Are we to assume that the majority of investment banking recruitment in the Middle East will be within international firms?
In recent weeks it's become obvious that large regional investment banks are struggling. By contrast, despite relatively subdued deal activity, it seems that international firms are looking to the long term and beginning to build their teams once again.
There have been various signs that international investment banks are viewing the Middle East as a strategically important region. While this hasn't resulted in huge amounts of hiring, opportunities are emerging.
Last week, Bank of America Merrill Lynch unveiled Philip Southwell as its new MENA head, Credit Agricole lost its head of coverage and investment banking for MENA Albert Momdjian to a rival, and Credit Suisse promoted Mumtaz Kazmi as head of M&A in the region.
What's more, Societe Generale has indicated its desire to hire for its Middle East M&A team and Citi, RBS and UBS are all in the market for investment bankers, according to recruitment sources.
"What we're seeing is international investment banks making one or two hires at the very senior end, or for specific target markets like Qatar or Saudi," says Jonathan Gould, manager - financial services at Morgan McKinley in Dubai. "The recruitment of coverage bankers at the junior end has dropped off, however."
Despite the unrest in the MENA region, the value of M&A deals actually increased year-on-year in the first quarter of 2011. There were 21 deals worth $4.42bn, according to figures from mergermarket, compared to 39 deals worth $3.96bn in Q1 2010. Most of these were in Qatar, though, indicating why it's an increasingly important place to be.
MENA remains a tough place to be, though, and those without the international infrastructure of the large global banks to fall back on have struggled. In the last two weeks, Shuaa Capital cut its headcount by 10%, while EFG Hermes slashed its bonus payments for 2010.
There is still some hiring going on within the regional banks, however, suggests Samia Hafidi, senior consultant, banking and financial services at Hudson Middle East.
"Regional banks cut a lot of junior staff during the downturn in a bid to keep hold of their key rainmakers and it's only now that analysts and associates are being hired again," she says.
