The UAE’s newest financial free zone, the Abu Dhabi Global Market, is preparing to woo potential tenant companies and has already met with asset managersincluding Aberdeen Asset Management.
Steve Barnett, strategy and business planning director, says although it is in Abu Dhabi’s nature “not to shout about things until they’re real”, ADGM could soon be promoting itself widely.
ADGM released draft financial services legislation this year and says it is on track to process licence applications from financial firms in the fourth quarter.
Barnett, who is interviewed in the forthcoming issue of Funds Global MENA, says the new free zone, which has its own regulations and its own court, and where 100%-foreign owned companies can operate, hopes to become a leading financial hub serving both Europe and Asia.
“We’re looking to be the booking centre that fills the gap between Geneva and Singapore,” he says.
Barnett says the ADGM will be complementary and not in rivalry with the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). Set up in the mid-2000s, the DIFC pioneered the “free zone” concept and was home to 1,225 active licensed companies at the end of 2014, including branches of 21 of the world’s top 25 banks.
The DIFC is about a 90-minute drive away from the new ADGM headquarters, which is on a site formerly known as Sowwah Square on Abu Dhabi’s Al Maryah Island.
In January, ADGM said it had leased the entire building formerly known as Financial Building for its headquarters. The structure was originally built to house the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, which decided not to take occupation because of “technical issues”.
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