Financial centres: Dubai’s gain is Beirut’s brain drain

Lebanon’s economy is crumbling. Its public debt is breaking new world records. It has been teetering on the brink of civil war for the past 10 months. But none of this has stopped Dubai-based Shuaa Capital, one of the Middle East’s leading investment banks, opening a branch this September in Beirut. Why?

According to Mahdi Mattar, chief economist at Shuaa Capital, and himself a Lebanese national, Shuaa is not, for the moment at least, interested in taking advantage of any particular capital-raising or advisory opportunities in Lebanon. Instead, the main purpose of the office, says Mattar, will be to snap up Lebanese banking talent to be exported to Shuaa’s offices elsewhere.

“The office in Beirut will probably be little more than a data centre. The main point of it will be to hire people, and train them up.

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