Abu Dhabi to showcase 11 firms in London and New York

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi will showcase companies including its largest bank in London and New York this month to encourage foreign investment in the Gulf's best performing bourse, the emirate's exchange said on Saturday.

Eleven companies, including National Bank of Abu Dhabi NBAD.AD and Abu Dhabi National Energy TAQA.AD (Taqa), the exchange's largest energy firm, will join the marketing trip arranged by the bourse of the Middle East's fourth-largest oil producer and HSBC Holdings (HSBA.L).

"This is the first time that the Abu Dhabi market has gone to London and New York," Rashed al-Baloushi, the exchange's acting director general, said in a statement. "We are seeing increasing interest in the region from investors in the West, and this roadshow will strengthen that trend."

The companies, invited in part on the basis of allowing foreign ownership, will meet asset and pension-fund managers, including clients of HSBC, a bourse official, who asked not to be named told Reuters on Thursday. Meetings will be held on June 11-12 in London and June 14-15 in New York.

Taqa, which has not opened its shares to foreign ownership, has said it would buy $6 billion (3 billion pounds) of assets in 2007, taking its investments to $20 billion, as Abu Dhabi seeks to use record oil income last year to diversify its sources of revenue.

Aldar Properties ALDR.AD, Abu Dhabi's biggest developer by market value, is 40 percent open to foreign owners and will join the trip. Its stock has almost doubled this year, outperforming the index .ADI by 60 percent. Foreigners own less than 8 percent of its stock, according to the latest bourse data.

Other participating companies include Dana Gas DANA.AD, Qatar Telecommunications Co. QTEL.QAQTEL.AD and Sorouh Real Estate SOR.AD. Sorouh said earlier this year it was considering opening shares to foreign ownership.

INDEX RALLY

The Dubai Financial Market Co. DFM.DU, owner of the Dubai bourse, arranged a similar marketing trip to London this month that included presentations from companies such as Emaar Properties EMAR.DU -- the largest Arab real estate developer by market value -- and Dubai Islamic Bank DISB.DU.

That helped fuel a rally in the index .DFMGI, which has risen 22.4 percent since touching a 2007 low on April 3.

Abu Dhabi-based Emirates Telecommunications (ETEL.AD) (Etisalat), the third-largest Arab telecom company by market value, will not participate, Baloushi said last week. Etisalat does not allow foreign ownership.

HSBC said in a research report last week that Gulf Arab markets are "extremely attractive -- cheap stocks, large current-account surpluses and strong growth."

HSBC prefers Abu Dhabi over neighbouring Dubai because it is "at a much more favourable stage of the property market cycle," according to the May 25 report, which gave Gulf Arab markets an "overweight" recommendation.

"The bloc remains our strongest positive call" among emerging markets, and in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, HSBC said.