A taxi drives past the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). Dubai became a regional banking centre after opening the DIFC in 2004 to attract international banks, asset managers and insurers with promises of zero taxes for 50 years.

Bloomberg/Dubai


Deutsche Bank is merging its African business into its Middle Eastern operations as it seeks greater access to the region’s fastest-growing economies.
Ashok Aram, who heads Deutsche Bank in the Middle East, made the announcement yesterday at the Bloomberg Future Cities Forum in Dubai. Aram will expand his responsibilities to take charge of Africa, including South Africa and Nigeria, and said the move has been approved by Deutsche Bank’s board. Dubai will be the hub for the newly-created Middle East and Africa (MEA) region.
A city of 2.1mn people, Dubai became a regional banking centre after opening the Dubai International Financial Centre in 2004 to attract international banks, asset managers and insurers with promises of zero taxes for 50 years. Rivals such as Standard Chartered and Barclays relocated their African businesses to Johannesburg from Dubai in recent years.
“Deutsche Bank has a critical mass of products and services in Dubai, which we are extending to the MEA region,” Aram said in follow-up comments by e-mail. The Frankfurt-based lender will offer investment banking, asset management, private wealth management and global transaction banking services to its African clients, he said.
Deutsche Bank hired Standard Bank Group’s Peter Wharton-Hood as its chief country officer for South Africa in 2013, based in Johannesburg. Wharton-Hood will retain responsibility for the bank’s operations in the country, where the bank employs more than 180 people, according to its website.
Goldman Sachs Group and JPMorgan Chase & Co are among other international investment banks that use Johannesburg as a base. The continent’s economic growth rates are higher than in many developed markets, as is its demand for spending on infrastructure and projects.
A Deutsche Bank spokesman in Dubai declined to comment further on the changes.
Germany’s largest bank is involved in investment banking and related services, including equity research in Africa. It was among advisers to Steinhoff International Holdings when the furniture chain agreed in November to buy Pepkor Holdings for 62.8bn rand ($5.1bn), South Africa’s biggest deal in the past 12 months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Deutsche Bank’s Middle East operations include advising on debt and equity capital markets and wealth management. It also has a presence in Saudi Arabia, which will open its stock market to foreign investors later this year.
Dubai’s connections with Africa have increased after local airline Emirates boosted the number of cities it flies to on the continent in recent years.
“The economic relationships between the Sub Saharan Africa region and the Gulf Co-operation Council countries are constantly growing due to their geographic proximity, expanding logistical linkages and existing social networks,” Aram said. “This is leading to expanding trade and investments including in partnership with Asian clients.”