Arabian Gulf regulators have revived efforts to integrate their markets, as the fragmentation of the region's finance hubs becomes more pronounced.
Firms operating from the Dubai International Financial Centre have voiced concerns over an increasingly assertive challenge from Qatar, stemming from a legal gap between firms operating in the UAE's financial free zone and elsewhere in the Emirates.
At the same time, other emerging market blocs, such as the Association of South-East Asian Nations, have sought to integrate their stock markets to develop deeper pools of liquidity and a more attractive destination for international investors.
Summits among heads of Gulf regulators have increased during the past year as governments accelerate drives towards unified rules for the region's exchanges.
On Tuesday, the Committee of Heads of GCC Securities Market Regulators met in Riyadh to discuss uniform rules for Gulf financial markets.
The meeting was "aimed at boosting coordination among the GCC regulators to achieve unified financial market policies on various tools, including registration, joint listing, IPOs, trading rules and appraisal of legislations to achieve those objectives", the Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) said in a statement on its website.
No details were given of planned changes to market law at the regulators' meeting.
However, the increased focus on unifying the Gulf's exchanges was a step in the right direction, said Aryan Schoorl, a legal director at DLA Piper, the law firm. "Ultimately, the region benefits from consolidated, bigger markets which function efficiently. You need harmonisation of standards and ideally one point of entry, and I think that's the next step."
With a steadily growing pipeline of IPOs, unified listing standards could also help convince family-owned businesses and other small-to-medium enterprises that they can come to market at a fair price, added Mr Schoorl. "This will also make the necessary institutional investors feel at ease that the appropriate disclosure framework is in place across the board."
For its part, the SCA has drawn criticism from some quarters recently as a result of new regulations which are said to have made it more difficult for fund managers and private banks based in the Dubai International Financial Centre to deal with investors outside of the centre's physical boundaries.
A move by GCC regulators towards more integrated financial markets is not the only factor to be watchful of, said Arwa Hamdieh, the co-founder of the Financial Services Association (UAE), an industry trade body.
"What is more important is the type of issuance and floating model the regulators would opt for," she said.
"Moving towards a book building approach will bring tremendous value to the GCC markets because it would allow regional companies to make a comparable analysis on the markets they are considering listing."
At present, most Gulf exchanges require new companies to list at Dh1 per share, regardless of their market worth. A book-build method prices shares in accordance with market demand.
ghunter@thenational.ae
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
RESULT
Arsenal 1 Chelsea 2
Arsenal: Aubameyang (13')
Chelsea: Jorginho (83'), Abraham (87')
Empty Words
By Mario Levrero
(Coffee House Press)
ALRAWABI%20SCHOOL%20FOR%20GIRLS
%3Cp%3ECreator%3A%20Tima%20Shomali%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EStarring%3A%C2%A0Tara%20Abboud%2C%C2%A0Kira%20Yaghnam%2C%20Tara%20Atalla%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ERating%3A%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
US tops drug cost charts
The study of 13 essential drugs showed costs in the United States were about 300 per cent higher than the global average, followed by Germany at 126 per cent and 122 per cent in the UAE.
Thailand, Kenya and Malaysia were rated as nations with the lowest costs, about 90 per cent cheaper.
In the case of insulin, diabetic patients in the US paid five and a half times the global average, while in the UAE the costs are about 50 per cent higher than the median price of branded and generic drugs.
Some of the costliest drugs worldwide include Lipitor for high cholesterol.
The study’s price index placed the US at an exorbitant 2,170 per cent higher for Lipitor than the average global price and the UAE at the eighth spot globally with costs 252 per cent higher.
High blood pressure medication Zestril was also more than 2,680 per cent higher in the US and the UAE price was 187 per cent higher than the global price.