Lazard joins Goldman in setting up regional base in Saudi capital
Stonepeak, a New York-based investment firm managing $71 billion in assets, said it will open a Middle East office in the Abu Dhabi Global Market
The Kingdom Centre skyscraper in Riyadh (Getty Images)
Saudi Arabia’s push to anchor itself as a global financial capital lassoed another Wall Street firm as Lazard Inc. received a government license to establish a regional headquarters in Riyadh.
The authorization by the kingdom’s Ministry of Investment will allow Lazard to compete for government contracts that can be granted only to international companies that comply with the law requiring a substantial presence in Saudi Arabia, Bloomberg reports.
Goldman Sachs became the first major financial institution to get its regional headquarters license in May, while Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group Inc. received the authorization in June.
In the UAE, meanwhile, Stonepeak, a New York-based investment firm with $71 billion in assets, said it will open an office in the Abu Dhabi Global Market, joining a wave of financial firms drawn by the UAE capital’s expanding wealth.