UAE Investment Banking

Executive Summary

Investment banks aid companies and government entities to raise finance by selling shares or bonds to investors and to hedge against risks. Services offered by investment banks can be broadly categorised into four areas – equity capital markets (ECM), debt capital markets (DCM), mergers and acquisitions (M&A), syndicated loans and sales and trading (S&T). The UAE’s classification was upgraded from a frontier market to an emerging market, as a result, effective May 2014 and the UAE was given a weighting of 0.4 percent in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. This upgraded status of UAE can result in potential draw of new funds in the UAE equity markets and thus potential high business for the investment banks based in UAE.

The UAE investment banking sector report provides in-depth analysis of the IPO deals completed in the UAE during 2014, sector-wise bond and Sukuk issuances. The section on syndicated loans discusses the number and value of deals completed over the years and the lead manager and arrangers. Also, included is a detailed discussion on the M&A deals in terms of country and sector wise acquirers, the value and number of deals completed over the years. Apart from the above discussed details, also incorporated is the Marmore estimates of fee earned by the UAE investment banks for each of the service offered, the market drivers, industry outlook and challenges. Regulations governing the UAE investment banks and overview of the industry players are also part of the study.