Julius Baer said it hired four new private bankers in Bahrain in a bid to bolster its market share in the oil-rich kingdom as well as neighboring Saudi Arabia.
The Swiss bank said it hired Ahmed Mukhtar as a relationship manager in July, and was joined by team leader David Singh, Kamran Naqvi and Natalia Zhelyesnyak in September.
«Bahrain is one of the leading and most diverse economies across the Arab region, and we are therefore determined to increase our market penetration here,» Julius Baer's Bahrain head Saman Habibian said in a statement.
The Zurich bank reorganized its regions in September, later replacing its Middle East head. The bank said being geographically close to Saudi Arabia is will help ties to the region's largest economy.
Baer entered Bahrain three years ago when it bought Merrill Lynch's private bank outside the U.S. Since the acquisition, 95 percent of the American bank's Bahrain clients have moved over to the Swiss bank. Merrill Lynch had been in the kingdom since 1976.
