Xinhua, Dubai :
Following a three-day holiday marking the Islamic Eid ul-fitr, the Dubai financial market (DFM) resumed trading with solid gains Thursday after Dubai-based developer Damac Properties said it plans to list shares on the bourse.
The DFM general index closed two percent higher at 4,833.24 points on Thursday, marking the first trading day after a three-day halt in trading on the occasion of the Eid holidays to observe the end of the Islamic month of Ramadan.
The sentiment picked up on news that Damac Properties would eye listing its global depository receipts (GDR) that are currently floated the London stock exchange on the DFM, Dubai.
Following reports earlier this year in April that Damac ordered a number investment banks to examine a going public in Dubai would make sense, the developer of luxury residential property and commercial real estate in the sheikhdom, local daily Gulf news reported earlier today. Damac floated the GDR scheme on the London stock market in Dec.2013 at a price of 12.25 dollar each.
Each Damac GDR can be exchanged since midday Wednesday into 23. 08 ordinary shares to be listed at the DFM. GDR holders have time to accept the offer until Sept. 2, 2014. The executive chairman of Damac Hussein Sajwani will retain the majority stake in Damac.
Once listed, Damac would be among the top 10 listed shares at the Dubai bourse DFM in relation to market capitalization. The move Damac occurs during a positive market environment.
Damac’s market capitalization stands at 3.5 billion dollar. The firm which developed the twin tower project park tower in Dubai’s financial district earned in the first quarter of 210 million dollar, 79 per cent more than in the same period last year.
Earlier in the day, Arjuna Mahendran, the chief investment officer said real estate developers in the United Arab Emirates ( UAE) boast a doubling of annual net income, while the average net income growth of UAE banks has been in the high teens. “This should keep the market on a longer term positive trajectory.”
