Commerce One Middle East Distributor Operations, the regional distributor for Commerce One Inc, appears to be bucking the trend in the face of declining international markets.

Commerce One Middle East investors, approving a second-round financing for growth and acquisition, agreed to issue an additional 4.2 million shares in view of the company's good performance over the last nine months, according to the company.

"Based on the current deployment schedule, Commerce One Middle East sees exponential growth as local companies and governments seek efficient and effective procurement processes," a company spokesman said, adding that the deployment of regional market sites was creating major opportunities for local systems integrators and professional service organisations.

Investors such as the Jordanian air express company Aramex have seen the value of their investments double in the nine-month period, according to COO Hazem Melhas.

Commerce One Middle East, which was launched in the first quarter of 2000 with an initial capitalisation of US$12 million, will go online this year with the region's first e-commerce exchanges and portals in the GCC, Egypt, the Maghreb, Turkey and the Levant.

Dubai-based Commerce One Middle East Distributor Operations is Commerce One's sole distributor and regional MarketSite portal operator in the Middle East.

Commerce One is headquartered in Pleasanton, California, and has offices around the world.