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"I can think of few places in the world where the client overlap between wealth management, asset management and the investment bank is more obvious"
Alex Wilmot-Sitwell, UBS |
In a bid to boost its presence in a region that is one of its weak spots, it made a number of senior appointments in the Middle East last month. These include a new, Gulf-based, regional chief, Per Larsson. Peter Burnett, Larsson’s predecessor, was based in London.
Until recently, Larsson was chief executive of Borse Dubai and the Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX).
Larsson’s appointment as chief executive for the Middle East and North Africa came just a week after UBS announced that it would double its Middle East investment banking team by the end of the year.
The bank said at the same time that it had been granted a licence to open in Saudi Arabia and that it was applying for a licence to operate in the Qatar Financial Centre. It also said it would move an equity research team to Dubai by the end of the year.
The Saudi team at UBS will start with about 20 people, probably including staff in asset management, in the investment bank, and in wealth management. Its Qatar operation, should it be permitted, will be smaller, with representatives for wealth management, corporate finance and compliance.
The UBS Middle East investment banking team will be based in Dubai, where UBS already has about 50 people in the investment bank.
The wealth management team will be more evenly spread across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain (a state where the bank’s headcount will remain unchanged).
In particular, UBS is looking to build on the strengths it enjoys in wealth management in the region.
"We have a different business mix to other global investment banks. We have the biggest wealth management business in the Middle East by a significant margin," says Alex Wilmot-Sitwell, co-head of global investment banking at the Swiss bank. "There is a huge emphasis on private ownership, on government ownership and sovereign wealth funds [in the Middle East]. I can think of few places in the world where the client overlap between wealth management, asset management and the investment bank is more obvious."
UBS has some of the same enthusiasm, it seems, that was shown by Citi when it moved its co-head of global investment banking, Alberto Verme, to Dubai.
"The Middle East is one of the fastest-growing financial centres on the planet," says Wilmot-Sitwell. "As a region, and a financial centre, irrespective of what happens to the oil price, the Middle East will remain a place of importance."
UBS has a particularly strong wealth management presence in Abu Dhabi, where it has about 40 people covering the business. UBS Global Asset Management has a joint venture with the Abu Dhabi Investment Company to develop, promote and manage infrastructure funds focused on the Middle East and North Africa region. The venture’s first fund, which is worth $500 million, is expected to launch by the end of the year.