By Dinesh Nair
DUBAI, Sept 16 (Reuters) – Bank of London and The Middle
East (BLME), Britain’s largest stand-alone Islamic bank, plans
to seek a listing on the Nasdaq Dubai bourse next month in what
would be the emirate’s first stock listing for over four years.
The most recent listing on either of Dubai’s stock two
markets occurred in early 2009, when construction firm Drake
Scull listed. The global financial crash and Dubai’s
corporate debt crisis then intervened, pushing the markets down
sharply and freezing most equity issuance.
Dubai property prices have rebounded this year and the
emirate’s main stock index is up 64 percent
year-to-date. This has prompted at least several companies to
consider listings; in addition, the Dubai government said this
year it would make a big effort to develop its Islamic finance
sctor.
“BLME believes that this is the right time for listing given
the current market conditions and the increasingly prominent
role of Dubai in Islamic finance,” BLME said in a statement on
Monday.
Chief executive Humphrey Percy said he expected the listing
to occur in October this year.
BLME said it would list in Dubai through a holding company,
offering 195.7 million shares in the holding firm at an expected
listing price of $2.57 each, implying a share sale worth $503
million.
No new shares would be issued; the shares would be sold by
existing holders, who would receive 25 shares in the holding
company for each BLME share.
BLME, which offers corporate banking and wealth management
services, was founded in 2006 with the backing of Kuwaiti
investors, including Boubyan Bank which held 21.8
percent of BLME shares as of December 2012.
Percy told Reuters in an interview in May that his bank was
aiming for 15 percent growth in assets this year. It currently
holds over $100 million in assets under management across a
range of Islamic funds, including a fixed income fund rated A by
Moody’s Investors Service.
BLME has just opened a representative office in Dubai, which
it said would help the bank expand its business in Gulf Arab
countries as well as in Britain.
Nasdaq Dubai, set up in 2005 and two-thirds owned by Dubai
Financial Market, is by far the smallest and least
liquid of the emirate’s two stock markets. It has only seven
listed equities, despite regulations and infrastructure that
comply with international standards.
Dubai Financial Market, the main stock market, is the only
listed bourse operator in the Middle East.