In recent months, at least five bankers have been hired by HSBC Holdings Plc in Saudi Arabia along with the transfer of one of their Dubai-based Managing Directors to Riyadh. All of these tasks were undertaken to help handle the influx of dealmaking activity in the biggest Gulf economy.
Asking not to be named due to confidentiality of the information, sources say, Mehdi Benabdallah, a managing director at HSBC’s the Middle East investment banking division, recently relocated to Riyadh from Dubai. HSBC has also hired Sofiane Bigdad from Nomura Holdings Inc. in London, Abdulaziz Behery from SNB Capital, and three junior bankers, according to the same sources.
A spokesperson for HSBC confirmed the hires but declined to provide further detail.
International banks including Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. have been expanding in the kingdom following wide-ranging economic reforms that have sparked a flurry in capital markets activity. HSBC is working on several initial public offerings, including that of a refinery subsidiary partly owned by Saudi Aramco, Bloomberg reported in April.
However, the bank also faces competition from its bankers from Saudi government entities. HSBC associate director Saad AlMashari joined the Public Investment Fund last month to focus on the wealth fund’s Middle East and North Africa portfolio, according to his LinkedIn profile.
