GCC Investment Banking

Executive Summary

The Investment banking space in GCC comprise of a plethora of services such as Equity Capital markets, Debt Capital markets, Loans, Mergers and Acquisitions, Private Equity, Brokerage and others. The GCC investment banking market after peaking in 2007, began to shrink and by 2009, the GCC investment banking market had shrunk to USD 4.2Bn in 2009 from USD 5.5Bn in 2007. While the traditional banks within the GCC remained profitable during the global financial crisis, GCC investment banks experienced challenging times. The focus to diversify away from predominantly oil based economies, GCC countries have started to focus on infrastructure development. GCC allocation to infrastructure-spending is estimated to cross USD 1 trillion by 2030, liberalization of the GCC capital markets and lower oil prices are some of the factors that are likely to impact positively on the investment banking sector.

In this report we have made an attempt to examine the status of GCC investment banking by examining four streams of revenue which includes, Equity Capital Markets (ECM), Debt Capital Markets (DCM), Loans and Mergers and Acquisitions. We have also analyzed the current trends favoring GCC Investment Banking and the challenges in Investment Banking space. The report also examines the Investment Banking fees for Middle East region.