Dubai’s Damac Jumps on First Trading Day in Home Market

12/01/2015 09:42 AST

Damac Properties Dubai Co., the developer working with Tiger Woods and Donald Trump on a golf course in Dubai, rose in debut trading in the emirate.

Damac climbed 15 percent to 3.2 dirhams at 10:05 a.m. local time. The company received regulatory approval to list in Dubai last month and offered to exchange each London-listed global depository receipt, known as GDRs, for 23.077 ordinary shares in Dubai until Jan. 9. The stock declined 11 percent in London last year compared with a 2.7 percent drop in the FTSE 100 Index. (UKX)

“Many of these companies that went and looked for international recognition through listings in London are coming back amid low trading volumes there,” Mohammed Ali Yasin, managing director of NBAD Securities LLC in Abu Dhabi, said by phone. “They are finding out that people who will pay premiums for the shares are those who are familiar with it in its home market.”

Damac began trading in London in December 2013 and was followed by Abu Dhabi-based Gulf Marine Services Plc, whose shares plunged more than 20 percent since their debut trade in March. Dubai’s DFM General Index (DFMGI) was the world’s best performer among more than 90 gauges tracked by Bloomberg for the first five months of last year until it was caught up in a regional sell off in June and tumbling oil prices in the second-half of 2014. The emirate’s shares decreased 0.1 percent today.

The Dubai-based property developer is building Hollywood-themed apartment towers, a golf course and villas branded by Trump to tap into Dubai’s popularity as a tourist destination. The company said third-quarter profit more than doubled to $224.3 million as it completed properties in the sheikhdom.

Bloomberg