The Arab-British Chamber of Commerce’s (A-BCC) Strategic Forum, an international business conference that brought together leading business players and decision-makers in the UK and the Gulf, successfully took place in central London in January.
Organised by the A-BCC in co-operation with business events organiser Lace Live, the conference took as its theme “Bilateral Trade and Investment Opportunities in the Banking & Finance Sector in the Gulf”. The day-long proceedings were chaired by Sir Roger Tomkys, A-BCC chairman.
Keynote addresses were delivered by Dr Abdulrahman A Al-Tuwaijri, chairman of the Capital Markets Authority in Saudi Arabia, Alderman David Lewis, the Lord Mayor of the City of London, and Rasheed Al Maraj, Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain.
Al-Tuwaijri said in 2007 there were 26 IPOs on the Saudi capital market and last April the sale of a 45 per cent stake in Saudi Kayan Petrochemical raised SR6.75bn ($1.8bn), the largest on the Saudi market so far. The insurance company sector was particularly active during 2007, accounting for 14 of the total number of IPOs.
“The number of new licences granted to firms to operate in the capital market had grown strongly. Forty two new licenses were issued in 2007, including to major international firms like Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch. This has almost doubled the number of firms with licences compared to the position at the end of 2006,” he said.
Al-Tuwaijri finally said Saudi Arabia had now almost completed the framework of rules and regulations governing its capital market.
Al Maraj spoke of the ongoing need for economic liberalisation in the Gulf and explained why it was still a challenge to maintain the momentum even in the booming times like today.
This was because of the continuing underlying aims to improve job prospects, efficiency and diversity.
Lewis said the the city was active in assisting the Gulf states to mobilise funds to support investment in the many exciting infrastructure plans currently being carried out. In addition, Gulf investors were looking to locations like London in order to make investment.
Other speakers and those participating in panel discussions included Michael Ainley, Financial Services Authority, Cyrus Ardalan, Barclays Capital, Michael Brigden, National Commercial Bank, Fadi Elkhoury, Samba Bank London, Robert Gray, HSBC Bank plc, Sir Thomas Harris, Standard Chartered Bank plc, Ismail Hussain, Bahrain Institute of Banking & Finance, George Kardouche, Arab Bankers’ Association, and Brooks Newmark MP, Opposition Treasury spokesman.
