Riyadh - Mubasher: Global banks are continuing to take steps to expand into Saudi Arabia four months after the kingdom’s anti-corruption crackdown which threatened to weigh on the oil-rich nation’s plans to wean the economy off petrodollars.
International lenders including UBS Group and Goldman Sachs Group have started hiring further employees, while Citigroup Inc. has been awarded its first local advisory mandate since resuming its operation in the GCC nation after a 13-year absence.
Moreover, Deutsche Bank AG announced that it will boost its footprint into the kingdom as the outlook for bond and stock sales improves, Arabian Business reported.
The speed of the Saudi purge and the lack of transparency unsettled markets, making banks unfazed after the detention of scores of senior Saudi officials, including princes, in Riyadh's luxurious Ritz-Carlton Hotel late last year.
“Over the medium-term, foreign investors will likely take comfort from the fact that no foreign investor was targeted by the anti-corruption drive,” said Ehsan Khoman, head of research for the Middle East and North Africa at Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.
"In the long run, we view the anti-corruption drive as a net positive for investors,” Khoman added.
