eFinancialCareers

Middle East state investment funds are flexing their financial muscles globally. What are the chances of getting a job for one? In recent weeks, the Abu Dhabi government has bought into US private equity group Carlyle, and the Qatar Investment Authority has bought into Swedish exchange OMX. Last year Dubai bought control of ports company P&O (including its Australian operations) as well as hotel company Travelodge. As regional sovereign funds expand their... Read more

The Middle East's global asset management aspirations are fuelling fund manager recruitment. With the likes of ING Investment Management rushing to open offices in Dubai's International Financial Centre, fund managers are flavour of the month. Raed Sater, a partner at Edward M. Kelley & Partners, says there's been a surge in demand for asset managers in the past 18 to 24 months. Sater says investors are increasingly sophisticated and the region is... Read more

Project finance specialists are in such short supply that the oil-fired trajectory of Middle East infrastructure investment runs the risk of crashing. Local recruiters say there are simply too few experienced project finance people to plan, oversee and execute the US$1.3 trillion worth of oil and gas, petrochemicals or infrastructure schemes lined up by GCC governments and companies between now and 2012. Barbara Van Meir, director of financial services at WoodHamill Ingram,... Read more

Standard Chartered is moving 100 staff to Dubai. Is it down to low-cost local staff or local customers? Staff making the move will be monitoring the bank's loans and trading interest rate products and the currencies of G10 countries. With pay for traders lower in Dubai than London, is the move cost-driven? And are other banks likely to follow in Standard Chartered's footsteps? Mark Thomas, a London-based analyst at Keefe, Bruyette... Read more

Oil-fuelled wealth creation is driving high-octane demand for Islamic bankers in the private banking sector. Samar El Gazar, partner and managing director at Leaders Solutions, tells us international banks are running to catch up with local private banks offering Islamic products. Raed Sater, managing director at Edward W. Kelley & Partners, says that in the past most of the region's private banking was done in London, Geneva or Luxembourg. Now the local... Read more

Burj-al-Arab, Dubai's iconic hotel, designed to resemble a billowing sail, could also symbolise the Gulf property market running ahead of a fair wind. Developments such as The Palm, for example, so loved by footballers' wives, have grabbed the headlines and oil approaching US$70 a barrel is fuelling a wave of infrastructure investment that's predicted to hit US$1.3 trillion between 2007 and 2012. But recruiters are making heavy weather of finding the... Read more

Living in Dubai isn't quite as cost effective as it used to be, but it's still a lot cheaper than, say, London. The good news is that Gulf incomes are tax-free and an array of perks typically makes life that little bit easier to bear. The bad news is that perks aren't being doled out as liberally as they once were. The bill for schooling the children of the region's army of... Read more

Local GCC banks don't pay as well as international rivals, but that may be changing. Russell Adam, a consultant at London-based search firm Akamai Financial Markets, tells us, "If you're on an expat package, it can definitely be beneficial to work for an international bank. However, your career may progress more rapidly at a fast-growing local house." Gareth Clayton, a director at search firm Charterhouse Partnership in Dubai, says local banks are... Read more