'Dubai has not received offer to sell assets'

Ahmad Al-Tayer, Governor of the Dubai International Financial Centre and member of Dubai's Supreme Fiscal Committee, categorically denied media reports that Dubai has received any offers to sell its financial assets.

A statement issued by the Dubai Government Media Office said Al-Tayer further denied that Borse Dubai had received an offer for the purchase of its shares in London Stock Exchange (LSE), and emphasized that the Borse Dubai was currently not looking to dispose of its investment in LSE.

Al-Tayer reiterated that Borse Dubai had successfully completed an early loan repayment and debt restructuring last week.

Britain's Sunday Times said in an unattributed report on Sunday that Abu Dhabi is in talks to buy a 20 per cent stake in the London Stock Exchange held by Dubai.

Abu Dhabi has not made an offer to buy Dubai financial services assets, which includes the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) for $1.5 billion, the DIFC governor was reported as saying.

"There are no offers from Abu Dhabi," Arabic daily Al Bayan quoted Ahmed Humaid Al Tayer as saying.

"There is nothing on offer to sell," he added.

Tayer said the report was "not true whatsoever."

The LSE stake sale would be part of an Abu Dhabi buyout of Borse Dubai, which owns controlling stakes in local exchanges the Dubai Financial Market and Nasdaq Dubai, the Sunday Times reported, and would follow Borse Dubai's sale of about half of its shares in Nasdaq OMX last week.

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