Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME), a joint venture between Oman, Dubai and the New York Mercantile Exchange, announced on Monday it has sold a 20 percent stake to several financial institutions and energy traders.
Following approval from DME’s board of directors, the exchange’s new shareholding includes Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Vitol and Royal Dutch Shell. It declined to give the value of the sale.
“We look forward to leveraging these new relationships to expand and diversify our customer base,” Ahmad Sharaf, DME chairman told reporters during a conference call.
He added that the deal will further DME’s growth. “Today’s announcement demonstrates that these global leaders in the financial and energy fields are committed to the next stage of the DME’s growth.”
“We will work with our new partners to develop our product platform,” he said.
The DME launched trading in June 2007 with a sour Middle East crude futures contract, aiming to become the benchmark for pricing in the world’s top oil exporting region.
Its flagship Oman crude oil contract has shown little growth since it was launched.
In March NYMEX agreed to merge with the CME Group Inc, the world’s largest derivatives exchange. According to newswire Reuters, in May one source said the DME would like to push through the stake sale before the CME merger was completed.
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