Ratings agency Standard & Poor's expects to double staff in its Dubai office this year as it sees growing opportunity in the Arab Gulf and other nearby regions, the company's Middle East head said.
Standard & Poor's started the year with about 15 people in its Dubai International Financial Centre offices, Stuart Anderson said. That number is has risen rapidly both through hiring and the relocation of analysts from Europe, he said. Paul-Henri Pruvost, a financial institutions analyst based in Paris, is one of the people set to come to Dubai later this year.
"It went from three people in 2007 and we're going to be close on 30 by the end of the year," Mr. Anderson said, adding that ratings for Islamic bonds, or sukuk, in Saudi Arabia was a fast-growing area the company wanted to latch onto.
"Saudi will be the biggest sukuk market in the region from a ratings perspective," he said, while adding that other countries including the U.A.E. still offered promise.
Zawya Dow Jones
24 September
