Deutsche shifts top Mideast ECM banker to London: source

Deutsche Bank is moving its top Middle East equity banker to London from Dubai, the bank confirmed, the latest in a string of moves by international banks prompted by low business volumes in the region.

The German bank said Christopher Laing, head of Mena equity capital markets, was relocating to the UK from the Gulf, without adding further detail.

Earlier, four banking sources had told Reuters that Laing was returning to London, having been originally relocated to the UAE in 2008 when Western banks were boosting their presence in the Gulf to offset falling revenues in the United States and Europe.

"There is just not enough business to warrant keeping a purely ECM banker based in the region," a source with knowledge of the move said.

According to Ernst & Young, the value of Mena initial public offerings was down 52 per cent in the second quarter of 2011, at $374.8 million from $775.4m in the same period in 2010.

Globally, $64.6 billion was raised by companies through IPOs in the second quarter of this year.

Laing will continue to be based in Dubai until the end of the year and will formally begin covering the region from the UK in January, a second source said.