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BankMuscat has been ranked 6th in the Africa and Middle East region, cementing its position as the premier advisory outfit in the region. Besides its core infrastructure sector strength in Power and Water, the Bank has also been ranked highly in Sewage, Oil & Gas, Mining and Metals.
The Bank has been ranked 6th globally in Water & Sewage sector and 9th globally in the Power Sector. The ranking is based on wining transactions amounting to $2.46bn in the infrastructure sector during 2008.
The league table rankings have been achieved amidst stiff competition from international banks and financial advisors in the infrastructure market both regionally as well as globally. The league table rankings are announced every year on a regional and sectoral basis for roles such as MLAs, advisory and multilateral lending. The Bank's ranking in the global arena also mirrors its development as a regional bank.
Growing from a predominantly Oman focused operations, the Bank's Corporate Finance and Advisory (CFA) unit has now won mandates in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain and Africa. The Bank's CFA unit is one of the few dedicated pure advisory teams in the region. The unit focuses on project and corporate finance advisory and has a track record of successfully advising transaction amounting to $10bn over the last five years.
Commenting on this achievement, AbdulRazak Ali Issa, Chief Executive, BankMuscat, said:
"We are extremely happy to be ranked amongst the world's top banks in the Global Financial Advisors league tables for the year 2008. Today's challenging times call for an active role for financial advisors to offer 'out of the box' solutions to developers and governments alike to sustain infrastructure development. The impressive league table rankings are another important international achievement for BankMuscat and a significant milestone in our continuing quest to raise our profile in the international markets and secure business from a wider geography."
According to PFI, the global project finance market stood at $250bn in 2008, up from $220bn in 2007. The impressive trend was also reported by IJ, which stated that in 2008, global financial advisers acted on $284bn worth of project finance deals. In the Middle East region, PFI report suggests that, the volumes were about $25bn in 2008.
However, given the challenges in the current market, stakeholders will have to look beyond the traditional financing approaches, introduction of innovative financing mechanisms as well as an active role of private equity and buyout firms to compete for funding opportunities in the region.
Posted by Rima Ali Al Mashni
