Dubai Financial Market starts trading

The listing ceremony was also 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 too graced the occasion.

DFM Company is the 50th company to list its shares on the market. The company's shares began trading on Wednesday (March 7, 2007) under the trading symbol 'DFM' that will henceforth appear on the screens, trading systems and publications. The company is 8th within the 'Investment & Financial Services' sector. The trading of DFM shares comes close on the heels of the Emirates Securities & Commodities Authorities giving a green signal last week.

Speaking on the occasion, His Excellency Abdullah Salem Al-Turifi, Chief Executive Officer of Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority praised the step taken by DFM to go IPO and considered it as one of the corner stones of further reforms in the UAE's financial market. 'Listing itself is a value addition to all public joint-stock companies who would like to comply with all prevailing rules and regulations. A listing certainly adds more credibility and reinforces a special status in the market. DFM's successful debut is a signal listing for other financial institutions and intermediaries who should take a leaf out of it,' he said.

He added: 'The UAE capital markets have an integrated and high-tech infrastructure that facilitates transparency, disclosure and corporate governance. In this respect, the UAE capital market is fast emerging as an attractive destination for investors across the world.'

Essa Kazim, Chairman of DFM said:

'The response generated from across the world for DFM's IPO has put that extra responsibility on all of us at DFM. Today with the start of trading of shares, we have entered a new era for DFM as a company. DFM will always be looked beyond providing depth to the market and an alternate portfolio investment to investors. In this context, it will be our endeavour to further improve our performance and go that extra mile in providing value to all our stakeholders.'

DFM's paid up capital is AED 8 billion consisting of as many shares. The company recently launched its Initial Public Offering (IPO) and offered 20 per cent or 1.6 billion shares to the public.

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.

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.