Investment Banking in Dubai
Can anyone that works, have worked, or have applied for investment banking positions in Dubai, share their experience in terms of the banks to target and the ones to avoid, compensation, hours, culture, main industries, recruitment process, perception of other offices regarding IB in Dubai, etc.? Thank you!
From an outsiders perspective, MS and Moelis have been on a couple huge deals in Dubai before…
Banks that are killing it are Moelis, Rothschild, HSBC and Morgan Stanley. Compensation is close to NY salaries and you don’t pay tax in Dubai. A LOT of Oil and Gas work obviously given the region, but you also have other stuff as well. Most banks are generalists so you do a bit of everything which is cool. Hours are similar to everywhere else in the world but it’s slowly becoming better. Hope this helps!
Yes it does help, thank you very much! Do you know if these banks are hiring a lot there? Would it be doable for someone who've never lived in UAE to get an entry level position (provided the cv is good enough)?
Last year, banks were hiring like crazy. Moelis, Rothschild, BAML, Goldman and MS almost doubled in size. Most, if not all analysts, never lived or worked in the Middle East and don’t even speak Arabic (obviously speaking the language is a huge plus). Networking is the way to go in the Middle East given that almost all hiring is done off-cycle. Happy to help if you have more questions
This is really helpful
If you don't mind could you speak to the best way to get a job in IB? Grew up in UAE and just came back to my home country (India) for a bachelor's degree.Is networking the best way to land interviews?
Network all the way. Talk to as many people as you can. That’s the way to go!
Moelis is killing it there, did various landmark transacs eg Aramco/ADNOC. Hours are very bad though.
can anyone speak to what the culture is like Dubai IB?
Similar to NY from what I’ve heard is long hours little holiday..
Really defers by bank. Some banks hired A LOT during COVID so now the working hours are really good given the slowdown. I’d say all in all you’d live a relatively good life compared to NY
Work in the region so can provide some color here. Moelis is the top shop in MENA and killing it on practically most major transactions in the region, followed by Rothschild then MS/HSBC/JPM. GS was trailing for quite a while but now picking up steam given their reputation with 1MDB made them effectively blacklisted in the region.
Would avoid joining UBS, CS, DB and Barclays as they are not very active in the Middle East, as well as BAML purely since they seem to do only coverage and London comes in to execute.
Other boutiques e.g Evercore have extremely small teams and don’t close very often. In terms of deal experience would try to aim for Moelis/Rothschild/MS/JPM for good reps. Culture at Moelis I hear is good but painful hours, GS culture is quite poor, Evercore seems to have decent hours but poor deal flow. Places like CS and UBS just churn pitches so hours can be quite long with no deal experience to show.
That's pretty sick actually I didn't know that Dubai had a big IB scene
Could you add anything on best strategies to recruit?
Also know anything about wealth management in Dubai?
A friend at Moelis dubai told me it’s JPM (because of financing) then Moelis/HSBC
This is total cap. HSBC is decent in the region compared to their position globally, but Moelis absolutely dominates in the region. JPM is also pretty much coverage and London supports on any execution, though they do pick up quite a few decent mandates.
What are their targets in Dubai? Like B-School in Dubai?
How is Houlihan Lokey coming up in the region?
When does recruiting start for FT 2023? I only see JPM so far
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