Swedish exchange and technology group OMX has launched a volley of mud against Borse Dubai, which last month launched an unsolicited $4 billion all-cash bid for OMX, challenging Nasdaq’s $3.7 billion cash-and-share offer, and now former LME boss and current head of Middle East business development for HSBC David King has defended not only the Dubai Borse but the Dubai regulatory regime.
“I think what we’re seeing now can best be described as ‘misinformation’,” he said at the 28th Annual Burgenstock Meeting, this year being held in Montreux, Switzerland. He pointed out that the regulatory practices applied on the 110 acres of the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) meet international best practice standards, and projected astonishing growth for the are through 2010:
“The DIFC opened its doors in September, 2004, and last year we had 5,000 people working there. By the end of this year, that figure will be 12,000. By the end of next year, it will be 27,000; and the year after that, 39,000; and by the end of 2010, 50,000. When I first got involved in 2003, this was sand.”