The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange expects an initial public offering and the listing of an exchange-traded fund in the second half of the year as the economy emerges from a coronavirus-induced slowdown.
Several real estate investment trusts (Reits) could also be listed on the exchange, ADX chief executive Khaleefa Al Mansouri told The National.
The IPO, however, could take place late in the year, Mr Al Mansouri said.
“We are in an active dialogue with several companies and the first one [the ETF listing] will come in August. Our target for the year [for Reit listings] was three to five Reits ... on the conservative side, I would assume two [listings],” he said.
“I expect at least one listing of a private joint stock company in the fourth quarter.”
The exchange is working closely with family offices and other private sector companies and has a strong IPO pipeline.
Listings, however, will be subject to market conditions, which he expects to improve considerably towards the end of the year and in the first quarter of 2021.
Despite movement restrictions and a slowdown caused by the pandemic, the raising of foreign ownership limits of listed companies was a boon for the exchange as it granted foreign investors access to Dh6.3 billion worth of additional stocks in the first half.
The move also helped the exchange attract more than 1,700 new retail and institutional investors.
The ADX’s overseas investor base grew by 25 per cent year on year, the exchange said in its first-half performance report released on Thursday.
“Given the obvious [Covid-19-related] challenges, our performance demonstrates that [the] ADX is delivering on its key strategic objective of becoming more liquid and more accessible to a broader mix of investors,” Mr Al Mansouri said.
Exchanges across the region are going through structural and regulatory reforms to become more accessible to a broader range of investors.
They have pushed aggressively to expand product offerings such as derivatives to bring more foreign direct investment, a central plank in the economic diversification agendas of Gulf states.
The ADX is at “an advance stage” of putting the required infrastructure in place to introduce derivative products next year, Mr Al Mansouri said.
In February, the ADX selected global index and analytics provider FTSE Russell as the benchmark administrator for its domestic equity indexes amid a push to attract more foreign investors.
Regulators have also encouraged companies to remove caps or increase foreign ownership limits to attract more liquidity to their stocks.
Four companies in Abu Dhabi raised their limits for foreign investors during the first half, including Methaq Takaful Insurance, which increased its cap from 25 per cent to 40 per cent.
Agthia, which owns the Al Ain water brand, and property developer Wahat Al Zaweya raised their limits from zero to 49 per cent.
Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, the largest Sharia-compliant lender in the emirate, raised its limit from 25 per cent to 40 per cent.
The bourse is working closely with listed companies and Mr Al Mansouri expects “at least the same number” of companies to ease restrictions for foreign investors in the second half.
Currently, foreign investors can invest in 55 companies, or about 80 per cent of listed entities on the ADX.
“We are looking at foreign ownership limits as a journey,” he said. “It is not just the trend in the UAE, it is a global trend.”
UK investors represented the largest segment of foreign investors, trading about Dh5.2bn of shares in the first half of the year.
Those from the US and Luxembourg traded shares worth Dh4.1bn and Dh1.2bn, respectively, the ADX said.
About 1,500 new retail investors, or 87 per cent of the total, joined the exchange during the first half.
Traded value in the period stood at Dh40.7bn in the first half while total market capitalisation at the end of June fell to Dh494.6bn, down from Dh519.9bn a year ago.
“The year-on-year decrease was inevitable in view of Covid-19 and was similar to the experience of other exchanges around the world,” the ADX said.
However, the exchange’s market capitalisation received a significant boost in July after the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company merged its energy and water assets with most of Abu Dhabi Power’s portfolio companies.
The transaction added more than Dh100bn, or 20 per cent, to the ADX’s market capitalisation, which increased to Dh607bn.
The exchange, Mr Al Mansouri said, is working with all stakeholders to continue building an “increasingly international capital market”.
“We can’t predict when the world will turn the corner but there are significant grounds for optimism in Abu Dhabi and at [the] ADX,” he said.
“Our performance so far this year shows that we are as well placed, as any exchange in the world, to enable investors to take advantage of improving market conditions, by increasing access, liquidity and the range of products available.”
Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week
Company Profile
Founder: Omar Onsi
Launched: 2018
Employees: 35
Financing stage: Seed round ($12 million)
Investors: B&Y, Phoenician Funds, M1 Group, Shorooq Partners
Joker: Folie a Deux
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Todd Phillips
Rating: 2/5
The most expensive investment mistake you will ever make
When is the best time to start saving in a pension? The answer is simple – at the earliest possible moment. The first pound, euro, dollar or dirham you invest is the most valuable, as it has so much longer to grow in value. If you start in your twenties, it could be invested for 40 years or more, which means you have decades for compound interest to work its magic.
“You get growth upon growth upon growth, followed by more growth. The earlier you start the process, the more it will all roll up,” says Chris Davies, chartered financial planner at The Fry Group in Dubai.
This table shows how much you would have in your pension at age 65, depending on when you start and how much you pay in (it assumes your investments grow 7 per cent a year after charges and you have no other savings).
|
Age
|
$250 a month
|
$500 a month
|
$1,000 a month
|
|
25
|
$640,829
|
$1,281,657
|
$2,563,315
|
|
35
|
$303,219
|
$606,439
|
$1,212,877
|
|
45
|
$131,596
|
$263,191
|
$526,382
|
|
55
|
$44,351
|
$88,702
|
$177,403
|
More on Turkey's Syria offence
PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
THE SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Power: 110 horsepower
Torque: 147Nm
Price: From Dh59,700
On sale: now
Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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UAE players with central contracts
Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Rameez Shahzad, Shaiman Anwar, Adnan Mufti, Mohammed Usman, Ghulam Shabbir, Ahmed Raza, Qadeer Ahmed, Amir Hayat, Mohammed Naveed and Imran Haider.
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
AUSTRALIA SQUAD
Tim Paine (captain), Sean Abbott, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner
Analysis
Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
Three tips from La Perle's performers
1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.
2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.
3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Eco%20Way%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20December%202023%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Ivan%20Kroshnyi%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%2C%20UAE%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Electric%20vehicles%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Bootstrapped%20with%20undisclosed%20funding.%20Looking%20to%20raise%20funds%20from%20outside%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Global Fungi Facts
• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally
• Only about 160,000 have been officially described leaving around 90% undiscovered
• Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity
• Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
- 2018: Formal work begins
- November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
- November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
- October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
- November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
More on animal trafficking
The specs
Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
Power: 271 and 409 horsepower
Torque: 385 and 650Nm
Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000
