GF
Company: Reuters
REVIEW MY CV: I have been searching fruitlessly for a job in Dubai for nearly four years
Another brave candidate has put their CV forward for critique by the eFinancialCareers community. Please, read this person’s job hunting story and offer tips on what they can do to improve their CV. I’ve been working in various middle office roles within large investment banks in the UK for over seven years and am keen [...]
UBS has INCREASED its headcount in the MENA region by 21%
UBS has just released its Q2 results and they’re not good; net profit has fallen by nearly 50%. Cost cutting is coming (by up to $2.5bn over the next two to three years) and inevitably this means big redundancies. Within its relatively diminutive MENA team, however, there are reasons to believe that overall headcount will [...]
Arguably the safest banks to work for in the Middle East across M&A, ECM and DCM
Times are tough for investment bankers working in the Middle East. The total fee pot has fallen by nearly 50% on last year, according to new Thomson Reuters figures, and the first half of 2010 was hardly a stellar period. As we’ve mentioned previously, there are already mutterings about redundancies within the relatively small regional [...]
Expat ‘dead wood’ beware the coming cull in Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi is rolling out an old trick to create jobs for Emiratis – laying off expats. While this is so-far believed to be confined to the public sector, financial services could soon be affected. A new Emiratisation drive in Abu Dhabi is, according to a report on Reuters, being sanctioned by the Executive Council, [...]
REVIEW MY CV: Should I stay, or should I go back to Europe?
I’ve been spontaneously applying to just about every institution in the UAE and Bahrain, looking for a relationship manager role within an asset manager. After five months, I’ve managed to secure interviews within six different entities, but – despite making the shortlist – have not been offered any positions. I have 18 months experience as [...]
Can UBS afford to start ambitiously expanding in the Middle East?
Despite a number of high-profile hires in the Middle East in recent months, UBS has still not taken an all guns blazing approach to recruitment. Staff numbers in the MENA region now stand at 139, according to its third quarter results which is a 9% increase on Q2, but largely in line with headcount at [...]
Signs that DCM will soon be THE hot area in Gulf investment banking
The GCC’s debt capital markets (DCM) are beginning to heat up again. Last year was very good for DCM in the Gulf, with bond sales in the region more than trebling 2008 levels to $42bn, according to figures from Dealogic. So far this year, that level has shrunk to $17.1bn. But a flurry of new [...]
Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, UBS and BNP Paribas: the places to (currently) be in Middle Eastern M&A
Contrary to previous reports on Middle Eastern M&A activity, new figures from Thomson Reuters suggest 2010 has actually been a very good year so far. Middle East targeted M&A reached $15bn in the third quarter, which amounts to ten times the (admittedly pitiful) levels at that point in 2009. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said [...]
Should M&A bankers in the Gulf be worried about job security?
After a brief flurry of activity in the first quarter of this year, M&A activity in the Gulf is once again making spluttering sounds. And, after such a long period in the doldrums, should M&A bankers in the region be concerned about their employment prospects? Middle East M&A deal-making amounted to nearly $4bn in the [...]
A set-back for Saudi’s appeal
A poor second quarter for large Saudi investment banks and muted M&A activity during the first half of 2010 suggests that the kingdom may in fact not be the best place for regional bankers to base themselves. Arab National Bank, Samba Financial Group, Saudi Investment Bank, Riyad Bank and HSBC’s Saudi subsidiary SABB have all [...]
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