HSBC bolsters Saudi Arabia investment banking team to tap deals boom

HSBC Holdings named new heads for two of its investment banking businesses in Saudi Arabia to bolster its position in a hot spot for deal activity.

Mehdi Benabdallah has been appointed as head of mergers and acquisitions in the kingdom while Ramez Halazun was named head of equity capital markets, according to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg News.

Saudi Arabia, the Gulf’s biggest economy, has become a focus point for investment banks seeking to pursue deals as the kingdom embarks on a multi-trillion-US dollar plan to diversify away from oil.

The appointments came as Saudi Arabia on Sunday kicked off a US$12 billion secondary share sale in oil giant Aramco. HSBC is a joint global coordinator for the issue, which is one of the largest equity offerings in recent years.

The British lender was the top arranger of equity offerings in the Gulf last year, Bloomberg League Tables show, working on the initial public offerings of Adnoc Gas in Abu Dhabi and Ades Holding in Riyadh, among others.

HSBC had appointed new co-heads for its Saudi investment banking business last year amid a pickup in deals. Its wealth business, meanwhile, is looking to hire “opportunistically” to tap the growing number of ultra-rich moving to the Middle East.

Benabdallah joined HSBC in 2009, while Halazun joined two years later, the memo showed. Both bankers relocated from Dubai to Saudi Arabia in 2022.

A representative for HSBC declined to comment on the appointments.

International firms have been boosting their local presence in the kingdom and Goldman Sachs Group recently became the first Wall Street giant to obtain a so-called Riyadh headquarters licence. Asking for that licence has now become part of the procurement process at the US$925 billion Saudi wealth fund, Bloomberg News reported earlier this month.

Banks including HSBC and JPMorgan Chase have increased their staffing in the kingdom to levels comparable to Dubai. BLOOMBERG