Following a highly successful initial public offering, and for the first time in the region, the trading of shares of Dubai Financial Market (DFM) will begin on Wednesday morning (March 7, 2007).
A ceremony to mark the occasion will be held on March 7, 2007, at 10 AM at the DFM. His Excellency Abdullah Salem Al-Turifi, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority, will ring the bell to signal the start of trading of the world’s first Islamic stock market shares.
The historic listing ceremony will also be attended by Essa Kazim, Chairman of the DFM, along with Board of Directors and other senior management from DFM, Dubai Bank, lead manager of the IPO, and representatives of receiving banks. Senior representatives from the UAE Ministry of Economy will also be in attendance.
The DFM has initiated a multi-channel electronic communications awareness programme, including both local and pan-Arab radio and TV stations, to broadcast the listing ceremony. In addition to sending notifications to their investors via SMS messages.
DFM Company is the 50th company to list its shares on the market. The company is part of the “Investment and Financial Services” sector. The year 2006 was an extremely eventful one for the Dubai Financial Market (DFM), capped by the bourse’s own landmark AED1.6 billion initial public offering (IPO). This IPO, the first of its kind in the region, was highly oversubscribed and generated more than AED 201 billion. Among the year’s other highlights were a string of new listings by firms from across the region, bringing the total number of listed firms on the DFM to 49.
Another key event for the bourse during 2006 was DFM’s commencing the process of converting itself into the first international “Islamic” stock market. In terms of sectors, DFM also announced the regrouping of all listed companies into nine new sectors. The new structure is a reflection of DFM’s growth and the diversity of listed companies’ profiles and potential listings.
As the market continued to grow, DFM saw a need to review its Index and provide more indices as options for local and international investors and analysts. DFM launched its new index, DFMGI, in response to exactly such needs. The new DFMGI reflects price movements in a better and more clear fashion, and has been enthusiastically embraces by the investment community.
DFM also launched nine sectoral indices for the nine sectors, which will allow investors to compare the activity of any one sector against another by benchmarking with the DFMGI and the nine sectoral indices.
In line with its efforts to provide access to Dubai-quoted stocks for international investors, DFM and Dow Jones Indexes, a leading global index provider, also launched a new “Dow Jones DFM Index” to serve as an underlying point of reference for investment products such as mutual funds, exchange-traded funds and other financial products.
As part of its strategy to continuously invest and enhance the trading platform, DFM awarded a multi-million dollar contract to OMX, a leading expert in the stock market industry to provide a new trading system platform. Taking a cue from past experience, DFM expects trade volumes to grow exponentially in the near future and its IT investments are planned for just such anticipated growth.
DFM also launched a newly improved website that was released in Beta form during the course of the year. The website employs the most advanced technology, ensuring optimal response time, while conforming to the highest level of service continuity.
In terms of quality management, DFM also signed agreements two leading firms namely: ‘Team Power’ and ‘Profile Management’. These agreements were aimed at tracking customer satisfaction through regular surveys and research.
In the Emiratisation field, DFM has achieved a high level of Emiratisation, exceeding 80% of the market’s total human resources. DFM has always participated in career fairs, just one of several initiatives for recruiting and training UAE nationals and educating them about the intricacies of financial markets.
As part of its ongoing educational role, DFM has organised facility visits for more than 3,500 students in 2006 from various universities and schools in order to educate them about the job prospects in the financial markets. These visits have been taking place on an annual basis since the opening of the market in 2000. In addition, the market runs “Kafa’at,” a special training programme on investment and brokerage for UAE nationals. This programme features several courses wherein participants receive both theoretical and practical training about the DFM and other financial institutions in the UAE.
As well, more than 2,700 students from 38 educational institutions participated in an online stock trading game, which educated them in the skills involved in long-term equity investing.
One of the most important initiatives of the DFM in 2006 was its fundraising campaign to support those displaced by the war in Lebanon. This campaign was supported by DFM employees, brokerage firms, listed firms and investors. The bourse also participated in a two-month fundraising campaign to raise awareness about Thalassaemia in the region.
