(Bloomberg) --
Sammy Kayello, the head of Morgan Stanley’s business in the Middle East and North Africa, is set to step down after almost a decade leading the Wall Street firm in the region.
The US bank’s chief executive officer in Saudi Arabia Abdulaziz Alajaji and Patrick Delivanis, the head of its regional investment banking business, will succeed Kayello as co-heads in MENA, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg News. Alajaji and Delivanis will also continue in their existing roles, while Kayello stay on as an adviser, according to the memo.
During Kayello’s tenure, Morgan Stanley was involved in some of the region’s biggest deals such as the mega initial public offering of Saudi Aramco that raised almost $30 billion. The bank last year ranked sixth among advisers on regional IPOs, behind rivals Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., but ahead of JPMorgan Chase & Co., according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Competition among global banks in the Middle East is intensifying as growing foreign interest and positive economic factors prompt a boom in dealmaking and a flow of funds to the region. Many firms are also expanding in Saudi Arabia as the oil-rich kingdom embarks on a plan to diversify its economy away from oil by selling stakes in state-owned companies and investing in new industries.
Kayello joined Morgan Stanley in 1986 in New York, and spent 20 years in London. He had been part of the bank’s MENA region leadership team since it set up an office in Dubai in 2006.
In a separate move, Gokhan Unal is set to become vice chairman of MENA at Morgan Stanley. That will be in addition to his role as head of Middle East, Asia Pacific ex-Japan and China Sales at the bank’s investment management arm, according to the memo.
(Updates with details throughout.)
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