Dubai Financial Market Company to list on March 7

DFM will be the 50th company to list its shares on the market and the trading will commence on Wednesday March 7, 2007.

The listing of ordinary shares of DFM company has been finalized and approved by Emirates Securities & Commodities Authorities. The company's paid up capital is AED 8 billion consisting as many shares and the company recently offered 20 per cent or 1.6 billion shares to the public.

Essa Kazim, Chairman of DFMC said:

'We are pleased to announce the listing of the first stock market in the region and the first Islamic stock market in the world. The listing announcement comes close on the heels of ESCA's approval which is the last leg of the landmark IPO.'

He added: 'Investors will now have the opportunity to add DFM shares to their existing portfolios and have a really diversified basket of investments. The company will be listed under Investment & Financial Services sector.

As a run up to the listing, DFM requests investors who have been allotted DFM shares last month to register the shares with their respective brokers so as to be able to trade the shares.

DFM reported its 2006 profits, operating income and assets. Net profit stood at AED 797.5 million, operating income at AED 789 million and assets at AED 2.35 billion. A total of 16 new companies debuted on DFM in 2006 raising the number of listed companies to 46. These listings served to meet the demands of investors, providing diversified investment options of active and growing companies in the UAE and across the region.

The market also witnessed a record number of international new issues, with 13 overseas companies joining the DFM. DFM's trading volume during 2006 touched 39.6 billion shares and volume of daily traded shares stood at 141.1 million shares. Volume of executed transactions reached 2.4 million and value of traded shares touched AED348 billion.