Borse Dubai, the United Arab Emirates holding company that owns large stakes in the London Stock Exchange and Nasdaq OMX, has turned its focus to Asia for the first time, opening talks with the Taiwan exchange about taking a stake in that market. This move that could pitch it into competition with US and European exchanges, including Nasdaq OMX, which is also reported to be eyeing a stake.

Wu Rong-I, chairman of the Taiwan Stock Exchange, told Bloomberg: “We have had talks with the Dubai exchange. I met the chairman. We want to sign a memorandum of understanding first, and we both want to go further.”