With In the City hosts David Merritt and Francine Lacqua in Doha for the annual Qatar Economic Forum, this week’s podcast focuses on the growing influence of the Middle East—and whether it will come at the expense of Western financial hubs. Indeed, reporter Dinesh Nair says the Middle East is currently the only region that can “call the shots on big transactions.”
Bankers in the Middle East find themselves more relevant now than ever thanks to a massive pickup in deal activity, both locally and as the region deploys more capital worldwide. People like billionaire Ken Moelis, founder of Investment bank Moelis & Co., are saying the Middle East has a very bright future.
“It’s one of the few places in the world where ambition is married with capital,” Nair explains. And when those two things are combined, interesting things can happen. Like London traders relocating and the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia emerging as IPO hotspots.
Even moves like Saudi Arabia offering Lionel Messi $400 million for each of his final years as a player are part of it, creating buzz to sell the region to transplants, Nair says. Riyadh may also hope that outlay will excite its burgeoning younger generation and supercharge tourism.
Still, the Middle East hasn’t matched London when it comes to establishing a strong ecosystem to support a serious financial center. But it’s certainly the ambition, Nair says, and the region is catching up fast. What’s more, the situation in the UK is smoothing the way.
“In London, ambition is arguable,” Nair says. “But there’s definitely no capital.”
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