Morgan Stanley has expanded its business advising sovereign wealth funds and private equity firms in the Middle East and North Africa with the appointment of three bankers to be based in t
Morgan Stanley has expanded its business advising sovereign wealth funds and private equity firms in the Middle East and North Africa with the appointment of three bankers to be based in the firm’s office in the Dubai International Financial Centre.
The firm says the appointment of Dennis Cornell, Hugo Parson and Hani Ramadan creates the largest team of its kind in the region and underlines Morgan Stanley’s commitment to serving the particular needs of sovereign wealth funds and financial sponsor investors in the region.
Cornell, Parson and Ramadan will report to David Law, chairman of investment banking in the Middle East and North Africa, who between 2004 and the beginning of this year ran Morgan Stanley’s financial sponsors group outside the US.
‘Dennis, Hugo and Hani bring strong coverage experience and wealth of talent,’ Law says. ‘They underscore Morgan Stanley’s commitment to providing superior advice and execution in transactions for the region’s biggest investors. With this team, we have the largest commitment of dedicated bankers in the region to cover sovereign wealth funds and financial sponsors.’
Cornell, 37, was previously a senior coverage banker in Morgan Stanley’s financial sponsors group in New York. He will be supported by Parson, 34, who previously worked in Morgan Stanley’s leveraged and acquisition finance group in London, and Ramadan, 32, who comes from the financial sponsor group at UBS and has been covering Middle East markets for the past two years from London and Dubai.
‘Since we opened our office in the DIFC two years ago, we’ve seen strong growth across all parts of our franchise,’ says Georges Makhoul, Morgan Stanley’s president for Middle East and North Africa.
‘Sovereign wealth funds and financial sponsors are a strategic client segment for Morgan Stanley, and with their increasingly international investment focus, it is critical that we have the depth of resource to deliver the capability of the whole firm.’
