Introducing Paul Webb-Jones, Managing Director of Computershare Dubai, in a new, regular column reporting on the latest market news from the region…

It’s May and the Middle East is starting to hot up again in many ways; both in terms of the temperature and corporate finance. 
 
The number of friendly bids coming from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries focusing on undervalued assets in Latin America, North America and Europe is increasing. For example, deals such as IPIC’s (Abu Dhabi) bid on Nova Chemicals (Canada); IPIC's 32.5% stake in Cepsa (Spain); TAQA (Abu Dhabi) looking at Canadian Oil Sands ventures; Qatar looking at German Autos; Textron (USA) being targeted by a UAE & Kuwaiti consortium; and finally Istithmar (Dubai) sees attractive valuations in Latin America with ports a focus.

IPO business is still dormant with a few listings happening in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Dubai - all companies that raised funds back in the summer of 2008 and had to list now. Vodafone Qatar is currently raising funds and everyone is interested to see how well that will go; it’s only open to Qatar nationals initially, with foreign investors able to trade a few months after the initial listing.

The pipeline of IPO's in GCC is mounting. This week Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange CEO Tom Healy said there are 40 companies with the local regulator looking to raise funds, and the CEO of NASDAQ Dubai sees IPOs taking off in 2010.

The GCC central banks have issued more debt to support their economies and this has made big news; headlines from Bloomberg include, ‘Kuwait Central Bank to Offer Treasury Bonds Worth $275 Million’, ‘Abu Dhabi to set up Government Debt Office’, ‘UAE buys $10 Billion Dubai Bonds to Help Fund Debt, a further $10 billion is available if required’.

Finally, other interesting stories are that Tehran has opened its door to foreign investors and that we expect a lot of consolidation in the local real estate and finance sectors in the coming months.

Thanks for reading - more will follow from the sunny shores of Dubai in the next edition of Forefront.

paul.webb-jones@computershare.co.uk