Rothschild’s roadmap for Dubai’s economic recovery

It is payback time for Rothschild in Dubai. The 200-year-old banking house, perhaps the bluest of the blue bloods of the world’s financial dynasties, has always prided itself on the strength of its relationships, especially with governments and global power brokers.

Now, after years of cultivating Dubai corporations with advice and assistance, it has landed the big one – the brief to advise Dubai Inc on the strategy for recovery from the financial crisis. Last month it was announced that Rothschild’s Dubai office had been retained by the Government’s Department of Finance to advise on the US$10 billion (Dh36.7bn) financial support fund (FSF) raised by Dubai on the bond markets (with a further $10bn in the pipeline).

When it came to it, Dubai – with a portfolio of borrowing relationships with most of the world’s big banking groups – had only two real alternatives: Rothschild, or its great rival, Lazard. As the financial crisis has thinned the ranks of the old-fashioned merchant banks, only those two were in a position to offer Dubai the kind of independent, objective advice it needed. Its final choice was recognition of Rothschild’s commitment to the emirate and the strength of its reputation as a financial problem solver.