Topaz Energy a test of Nasdaq Dubai's big-league ambition

There is a fresh challenge looming for Nasdaq Dubai and its eternally optimistic chief executive, Jeff Singer.

As if he didn't have enough on his plate already, what with the Egyptian fallout in regional markets, delicate merger negotiations with other UAE exchanges and ongoing regulatory issues, Mr Singer is going to have to try to tempt Topaz back to the table in Dubai.

Topaz Energy and Marine, that is. The oil services company based in Dubai is considering a stock exchange listing, and, while nothing has been formally decided, it looks as though the London Stock Exchange (LSE) will be the market it chooses for an initial public offering (IPO) that could value it at as much as £500 million (Dh2.94 billion).

Put bluntly, if Topaz goes for London rather than Dubai, it will be another setback for Mr Singer's plans to make the market a regional financial hub. After the debacle of Axiom Telecom's cancelled IPO late last year, and with DP World still on course to seek a London listing in the spring, Mr Singer badly needs a win.

On the face of it, you would have thought Topaz looked a natural for a listing in the emirate. Its headquarters are in the city and it has an association with the UAE going back to 1973, with significant operations in Fujairah and Abu Dhabi. Simultaneously, it is increasingly an internationally oriented company, with operations in the Caspian region and plans to expand its comparatively modest businesses in west Africa and Brazil. Geographically, Dubai looks a more suitable location than London.

Topaz used to have a listing on the Muscat exchange in Oman until the company was taken over in 2005 by Renaissance Services, a holding company based in the sultanate. Now Renaissance wants to realise some of the value from its biggest revenue generator.

Oil services is a sector whose time has come, according to analysts, and not just because of the rising price of crude. Projects that were put on hold after the explosion on BP's Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico last year are now coming back on stream.

In any case, Topaz, which specialises in shallow-water operations, such as in the Arabian Gulf, as well as onshore services, is unlikely to feel any of the possible backlash against deepwater offshore operations.

For all these reasons, Topaz would be a welcome addition to the Nasdaq Dubai board. I am told that Mr Singer is aware of its attractions and is on the case, although it is unclear what the status is of any contacts between the market and the company, or its adviser, JP Morgan Cazenove.

A couple of weeks back, Nasdaq Dubai announced a package of measures designed to make it easier for IPOs to come to the market with a large retail element. It was another step in Mr Singer's long but only partly successful campaign to attract trading volume to the market.

One little-noticed element of those reforms - the first since the market was set up in 2005, if you exclude last summer's semi-merger with the Dubai Financial Market - was a provision aimed specifically at oil, gas and other extractive industries.

Any that list on Nasdaq Dubai have to publish quarterly reports of exploration and production activities, as is the case with most international exchanges, in the interests of transparency. The changes could have been custom-made for Topaz.

Not that the company needs any lessons in good corporate governance, by all accounts. Those familiar with its boardroom personnel and procedures have nothing but praise. "I can't think of a regional company I'm more impressed with," was the comment of one executive involved with Topaz.

"Levels of transparency and governance are gold standard," said an adviser.

And there, perhaps, is the rub. It looks as though Topaz, under Fazel Fazelbhoy, its chief executive, has thought about a potential IPO long and hard, and a while back adopted standards that would satisfy the demanding requirements of the LSE.

The appointment of JP Morgan Cazenove, which has all the London market expertise in the world, is another clue.

And there are some persuasive arguments why Topaz should go for London rather than Dubai. Oil and gas services form a well-traded and active sector on the LSE, where Topaz would be able to compare itself to and compete for capital funding with the heavyweights of the industry.

All the mergers and acquisitions activity in the industry is focused on London, as the recent £600m takeover of PSN by the John Wood Group demonstrated. The analysts talk of a round of consolidation in a fragmented but maturing sector. Some London-quoted oil services groups saw share price rises well above the 50 per cent mark in the past year.

So the odds are that Mr Singer will not be able to lure Topaz away from the attractions of a big-ticket IPO in London. But he is right to try. Nasdaq Dubai must show it is in with at least a fighting chance for the big flotations if it is to retain regional credibility.

fkane@thenational.ae