Citigroup to further expand in Saudi Arabia: report

Citigroup Inc. plans to hire about five more bankers in Saudi Arabia as it prepares for an expected increase in foreign investment in the kingdom’s stock exchange, Bloomberg reported, citing Chief Country Officer Carmen Haddad.

The Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) inclusion in MSCI Inc.’s emerging-market indexes will boost trading, and Citigroup wants to be ready, she said.

“We’ve had about 14-15 people on the ground and that will grow to about 20 this year,” Haddad was quoted as saying.

“We’re very focused on equities, custody, M&A, capital market debt and equity origination, research and advisory business. We’ll add a few traders and some middle office staff this year as a result of getting the permission to provide cash equity and custody services, and those should be operational in a few months.”

According to data compiled by Argaam, the New York-based Citigroup opened last month its new office in Riyadh, at the Kingdom Tower.

The lender received in April 2017 the Capital Market Authority’s (CMA) approval to start cash-equities trading and custody services.