OIA announces completion of joint deal to sell a strategic stake in Dubai Mercantile Exchange to Saudi Tadawul Group

Muscat: The Oman Investment Authority (OIA) announced the completion of a joint deal to sell a strategic stake in the Dubai Energy Exchange to the Saudi Tadawul Group, while maintaining its position as a major shareholder in cooperation with other major shareholders in the stock exchange.

With the completion of the transaction procedures, the Saudi Tadawul Group will officially join the Oman Investment Authority, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group, Dubai Holding, and a number of international institutions in the financial and commercial sectors as major shareholders in the Dubai Mercantile Exchange Holding Company.

It is hoped that this deal will result in changing the name of the Dubai Mercantile Exchange to become the “Gulf Commodity Exchange”, so that the new name reflects the strategic direction in strengthening the position of the exchange globally and expanding the base of commodities traded in it, including various products in the markets of energy, minerals, agricultural commodities, and others, in addition to employing The experience and reach enjoyed by the Saudi Tadawul Group as the largest group specialized in the financial markets sector in the Middle East.

This approach also builds on the position that the stock exchange currently enjoys in trading the Oman crude futures contract there, which is the main contract on the Dubai Energy Exchange and the largest contract of its kind in the world in terms of actual delivery volumes of crude oil, as actual delivery volumes rose from 181 million barrels in in 2022 to 210 million barrels in 2023.

The Omani crude futures contract is the third most important indicator of oil prices in the world, and the most reliable standard in the region, as it is used as a main indicator of oil prices in five of the most important national oil companies in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. Mulham bin Bashir Al-Jarf, Vice President of the Oman Investment Authority, said that the Saudi Tadawul Group’s accession as a new shareholder in the Dubai Mercantile Exchange will add more benefits to the bourse’s business model that has been developed over the past years, stressing that the authority continues to work to achieve more Growth in light of the continuous developments witnessed by the market.

He added in a statement to the Oman News Agency that this partnership embodies an important step in the framework of strengthening the commitment to innovation and excellence and the continuous endeavor to provide promising opportunities for regional and international shareholders in the Dubai Mercantile Exchange and maintain the highest levels of integrity.

It is noteworthy that the Dubai Energy Exchange Limited is a commodity exchange in the field of trading energy contracts in the markets located east of Suez. It was established in 2007 in partnership between the Oman Investment Authority, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group, and Dubai Holding. Since its establishment, the exchange has witnessed the trading of a total of 20 billion barrels of Omani crude oil, and 3 billion barrels were delivered through the actual delivery mechanism approved by the Dubai Energy Exchange Limited during the same period. The stock exchange has gained a distinguished position in the energy trading markets at the global level, as many global financial institutions and energy trading companies, such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Shell, Vitol, and Concord Energy, invest private shares in the stock exchange.