Netherlands financial-service giant sets sights on Persian Gulf region HNW. Amsterdam-based ING Investment Management (ING IM) has opened a new wealth-management office in Dubai the United Arab Emirates to cover its Middle East and North Africa region.

Grant Bailey, CEO of ING IM's Australian operations, will head the Dubai office. David McClachy, Bailey's deputy CEO, will assume his position in Australia.

Bailey will report to Hong Kong-based Chris Ryan, CEO of ING IM's Asian-Pacific business.

"There is growing cross-investment between Asia and the Middle East, and that was a big factor" for making the Dubai office part of its Asian business, says Ryan.

Gusher

Though the Middle East is Asian in geographic terms, many U.S. and European wealth and investment managers manage their business in the region from Europe.

In setting up shop in Dubai, ING IM joins a gush of private banks and investment firms into the U.A.E, among them Mirabaud & Cie, American Express' Global Wealth Management group, UBS and the Carlyle Group.

In Dubai, ING IM will target high-net-worth and institutional investors -- especially the corporations and private-investment companies in the region, many of which have seen substantial growth in the past few years.

The Dubai office will at first concentrate on sales and marketing, but eventually it will be equipped as an investment center with the requisite IT, operations, risk management and compliance support. ING IM will recruit a CIO and analysts to generate local equity and cash products.

The Middle East -- and especially the oil-rich Arab states of the Persian Gulf -- has benefited from high crude-oil prices in recent years. In 2006 assets held by Middle Easterners with at least $1 million in financial assets increased 11.7%, according to Capgemini's most recent World Wealth Report. That put the Middle East ahead of Asia-Pacific, North America and Europe in terms of personal wealth creation (at least on a bare percentage basis over a single year). The Middle East's population of high-net-worth individuals saw a year-over-year increase of 11.9% to about 300,000 in 2006.

ING IM manages about $555 billion. -FWR

Purchase reproduction rights to this article.