IslamicFinance.de

Emad Mansour, a veteran Gulf Arab banker, is planning to set up an investment bank in Dubai’s tax-free financial zone. Mansour, who has about 20 years of investment banking experience in the region, was most recently the chief executive of Doha-based Qatar First Bank (QFB). The executive will file an application to the regulator of Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), and aims to launch the business in the first half of 2014. His firm will initially focus on private equity transactions and then will move on to offering M&A, equity and debt capital markets advisory services before starting asset management operations. Other former investment bankers from the region have also set up specialist boutiques betting on a continued upturn in activity.