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Per Larsson, the chief executive of Borse Dubai, has shrugged off a Swedish regulatory ruling that the Dubai firm had broken regulations when making a bid for OMX, the Nordic exchange operator, saying the Dubai firm had acted in good faith and would push ahead with its bid.
"We have the superior offer. Over the past week we have received positive feedback from shareholders about our bid, not just the money, but the growth potential and complimentary nature of the strategy," Larsson told the Financial Times in an interview.
Larsson, who was chief executive of OMX until 2003, said Borse Dubai would cooperate with the Swedish regulator's probe into whether Dubai is "fit and proper" to take over OMX, as well as the regulators of seven exchanges that OMX operates in the Nordic and Baltic.
First, however, Larsson will have to persuade existing shareholders - which include the Swedish government - that the bid's rationale goes beyond its Nasdaq-trumping $4 billion size.
Former OMX chief Larsson says he is ideally placed to explain to his former employer the advantages of the Dubai bid, which he argues would offer OMX international growth and investment, rather what he describes as Nasdaq's "cost-cutting" approach.
Larsson, who was last year given the job of boosting the fledgling Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX), says the regional expansion with which Borse Dubai plans to entice OMX will focus on the DIFX.
Prospects
The DIFX has not really lit up the regional financial scene since its launch in 2005. While it is home to the greatest value of Islamic bonds and 11 equity listings, it has just one primary listing and scant liquidity.
Larsson will next week launch a structured products market on DIFX. In the future, with OMX's aid, he hopes to launch derivatives and other products. These remain underdeveloped in the region.
"I think shareholders will see our potential - I am very excited with the potential of DIFC and I believe OMX will be excited too," he said, noting that future expansion would be made under the OMX International brand.
Amid the petrodollar boom in the Gulf, the diversified economy of Dubai has grown rapidly.
Financial services, a relative latecomer to Dubai's strategy after trade, commerce and tourism, form a key part of the emirate's plans to triple gross domestic product by 2015.
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