Credit Suisse Launches Full Service Middle East Equities Platform

Credit Suisse is pleased to announce the launch of its local Equities platform in the Middle East, including several senior appointments in its Equities business in the MENA region. This local platform further demonstrates the Bank’s commitment to its clients in the region. The appointments span across its equities sales, trading, research and HOLT businesses.

Wafiq Nsouli and Ali Salaam join Credit Suisse as Directors and Co-Heads of the Equities department in the Middle East and North Africa region. Based in Dubai, they will report to Bassam Yammine and Bruno Daher, co-CEOs of Credit Suisse in the Middle East, locally and Ian Dalglish and Guy Rigden, Co-Heads of EMEA Emerging Market Equities, functionally. Mr. Salaam and Mr. Nsouli assume their positions on July 15 and September 1, respectively. Together, they bring extensive knowledge of equities in the region and will further build the Bank’s equities sales and trading, research and HOLT platform in the region.

Mr Nsouli joins Credit Suisse from HSBC, where he was Head of Equities Sales in Dubai since January 2007. Prior to that role, he was Head of Middle East Equities Sales at JP Morgan in London. He began his career at Deutsche Bank and SBC Warburg, where he worked in fixed income sales. Mr Salaam joins from Deutsche Bank, where he was a Director and Head of Regional Equity Sales in Dubai. During his career, Mr Salaam has spent over ten years in Institutional Equities Sales with Deutsche Bank, A.G. Edwards and Raymond James and Associates.

Bassam Yammine, Managing Director and Co-CEO of Credit Suisse in the Middle East, said, “These appointments demonstrate our strong commitment to providing innovative products and solutions to our clients in this region. Credit Suisse regards the Middle East as a key growth market and our expanded equities platform reflects our long-term commitment to our clients in the region.”

Ian Dalglish, Managing Director and Co-Head of EEMEA Equities at Credit Suisse, said, “Wafiq and Ali bring extensive knowledge of the region and will be well placed to deliver our global equities platform to our clients in the region. They are supported by a team of high quality local professionals across all business areas.” Guy Rigden, Managing Director and Co-Head of EEMEA Equities at Credit Suisse, added “The local equities platform will also benefit our institutional clients world-wide who are increasingly interested in further exposure to the MENA market.”

Credit Suisse has also appointed Hans Zayed as a Director and Head of the Equity Research Product in the Middle East. Mr Zayed joins the Bank from Merrill Lynch, where he was a senior research analyst dedicated to the MENA region. He will work closely with Middle East analyst Mohamad Hawa, who joined the Bank in 2007. The Bank’s Middle East Equity Research team will be supported by a group of new associates, and will continue to expand its coverage of Middle Eastern stocks.

In addition, Guillaume Danis has been appointed as a Director in the HOLT Sales team, where he will be responsible for building HOLT’s suite of innovative products in the MENA region and delivering HOLT’s corporate performance and valuation insights to clients. HOLT is Credit Suisse’s corporate performance and advisory service. Its CFROI® model is used to identify key investment opportunities by evaluating the corporate performance of thousands of companies globally.

The Bank has also bolstered its sales and trading efforts in the region, appointing Fouad Dajani, Saad Tayara and Nicholas Bye as Vice Presidents in the Middle East Equities Sales and Trading and Product Management teams.

The appointments follow several key equities announcements in the region. In June, the Bank launched its “Access MENA” trading platform, which allows international investors to buy economic exposure to stocks in the Middle East. It also hosted its first conference dedicated to the BRIC and MENA countries, which brought together senior representatives of the leading companies the Middle East.