Nasdaq Dubai: Dubai Financial Market unveils its interest

New twist in the financial crisis facing the United Arab Emirates. Dubai Financial Market (DFM), the leading Dubai Financial Market announced Tuesday it had launched an offer to acquire Nasdaq Dubai, the second stock market in the emirate, serving as a bridge between the West and Asia.

Way - try - to thumb its nose at Riyadh?

In a statement, the Exchange states that the offer of merger, as 102 million dollars in cash and 40 million shares of DFM, was approved Monday by the Board of Directors.

Nevertheless, the authorities must decide on getting a possible green light.

For this operation, "DFM seeks to restructure in the near future to establish a new holding company. Which would hold if DFM Dubai and Nasdaq both of which continue to operate as two separate markets.

For the record, Nasdaq Dubai is held up by 66.7% by the UAE group Borse Dubai, the balance being owned by Nasdaq OMX.

According to the Director General of Dubai Nasdaq, Jeff Singer, the merger would allow Dubai to "emerge as a powerful financial center for the Council of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Middle East region.

The merger is likely to "further strengthen the role of Dubai as a financial center," said for his part the Chairman of DFM, Essa Kazim.

Recall that the treaty on monetary union, signed in May and ratified by only four of the six GCC countries (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar), provides for the establishment in 2010 of a currency board in Riyadh .. .. and not in Dubai.

The United Arab Emirates have meanwhile withdrawn from the process, as the Sultanate of Oman, and wishing to express their disagreement on the choice of Riyadh as the seat of the future regional central bank. Oman had for his part, said since 2007 it would not be part of the agreement.

The Kuwaiti Finance Minister Mustafa al-Chamali nevertheless hopes that the two countries join "in the near future" monetary union, originally scheduled to take effect in 2010. Nasdaq Dubai: Dubai Financial Market unveils its interest