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- H.E. Essa Kazim: “Roadshow gained further success due to the global reputation of the national economy, DFM’s world-class infrastructure and the diversification of its opportunities”
- DFM’s efforts to attract foreign investments raised foreign investors’ ownership from 12% of the Market Cap in 2010 to 22% in 2016
- Amit Jain: “the roadshow was an important platform to highlight Emaar’s strong fundamentals”
- Adel Al Ali: “The roadshow plays a fundamental role in supporting listed companies to attract new investment and growth opportunities”
The Dubai Financial Market (DFM) International Investor Roadshow in New York 2017 has placed the growth strategies and business developments of 10 companies listed on DFM and Nasdaq Dubai in the limelight by connecting these companies with leading US-based investment funds. The event provided a strong indication of the growing appetite from international investors towards the securities market in Dubai, as fund managers from key institutions in the US are increasingly attracted to further strengthening their presence on the market.
Organized with co-sponsorship from the Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML), the event was successfully concluded on Tuesday 17th October 2017, and attracted 24 institutions with US$ 1 Trillion of assets under management.
The roadshow offered CEOs, CFOs and Investor Relations managers of Dubai-listed companies the opportunity to present their success stories and most recent developments. The participant’s list included; Air Arabia, Aramex, Damac Properties, DFM Company, DP World, DXB Entertainments, Emaar Malls Group, Emaar Properties, Dubai Islamic Bank and Orascom Construction.
His Excellency Essa Kazim, Chairman of DFM said: “The roadshow has achieved great success due to the global reputation and attractiveness of the economy of Dubai and the UAE. International rankings have recognised the dynamism and strength of our economy, the most recent report from the Davos Economy Forum placed it in 17th place globally, and in first place regionally amongst the most competitive economies. Moreover, our capital markets occupied a high position in terms of market development and protection of investors’ rights. The successes of this event have also been reinforced by the world-class infrastructure of DFM as well as its diversified opportunities. We have been committed to organizing investor roadshows since 2007, in a pioneering step amongst regional markets and as part of our strategy aimed at diversifying liquidity sources and encouraging issuers to strengthen links with various types of investors and international institutions at the forefront. In fact, the DFM is one of the most hospitable and attractive exchanges for foreign investments in the region, maintaining high level of participation from foreign investors, as they account for almost half of trading on average annually and represent one third of our investor base.”
“The DFM’s efforts to attract foreign investments over the past years have played an important role in uplifting foreign investors’ ownership from 12% of the Market Cap of DFM-listed companies in 2010 to 22% in 2016. This big jump underlines investors growing confidence in the market and what it has achieved in terms of embracing best practices of trading, regulations transparency, Corporate Governance as well as Investor Relations,” His Excellency Essa Kazim concluded.
Commenting on the outcome of the roadshow, Fahima Al Bastaki, Executive Vice President, Head of Business Development Division of DFM said: “Our roadshow in New York has achieved a tremendous turn out as 75 One-on-One meetings took place with representatives of 24 leading funds. This provides a strong indication of its success as well as international investors’ enthusiasm to further participate in our market. In cooperation with the co-host, we constantly endeavour to enable new issuers to take part alongside the common participants and in line with investors’ demand. Undoubtedly, DFM’s commitment to organize investors’ roadshows over the past 10 years clearly indicates the deep belief that we share with listed companies and investment funds on the importance of such events in strengthening links amongst market participants.”
Participants welcome event’s result
Senior executives of Dubai-listed companies commended the result of the event stressing its significance at the top of their list of investor events annually due to the high level of attendees from institutions in the USA.
Amit Jain, Group Chief Executive Officer of Emaar Properties said: “DFM’s New York Roadshow was an important platform for Emaar to highlight its strong financial fundamentals and the significant growth outlook of the company to the international investor community. Our participation came as we prepare for the IPO of Emaar Development, our UAE real estate development business. This is expected to be one of the largest IPOs on the DFM, since the listing of our Emaar Malls. At the event, we highlighted the strengths of our three core businesses – developing premium real estate, shopping malls & retail and hospitality & leisure. With a total project level sales backlog of AED 41 billion, Emaar has a firm revenue pipeline for the coming years in addition to expanding our malls and hospitality businesses that generate long-term recurring revenues. DFM’s initiative also underpinned the emergence of Dubai as a strategic investment hub that offers promising investment opportunities, led by the city’s central location and firm credentials as a regional business hub.”
“We are glad to join DFM in this investor roadshow as we believe it plays a fundamental role in supporting listed companies such as ours to expand and attract new investment and growth opportunities. We always look forward to meeting like-minded investors who understand the region, its growth potential and are keen on being a part of one of the fastest growing aviation markets globally,” Adel Al Ali, Group Chief Executive Officer of Air Arabia.
