Why project finance is still a good career bet

The project finance industry in the Middle East has had its fair share of problems over the last year - deal volumes have shrunk, projects have stalled and lending restrictions meant capital was hard to come by.

But the Gulf remains a key player in this sector - projects managed to raise nearly $15bn in 2009, according to data from Dealogic. This year, however, experts are predicting volumes could swell to $30bn, and there are now signs that jobs are emerging once again.

While property suffered markedly in the region, essential infrastructure like roads, power, sewerage and schools as well as industrial projects went ahead, according to analysis by the <a href="https://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/dde93b6e-47e3-11df-b998-00144feab49a.html" target="_blank"FT.

"These are the essential building blocks of healthy economies," Jonathan Robinson, regional head of project finance at HSBC told the newspaper. "The market has slowed significantly from the heated pace of 2006-08, but this is still a huge market, and is likely to soon re-emerge as the world's largest project finance market."

He added that the number of banks willing or able to lend for these projects has diminished and that the secondary market has all but dried up.

Nonetheless, total volumes in the Gulf shrank by just $1.4bn in last year, from $16.4bn in 2008, and this was down from $22.7bn in 2007.

While the sector wasn't entirely immune from redundancies, team sizes have remained relatively stable, suggests James Wakefield, regional director of infrastructure investment headhunters Cobalt Abu Dhabi.

"It's a huge and long-term industry, so project finance teams in the region have largely been held together," he says. "We're beginning to see new roles emerge from some banks, while borrowers are looking for specialists to negotiate deals with the banks. The advisory market is also showing some signs of life."

But with the focus on essential infrastructure and industry projects rather than property, most firms are looking at local recruits to originate deals from the public sector, he says.

"The big demand is for senior local candidates with Arabic language skills who can originate deals," he says.