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BMG forms advisory board for guidance

According to Yara Anabtawi Abduljabbar, director of strategic planning at BMG, the board members come from various facets of the business and financial world and through their vast experience BMG hopes to tap into such know-how and grow the firm into a world-class provider of financial services.

"We are growing at a healthy pace and realise that human capital as our most important asset. Therefore, we put great effort in forming the advisory board as well as attracting qualified and skilled employees from management, down to the smallest support personnel, who all play a crucial role in the business," said Basil Al Ghalayini, CEO of BMG. Abduljabbar, said that the board is diverse both in experience and geography. The constituents bring with them a proven track record from privatisations to mergers and acquisitions, private placements as well as industry specific knowledge that will be very valuable in BMG's ability to add value to clients' business.

Members of the advisory board include leading prominent local, regional and international names such as Mohammed Naghi, chairman of M.Y. Naghi Group of Companies (KSA) and Abdulhadi Shayif, former general manager of the National Commercial Bank, both from Saudi Arabia, Dr. Ratib Al-Shalah, chairman of the Capital Market (Syria), Aladdin Saba, chairman of Beltone Financial (Egypt), Abdulaziz Al-Nabhan, chairman of Al-Ahlia Gulf Holding Co. (Kuwait), Ulrich Wiechmann, banking sector adviser and former Harvard Business School professor (USA) and Dr. Abdulhafeez Sheikh, former minister of privatisation (Pakistan).

During Dr. Sheikh's tenure, Pakistan privatised 80 per cent of its government owned entities. BMG's current business activities include advising insurance companies on their initial public offerings. BMG captured the bulk of the insurance company Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) in terms of total capital of SR1.1 billion and is actively working on advising the second batch of these companies in anticipation of their licence. Other activities include sizable private placement transactions in health care, finance, mining, real estate and retail. Recently, the Capital Market Authority (CMA) granted brokerage and asset management and custody licences to BMG Financial Advisors, which was among the first to receive licences from the CMA in 2005.