ADX out to woo Asian investors

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) is seeking to tap the billions of dollars held by Asian investors, in the final stage of its global roadshow 2014.

Top ADX executives and representatives of some of the UAE’s leading companies will meet investors in Singapore and Hong Kong early next month, following successful roadshows in New York and London this year.

Executives from leading ADX blue chips – the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, First Gulf Bank, Aldar, Dana Gas, Agthia (the foods group majority owned by the Senaat conglomerate) and RAK Bank – will attend the roadshows.

They will meet 20 of Asia’s largest investors with assets under management of more than US$55bn. HSBC has helped organise the roadshow.

The visits have been prompted by the upgrade of UAE stock markets to the “emerging market” bracket by the index compilers, MSCI.

Rashed Al Baloushi, the ADX chief executive, said: “This year’s emerging-market classification is the single-most meaningful change for both our capital markets and global EM investors, many of who have been eagerly awaiting to build their positions in our markets.

“Introducing the world’s most-sophisticated emerging market-focused funds to Abu Dhabi’s leading listed companies is the first step towards securing their participation in the future of our equity markets,” he said.

George Elhedery, HSBC’s UAE-based head of global banking and markets, said: “Asia is still the world’s fastest-growing economic bloc. It has tripled its financial wealth since 2001 to just over $80 trillion, and Hong Kong and Singapore act as the gateways to the region’s rapidly maturing capital markets.”

The Asia leg of the global tour by ADX follows a period of volatility in regional and global markets. But the ADX general index is still among the best performers in the world, with a 28 per cent rise over last year.

One financial executive from a big ADX-listed company who attended the US and European legs of the global tour said: “This is an important initiative and we are sending another high-level delegation to Asia. MSCI has been very good for local markets, but I believe it’s better tracked in the west.

“This is a chance to make Asia more acquainted with them. Asian investors, who are dollar-focused and know about the economics of the oil industry, will appreciate the message from ADX in equities and maybe, in future, in the bond market, too.”

He said the visits to New York and London had been very successful. “Normally these roadshows for emerging markets are a bit like speed-dating. But when it’s by a specific entity, like ADX, that tends to grab investor intention.

“With the recent market fluctuations, we have to reinforce the fundamentals – that the UAE and Abu Dhabi are compelling as safe havens in times of global volatility.”

It is estimated that Abu Dhabi companies will have been introduced to investors worth an aggregate of $300bn by the end of the global roadshow.

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