Having grown up in the United Arab Emirates in the 90s, I've personally seen the growth of NMC / UAE Exchange along with other firms (GEMS Education Group, the Lulu Group, Danube etc.) that are giant corporate entities. This story arc isn't going to be the last of what we see from firms that saw such growth. One of the biggest hurdles with such firms listing in public stock markets internationally is the lack of corporate accountability / governance in their home markets. As much as I'd hate to say it, building and growing companies in tax havens such as Dubai helps them only to develop corporate cultures to brush off problems under the rug that come to bite them later. Because they don't have to pay taxes, there isn't a government entity they need to be held accountable to. One of the few reasons where having an income / corporate tax system might just help public shareholders. As always, this is all anecdotal.