Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of Barclays Bank PLC and one of the leading investment banks in the Middle East, today announced 11 appointments for its Middle East operations.
Since spring 2004, Barclays Capital has continued to significantly expand the resources it has devoted to the Middle East, bringing the firm's expertise in debt financing and risk management to the region. Mr Cyrus Ardalan, Vice Chairman and Head of Middle East, Central Europe, Russia and North Africa Investment Banking at Barclays Capital, commented:
'I am delighted to announce such a large number of senior appointments to the Barclays Capital Middle East team. These appointments are a significant boost to our footprint in the Middle East in addition to our recent announcement of expansion into Qatar with the successful grant of our licence to operate from the Qatar Financial Centre in Doha. The expanded team will also allow us to further capitalise on the large number of high profile transactions Barclays Capital has been involved with to date in this market, such as the pre-IPO Sukuk transaction for Dubai Ports which remains the largest Sukuk to date. In the past weeks alone we have also been awarded bookrunner roles for key strategic projects in Qatar, including the upstream LNG transaction Qatargas 4 and phase 1 of the $7.3 billion QGTC (Nakilat) LNG Tanker financing, as well as designated book runners on a large number of new transactions in the UAE including National bank of Dubai tier 2 capital issue and the leveraged buyout of Travelodge.
Mr Des Byrne, Head of Sales for Emerging Europe, Middle East & Africa, added:
"Building up our Middle East franchise has been one of Barclays Capital's key objectives for 2006. We have expanded the sales team in line with our strategy and by bringing in the best talent to work with our Middle East clients." The new recruits will be based in Dubai and London and will cover all major product areas. "We have added greatly to our equity and fund derivatives capability, both in conventional and Islamic format, and have strenghened the fixed income team across the board. The new team, headed by old Barclays hand Ramin Shayesteh and new hire Harry Martin, currently totals 13 sales professionals which we hope to add to shortly" he added.
Details of the new sales hires:
- Harry Martin, Director & Co-Head of Middle East & North Africa
- Arnaud Hatte, Associate Director
- Francisco Pizarro, Associate Director
- Lana Matta, Associate Director
- Daniel Faddoul, Executive
- Kamal Benkabbou, Executive
- Khiery Sammakieh, Executive
Details of the new investment banking appointments based in the DIFC:
- Arul Kandasamy, Director, Investment Banking, Financing Solutions
- Karim El-Nagdy, Director, Investment Banking
- John Oberman, Associate Director, Investment Banking
- Mehdi Al Amine Fichtali, Manager, Investment Banking, Risk Advisory
In addition to these new hires, a number of senior transfers to the Dubai based team have also taken place:
- Jean Marc Lejeune, Director, Investment Banking, Financing Solutions
- Gary Deegan, Associate Director, Investment Banking
This investment by Barclays Capital represents a significant increase in the Barclays Group investments to its Middle East operations. As part of this effort and commitment to the region Cyrus Ardalan will also be relocating to Dubai. Moreover, Barclays has also recently announced the appointment of a number of new senior hires, also based in Dubai.
About Barclays Bank PLC
Barclays PLC is a major global financial services provider engaged in retail and commercial banking, credit cards, investment banking, wealth management and investment management services. We are one of the largest financial services companies in the world by market capitalisation. Operating in over 60 countries and employing over 118,000 people, we move, lend, invest and protect money for over 25 million customers and clients worldwide. With over 300 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays PLC has six major businesses.
UK Banking delivers banking products and services to over 14 million retail customers and 641,000 businesses in the UK.
Barclaycard is one of the leading credit card businesses in Europe, and has 11.2 million UK customers and 5.3 million international cards issue.
Barclays Capital, the investment banking division, provides corporate, institutional and government clients with solutions to their financing and risk management needs.
Barclays Global Investors is one of the world’s largest asset managers and a leading provider of investment management products and services. The total assets under management at June 30, 2006 were $1.6 trillion.
Barclays Wealth serves affluent, high net worth and intermediary clients worldwide, providing private banking, asset management, stockbroking, offshore banking, wealth structuring and financial planning services. At June 30, 2006, total client assets were £84.7 billion.
Global Retail and Commercial Banking has over 2 million international clients, in geographies which currently include France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, India, Africa and the Middle East. Absa has an additional 8.0 million retail customers in South Africa.
About Barclays in the Middle East
Barclays has been present in the United Arab Emirates for over 30 years where it operates three distinct strategic business units covering the Middle East and North Africa region: Barclays Capital, Barclays Global Retail and Commercial banking and Barclays Wealth.
About Barclays Capital
Barclays Capital is the investment banking division of Barclays Bank PLC, which has an AA rating and a balance sheet of over £986 billion. With a distinctive business model, Barclays Capital provides large corporates, government and institutional clients with solutions to their financing and risk management needs. Barclays Capital has offices in 26 countries, employs over 10,500 people and has the global reach and distribution power to meet the needs of issuers and investors worldwide. In January 2005, Barclays Capital received recognition from two of the finance industry’s most prestigious publications by being named IFR magazine’s ‘Bank of the Year’ and Risk magazine’s ‘Derivatives House of the Year’; and in November 2005, Financial News magazine awarded Barclays Capital ‘European Investment Bank of the Year’ in their annual Awards for Excellence. In addition, Barclays Capital ranked No.1 for Capital Raising in Euromoney’s 2005 Capital Raising Survey.
In the Middle East, Barclays Capital is licensed to operate from the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), having opened its office in the landmark Gate Building on 3 July 2005. Since spring 2004, Barclays Capital has significantly expanded the resources devoted to the Middle East, bringing the firm’s expertise in debt financing and risk management to the region. The Barclays Capital team in the Middle East & North Africa region is headed by Cyrus Ardalan.
For further information about Barclays Capital, please visit our website www.barclayscapital.com.
