eFinancialCareers

A 40% increase in debt issues in the GCC last year has firms desperate for more, and DCM professionals are increasingly hot property.

A record $107bn was raised through syndicated lending in the GCC last year – two thirds of it in the UAE – according to the latest Thomson IFR Briefings. And this was in spite of a cautious approach.

“Widening credit spreads from July last year saw some GCC issuers postponing their debt issues,” says Declan Hegarty, managing director, global markets financing at HSBC. “We expect a strong pipeline of issues this year.”

That strong pipeline means demand for DCM professionals is booming, with both international banks and larger domestic institutions clawing for a piece of the action.

Talent is being sourced locally and from Western financial centres. Bill Allum, head of Middle East at executive search firm Napier Scott, says: “They want people who understand the products as well as the client relationships. My sense is that they’re much more focused on people who are already in the region who have the ability to walk into clients and originate DCM deals. This has pushed up packages for these sorts of people.”

Headhunters tell us there have been some whopping wage hikes in this area. In 2006, a DCM banker with 10 years' experience would have been pulling in a total compensation package of $500k. Now that figure has soared to $750k-$1m.

There’s now more sophistication in the DCM space in the GCC, with a particular focus on Islamic sukuk products. As this skillset is still relatively rare, recruiters claim people with experience in this area can clean up, both in the GCC and in Western financial centres.

Jonathan Morse, managing director of recruiter RP International in Dubai, says: “They can take those skills back to New York or London and they then can charge a premium for them. These sorts of Islamic products are now starting to appear more frequently in Western markets, so being able to tap the knowledge of a trader who can take those products to market is relatively rare.”