(Bloomberg) -- A surge in the years since the pandemic has propelled stocks listed in the United Arab Emirates past $1 trillion in market value. Yet behind the dramatic ascent, investors face a complex market heavily dominated by its rulers.
These days, companies linked to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan — one of Abu Dhabi’s two deputy rulers, national security adviser of the UAE and brother to its president — make up at least two-thirds of the weighting on the city’s benchmark index.
The extent of that reach was on show recently. Lulu Retail Holdings this month made its debut on Abu Dhabi’s exchange, marking the UAE’s biggest listing of the year and drawing global names like Vanguard Group Inc. and Singapore’s GIC. A few years ago, an Abu Dhabi wealth fund controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon bought a fifth of the hypermarket chain’s parent firm.
The royal family’s links extend to many other stocks. For instance, the $41 billion Emirates Telecommunications Group Co. counts a sovereign wealth fund chaired by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan as its largest shareholder.
Driven by a surge in tourism, new businesses and the arrival of big name hedge funds, Abu Dhabi’s main index has almost tripled in dollar terms since April 2020, making it one of the world’s best-performing major markets over that period. But analysts and investors say the market’s unusual structure can make it hard to fully assess.
“The expatriate and tourism-driven companies are enjoying red-hot fundamentals, in terms of population growth and visitor arrivals,” said Hasnain Malik, emerging and frontier market strategist at Tellimer.
Still, “companies with related-party shareholders, which are some of the largest by market capitalization, are much more difficult to objectively analyze from the outside looking in,” he said.
A representative for the Abu Dhabi bourse didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Bigger than Goldman
At the center of Sheikh Tahnoon’s empire is International Holding Co., which has jumped more than 400-fold since 2019. At $245 billion, it accounts for about a quarter of the Abu Dhabi bourse’s value and is worth more than Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Walt Disney Co.
That hasn’t enticed many international investors and IHC isn’t covered by analysts tracked by Bloomberg. In an interview earlier this year, IHC’s Chief Executive Officer Syed Basar Shueb said all comers have access to the company, which has directed its brokerage to work with global investors.
The conglomerate has a wide-ranging portfolio: it’s made investments in firms ranging from Rihanna’s lingerie line to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and owns the most active broker on Abu Dhabi’s stock exchange. Meanwhile, ADQ, a fund that Sheikh Tahnoon chairs, oversees the exchange itself.
The sheikh’s holdings go beyond Abu Dhabi. A fund that’s part of his empire was among investors in the 2022 initial public offering of Dubai Electricity & Water Authority that’s now among the city’s biggest listed firms.
At the same time, the Abu Dhabi exchange has also benefited from a string of initial public offerings. Many of these too have links to Sheikh Tahnoon’s empire, including Abu Dhabi Ports Co. PJSC, Pure Health Holding PJSC and Presight AI Holding.
All of that’s helped a market that was once little known overseas surge ahead of Brazil and Spain by size. But volumes haven’t kept pace, still lagging some international markets.
Business friendly policies like low taxes have helped boost the UAE exchanges, according to Junaid Ansari, director of Investment Strategy and Research at Kamco Invest.
Still, increasing the free float of key stocks especially those owned by the government could help attract more international money, he said.
“Follow on offerings, that have remained thin in the region, could also help boost additional foreign capital flows in UAE exchanges.”
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