Middle East banks and financial services firms take center stage at London Stock Exchange

The event was co-hosted by EFG-Hermes, the leading investment bank in the Arab world.

Around 50 London-based institutional investors, emerging market funds and analysts as well as members of the media had the opportunity to meet one-on-one with C-suite executives from the Mena region's most dynamic banks and financial services companies as they present their investment cases.

Companies presenting at the LSE this week included Commercial International Bank and EFG-Hermes (Egypt), Bank Audi and Blom Bank (Lebanon), Burgan Bank and KIPCO (Kuwait), and the National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Dubai Islamic Bank (United Arab Emirates).

Sherif Cararah, EFG-Hermes Securities Brokerage Managing Director, says:

"The LSE event has been a unique opportunity for regional businesses to make known their 2009 investment strategies to the international community in light of the current economic conditions."

"Meanwhile, London-based investors have been reminded that our region's banking and financial services sector is very robust, with little-to-no exposure to toxic assets, generally more-than-safe ratios of loans to deposits and a market that is still largely under-banked," Cararah added.

Investors were drawn from the ranks of global generalists, financial-sector specialists as well as funds specializing in Africa and the Middle East.

Due to strong interest from these global and regional investors for individual meetings with presenters, the group meetings and main sessions have been replaced by the one-on-one meetings, which have been set to start earlier on the two day event.

The event is the latest to emerge from EFG-Hermes' partnership with the LSE. In November 2008, a large number of investors representing funds from the United Kingdom, Germany, Greece and the United States attended the LSE's first Egypt Capital Markets Day.

In addition to the LSE events, EFG-Hermes also hosted the annual EFG-Hermes One-on-One in Sharm El-Sheikh, at which Mena companies present to global investors; a Mena Trip in six countries over seven days; and regular field visits to companies across the Arab world.