The state of Qatar has agreed to sell 25 percent of the Doha Securities Market to NYSE Euronext for $250 million in a bid to become the booming region's financial hub and extend global links. Transatlantic bourse NYSE Euronext - which comprises the New York Stock Exchange and several leading European bourses - said on Tuesday the deal was its largest-ever investment in a foreign exchange.
Qatar will retain a 75 percent majority ownership of the Doha Securities Market (DSM) and plans to sell a minority stake in the DSM in a domestic initial public offering within the next three years. "This partnership lays the foundations for us to build Doha into a world class financial centre," Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al-Thani said in a statement.
"Our country's financial markets will be an integral part of a group which links together the world's major trading centres across the US and Europe and now the Middle East," he added. Western exchanges are looking to boost their presence in booming emerging markets amid a slowdown in European and American economies.
The Doha deal comes as the oil-rich region plays an increasingly active role in exchange consolidation among global stock market operators. Qatar, with a population of one million and the world's biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas, last September bid for shares in Nordic bourse operator OMX AB and the London Stock Exchange, as Dubai looked to close a $4.9 billion three-way merger with Nasdaq Stock Market and OMX.
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