Abu Dhabi plans to showcase some of its biggest listed companies in London and New York next month to encourage foreign investment to the Gulf’s best performing bourse, the exchange’s acting general manager said.

Companies including Aldar Properties ADLR.AD, Sorouh Real Estate SOR.AD and Oasis Leasing Co. OILC.AD will be among ten meeting institutional investors in the first such marketing trip arranged by the bourse of the Middle East’s fourth-largest oil producer, Rashed Al Baloushi told Reuters on Thursday.

‘The Abu Dhabi Securities Market is trying to attract foreign investors, especially institutional investors,’ Baloushi said. ‘Our aim is to show opportunities of investing in Abu Dhabi and to attract foreign institutions.’

The companies, which have been invited in part on the basis of their openness to foreign ownership, will meet asset- and pension-fund managers, including clients of HSBC Holdings Plc HSBA.L, a bourse official told Reuters earlier on Thursday. The official did not want to be identified.

Aldar, 40 percent of which is open to foreign ownership, is Abu Dhabi’s biggest real estate developer by market value. Its shares have almost doubled this year, outperforming the main index .ADI by 60 percent. Foreigners own less than 8 percent of the company, according to the latest bourse data.

The Dubai Financial Market Co. DFM.DU, owner of the Dubai bourse, arranged a similar marketing trip to London this month that included presentations from companies such as Emaar Properties EMAR.DU -- the largest Arab real estate developer by market value -- and Dubai Islamic Bank DISB.DU.

That helped fuel a rally in the index .DFMGI, which has risen 22.4 percent since touching a 2007 low on April 3.

‘Ten companies listed in Abu Dhabi representing key sectors like real estate, banking and others are participating in the roadshow in London and New York,’ Baloushi said.

Abu Dhabi-based Emirates Telecommunications Corp. ETEL.AD (Etisalat), the third-largest Arab telecom company by market value, will not participate, Baloushi said. Etisalat does not allow foreign ownership.

HSBC said in a research report last week that Gulf Arab markets are ‘extremely attractive -- cheap stocks, large current-account surpluses and strong growth.’

HSBC prefers Abu Dhabi over neighbouring Dubai because it is ‘at a much more favourable stage of the property market cycle,’ according to the May 25 report, which gave Gulf Arab markets an ‘overweight’ recommendation.

‘The bloc remains our strongest positive call’ among emerging markets, and in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, HSBC said.

Ronald Barrott, chief executive of Aldar, and Mounir Haidar, CEO of Sorouh Real Estate, could not immediately be reached for comment.