HSBC has added 700 staff in the Middle East over the last 12 months
On the face of it, the first half of this year hasn't been fantastic for HSBC's Middle East operations - with profits before tax down 35% on the same period in 2008. However, it's increased headcount in the region by nearly 700 over the same period and is continuing to make some significant hires.
HSBC's H1 2009 profits were $643m in the Middle East, compared to $990m this time last year. Massive increases in impaired loans - from $41m to $391m - at both a personal and commercial level, combined with deteriorating economic conditions in the GCC, contributed to the slump.
In spite of this, the bank has been expanding. It now employs 8,819 people in the Middle East, compared to 8,166 in the first half of 2008. But HSBC says "further increases were restricted across most of the region in response to the current economic environment".
Last week, the bank revealed that it had hired Kaveh Samie from Citigroup to become head of equities for the Middle East region. This follows on from a string of internal transfers to the GCC in July, including Simon Vaughn Johnson as regional head of commercial banking and Jody Sanderson as director of global banking in Qatar.
HSBC has been building its Doha team since the beginning of this year, and also brought in Simon Cooper in March as chief executive of its Middle East operations.
In April, following its first quarter results, HSBC said it intended to generate 15% of total revenue from the Middle East this year. It currently stands at 12%.
Both Barclays and HSBC reported their first half results yesterday to kick-start a week of interim results from major European banks. They were largely following the same pattern as the large US firms - with investment banking divisions dragging up profits - but HSBC was badly hit by a $1.7bn loss within its US consumer lending business.
Barclays doesn't highlight the Middle East in its results, but did mention a "significantly increased" retail impairment in the UAE.
It has also just appointed Bret Packard in the newly created role of managing director, Premier and liabilities for its global retail and commercial banking (GRCB) emerging markets.
