ROSTRO GROUP POSITIONS THE UAE AS A STRATEGIC HUB FOR INSTITUTIONAL MARKET INFRASTRUCTURE

Exclusive interview with Michael Ayres, Group CEO & Partner at Rostro Group

What strategic factors made the UAE the next major market for Rostro?

The UAE represents a very deliberate choice for us, rather than just a natural expansion step. What sets it apart is the alignment between ambition, regulation, and execution. You have a government that is actively shaping the future of financial services, a regulatory environment that is evolving at pace, and a private sector that is willing to innovate and adopt new models. That combination is rare.

From a strategic standpoint, the UAE sits at the intersection of global capital flows. It connects East and West, and increasingly serves as a base for institutional participants looking to access both developed and emerging markets. We’re seeing a growing presence of hedge funds, family offices, and proprietary trading firms establishing themselves here, which naturally increases demand for more sophisticated infrastructure around liquidity, execution, and risk management.

For Rostro, that is exactly where we operate. We’re not just building products; we’re building infrastructure that supports how modern markets function. The UAE gives us the platform to do that at scale, while remaining close to clients who are actively shaping the next phase of the industry. It’s a market that is not only growing, but evolving, and that makes it an ideal environment for long-term investment.

How is Rostro managing liquidity sourcing in the UAE given the current market environment?

The current market environment has made one thing very clear: liquidity is no longer just about access; it’s about resilience. Periods of volatility, geopolitical uncertainty, and concentrated positioning expose the limitations of traditional liquidity models, particularly those that rely heavily on internalisation or a narrow set of counterparties.

Our approach is to move away from that dependency and towards a more diversified, structured model. We combine OTC liquidity with direct access to exchange-traded markets, allowing us to provide clients with both flexibility and transparency. This is particularly important in volatile conditions, where pricing integrity and execution certainty become critical.

We’re also seeing a clear shift in client behaviour. Institutional participants are becoming more conscious of execution quality, counterparty exposure, and the underlying mechanics of how liquidity is sourced. That is driving increased interest in exchange-traded products, as well as institutional-grade crypto liquidity, where market fragmentation has historically created inefficiencies.

By building infrastructure that brings these elements together – across OTC, exchange-traded derivatives, and digital assets – we’re able to offer a more stable and consistent execution environment. The objective is not just to perform in favourable conditions, but to remain reliable when markets are under pressure.