The Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange (ADX) plans to attract companies with total market capitalisation of at least $200 billion in the next two years, according to a London-based magazine.

The companies are expected to apply for initial public offerings when the Abu Dhabi government approves an amendment enabling private companies to list just 30 per cent of their equity, the Middle East Economic Digest (Meed) reported, citing the chief executive.

'Quite a few of the new companies are in real estate, some others will be retail,' Tom Healy told Meed. 'They want to use the markets as a source of funding for
further growth. If you go to a seriously oil-rich economy that wants to turn its oil-based economy into a  non-oil-based economy, you are going to make money,' Healy noted.

The government is expected to privatise more state-owned enterprises, including the stock exchange, according to Healy.

The Abu Dhabi Exchange has launched a series of roadshows in Singapore and Tokyo this year as well as in New York and London last year to help attract foreign investments.

Foreign investments from outside the Middle East in the Abu Dhabi bourse reached Dh3.1 billion ($844 million) in 2006, the acting director-general Rashed al-Baloushi said last year.-Reuters