​More than 40 global investors met on 22 May with the Middle East’s leading financial services firms at the London Stock Exchange’s first Capital Markets Day for MENA-based financial services companies, co-hosted by EFG Hermes The London Stock Exchange (LSE) hosted the first Capital Markets Day for Banks and Financial Services companies from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region on Friday, 22 May 2009. The event was co-hosted by EFG Hermes, the leading investment bank in the Arab world. More than 40 London-based institutional investors, emerging market funds and analysts as well as members of the media had the opportunity to meet one-on-one with C-suite executives from the MENA region’s most dynamic banks and financial services companies as they present their investment cases. Companies presenting at the LSE included Commercial International Bank and EFG Hermes (Egypt), Bank Audi and Blom Bank (Lebanon), Burgan Bank and KIPCO (Kuwait), and the National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Dubai Islamic Bank (United Arab Emirates). “The LSE event has been a unique opportunity for regional businesses to make known their 2009 investment strategies to the international community in light of the current economic conditions,” says Sherif Cararah, EFG Hermes Securities Brokerage Managing Director. “Meanwhile, London-based investors have been reminded that our region’s banking and financial services sector is very robust, with little-to-no exposure to toxic assets, generally more-than-safe ratios of loans to deposits and a market that is still largely under-banked.” Due to strong interest from global and regional investors for individual meetings with presenters, the group meetings and main sessions were replaced by the one-on-one meetings.