That’s the vision. We add to the success to the stories in Dubai and add enhance the success of the stories that come in Dubai.”
Multi-asset, multi-currency exchange
Nasdaq Dubai boasts of being a multi-asset and multi-currency exchange.
“You are not asking the issuer to fit your model. Your model fits into the requirements of issuers and potential clients,” Ali said.
Dubai’s connectivity is what attracts these wide range of companies, and Nasdaq Dubai mimics Dubai’s connectivity at the capital markets level.
“Visibility, connectivity to investors and the mix of investors is unprecedented. You are listing with one exchange, but we are giving the composition of investors from multiple exchanges,” Ali said.
“We are the only exchange in this region between Europe and Singapore that is connected to Euro Clear. They don’t need to buy shares from our market in a different way. They buy it in the same way they would buy on Nasdaq, London Stock Exchange and they get to keep them in the same depositaries. That gives them a lot of flexibility,” he added.
For international, Nasdaq Dubai is the main window to get connectivity into the region, he feels.
“The region has quite a lot of wealth. It’s very important to have the access to tap the wealth in the region,” Ali said.
