GF
Sector: Capital markets
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 [...]
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 [...]
A Q&A with Manindra Shrestha, regional head of resourcing, Middle East, Pakistan & Africa at Standard Chartered
Because of its emerging markets focus, it’s not hugely surprising that Standard Chartered has continued to recruit throughout 2010 while most international banks cooled their hiring plans. In the last three months alone, the bank has named Apoorva Shah managing director within its M&A team, recruited a team of people for FICC trading and added [...]
MIDDLE EAST MOLE: Time to put your feet up for the rest of the year
As of last Thursday, the GCC effectively completed its last stretch of any semblance of real work for the rest of the year, the roughly 5-week period between Eid al-Fitr (which marks the end of Ramadan) and Eid al-Adha. Everyone, from bankers trying to wrap up advisory and capital markets mandates, to sales and trading [...]
GUEST COMMENT: Do M&A bankers actually add value?
Earlier this year, Guy Kawasaki, the US venture capitalist, made the following comment to the New York Times: “With investment banking, you make a lot of money, and you get a distorted feeling of how wonderful you are. You’ll be flying around in corporate jets and you’ll be attending board meetings, but you don’t really [...]
The ever-increasing profile of the DCM banker in the Gulf
Bank lending has been scaled back over the last 12 months, which means more firms have been compelled to turn to the debt capital markets. As a result, investment banks are once again looking to bolster their DCM teams. Companies in the GCC are increasingly using bond issuances to raise finance, so while M&A and [...]
DCM bankers benefiting from lending drought
Debt capital markets (DCM) in the Middle East have continued to defy the downturn this year with companies looking to bonds to shore up their balance sheets as bank lending evaporates. International investment banks have been the main beneficiaries of this business, and now there are signs they’re willing to expand their teams in this [...]
Gulf debt markets booming, but recruitment still paused
Relatively speaking, the debt capital markets in the Middle East are thriving and providing the majority of revenues for investment banks in the region. So, why is there no hiring going on in this sector? Figures from Dealogic reproduced in Financial News show that there have been five deals worth a combined $10.4bn in the [...]
ECM drought hits hiring
The equity capital markets landscape in the Middle East has been particularly arid so far in 2009, and the once-buoyant appetite for hiring has dried up alongside it. Distressing figures from Dealogic show that there have been no ECM deals for over a month – the last one being a $92m share offering by Abyaar [...]
Bye-bye big hitters
Last year, the GCC was able to attract some big hitters as international firms transferred senior bankers in anticipation of greater revenues from the region. Now, Goldman Sachs has moved one back to London. Is this a sign of things to come? Alasdair Warren was co-head of investment banking in the UK at Goldman Sachs [...]
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