Merrill Lynch Global Private Client has hugely beefed up its Dubai and Bahrain operations by tapping major international rivals HSBC, ABN Am...

Merrill Lynch Global Private Client has hugely beefed up its Dubai and Bahrain operations by tapping major international rivals HSBC, ABN Amro and Citigroup as well as local player Habib Bank for nine new financial advisors. The nine will focus on the development of the high net worth non-resident Indian business in the Middle East. Their appointment follows the recent appointment of Rahul Malhotra from Citibank to head ML GPC’s onshore operation in India as well as the non-resident Indian business, and throws down the gauntlet to other wealth managers in the region. Manish Agrawal, Rajiv Sodhi, Inderpal Singh and Sameer Baig join from ABN Amro, Dubai. Mr Agrawal was a senior derivatives trader and has 13 years banking experience, the past 10 of which were spent in Dubai. Mr Baig and Mr Sodhi were both relationship managers with ABN Amro’s preferred banking division with strong track records in new business development. Mr Singh was head of NRI business development and previously worked with DSP Merrill Lynch in India. Also joining Merrill is Pratap Chaubal, who will be based in Dubai. He was previously a senior private banker at Citigroup in Mumbai. Manisha Malik joins from HSBC Dubai where she was a senior premier relationship manager in NRI services. Yuven Hora joins from Habib Bank, Dubai, where he was head of consumer sales. Subhash Rajan joins from Citibank, Dubai, where he was a manager in NRI investment services. Finally, Sujit Pillai joins from Citibank, Bahrain, where he was a relationship officer. According to the Merrill Lynch World Wealth Report, India is one of the fastest-growing markets globally for high net worth individuals and this enhancement to the bank’s Middle East NRI team shows its commitment to the lucrative Indian market. “We have an aggressive strategy to grow our Indian business over the next five years. This includes targeting not only the fast growing number of HNWIs in India itself, but the expanding number of high net worth Indians based in Dubai and the surrounding area. These appointments signal a step change in our Middle East NRI capacity and we will continue to work hard to develop our business in the region by offering our clients the very best products and services,” said Ausaf Abbas, chief administrative officer for GPC EMEA Pacific and head of GPC for Middle East and India. Merrill Lynch Global Private Client has total client assets under management of $1.5 trillion.