Investec Opens Dubai Office With Eye on South African، UK Expats

Investec Ltd.، a bank that focuses on wealthy clients in South Africa and the UK، is opening an office in Dubai with an eye on its growing expatriate community.

The lender، which also has operations in the US، Europe and elsewhere، announced its Dubai expansion on Wednesday.

“We are seeing a lot of South Africans considering Dubai as an option to either work or permanently live،” Investec Bank Chief Executive Officer Cumesh Moodliar told Bloomberg in an interview. “Building off on that، we’ve seen family offices being quite active in that region as well as key financial institutions.”

The South African Business Council puts the number of South African-affiliated companies with the Dubai Chamber of Commerce at more than 2،400، according to South African Consul-General Tsepo Lebona. Investec also says that as many as 5،000 of its UK target-market expat clients live in Dubai.

Counting on a Dubai presence

The bank is counting on a Dubai presence to connect it with the many family offices based in the region، who Darryn Solomon، the senior executive officer for Investec in Dubai، said were handling anywhere between $700 billion and $1 trillion in wealth on behalf of their clients. Solomon said between 150،000 and 200،000 South Africans live in the United Arab Emirates. 

Investec is also confident that it will be able to help guide Dubai-based investors interested in post-election opportunities in South Africa.

Business confidence has increased noticeably since President Cyril Ramaphosa formed a broad governing coalition following May 29 elections in which his African National Congress lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since 1994.

“The positive sentiment will start translating into greater and high levels of activity into South Africa،” Moodliar said. “We think that government is going to be strongly considering — particularly from an infrastructure and basic utilities perspective — the need for public-private partnerships. And our corporate and institutional business، and our energy and infrastructure businesses، are very well placed to play into that segment.”

Investec’s move follows international expansion by other South African lenders، with Absa Group Ltd. opening a non-banking unit in China and Standard Bank Group Ltd. targeting an office in Egypt by the end of the year.