Credit Suisse names new head of MidEast M&A

Credit Suisse names new head of MidEast M&A

Swiss bank names Mumtaz Kazmi to head M&A in MEast; Kazmi replaces Van Der Voort who is relocating to US; Bank's ECM head for region George Pavey to move to Asia

May 18, 2011 3:57 by Reuters

Credit Suisse has named Mumtaz Kazmi as head of its mergers and acquisitions operations in the Middle East and North Africa, a document showed.

Kazmi has been with the bank since 2001 and advised on several deals including Qatar’s purchase of a stake in Porsche SE .

He replaces Erwin Van Der Voort who is relocating to New York and will focus on advising hedge funds, the document said.

Van Der Voort had held the Mideast position since 2010 when Qatar Holding, a unit of sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority, poached his predecessor Anthony Armstrong. Qatar is a shareholder in Credit Suisse.

Separately, George Pavey, head of the bank’s equity capital markets team in the region is moving to Hong Kong, a source familiar with the matter said.

Pavey will be replaced Nick Koemtzopoulos, the source said.

Several high-profile bankers in the region have been switching jobs in recent weeks.

Last week, French bank Credit Agricole’s top investment banker for the Middle East and Africa resigned.

Meanwhile, Bank of America Merrill Lynch poached the top executive at Egyptian investment bank EFG-Hermes in the Gulf to run its business in the Middle East and North Africa region, two sources said on Monday.

Investment banks operating in the Gulf Arab region have been hard hit by the political crisis which has kept investors away from capital markets and crippled appetite for deals.

Total investment banking fees for the first-quarter fell 58 percent to $48.8 million compared with $116.3 million for the previous year, according to Thomson Reuters data. (Reporting by Dinesh Nair, Editing by Amran Abocar)