eFinancialCareers

Both Lehman and Morgan Stanley have appointed bankers to liaise with sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) in the Middle East. It looks like the start of a new trend.

This week, Lehman announced that it had appointed private equity veteran Makran Azar in the newly created role of global head of sovereign wealth funds.

Lehman follows hot on the heels of Morgan Stanley, which has taken on three senior bankers to focus on winning business from sovereign wealth funds.

Requirements for the new posts seem to be a background in a financial sponsors group, exposure to the Middle East’s big investors, and proximity to SWFs in a previous existence. Azar, for example, had previously worked for the Qatar Investment Authority and Istithmar of Dubai.

Are we about to see a rush of hiring as banks take on people to give them the inside track on SWFs?

Sadly not. Alex Cormack, director and head of Middle East at executive search firm Sheffield Haworth, says banks are more likely to transfer people internally than to bring them in from the outside.

Omar Taha, managing director of headhunters The S&T Group, says it’s the newbees in the region who need to develop ties with SWFs: “Banks that have been in the region for some time already have deal experience with the SWFs.”

He adds that SWFs themselves are desperate for talent: “You have a lot of bankers moving from investment banks to sovereign wealth funds, but in a talent-starved region it means you lose valuable people from the investment banking pool.”