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Global banking major BNP Paribas relocates its regional office to Bahrain Financial Harbour
Manama, Bahrain, 9th September 2007: In a landmark announcement, Bahrain Financial Harbour Holding Company (BFHHC) today confirmed it had signed a lease Agreement with the global banking major, BNP Paribas. As per the terms of the agreement BNP Paribas has committed to an uptake of 5 floors (covering an area of over 5000 sqm) in the Harbour Towers, which forms a key component of the recently launched Financial Centre - Phase I of the landmark Bahrain Financial Harbour (BFH).Welcoming the initiative, Mr. Stephen Rothel, Chief Executive Officer, BFHHC said: "We are delighted that BNP Paribas, one of the leading global financial players has now signed with BFH. BNP Paribas, has one of the largest international banking networks, and will be relocating its regional hub and Bahrain's full service commercial branch to BFH thus reinforcing its positioning as the Kingdom's main financial district. This move also absolutely vindicates BFH's clear vision and strategy of creating a world-class Financial Centre Development model.
"This is also one of the largest private sector lettings in the Kingdom of Bahrain for some time and accordingly is extremely significant for Bahrain and for BFH."
"Furthermore, in addition to the more obvious benefits, we are confident that the Islamic Banking focus of both BFH and BNP Paribas will benefit immensely from this move. One of the central aims of BFH is to create an environment that is at the forefront of innovation, best-practices and development in the sector," Mr. Rothel added.
BNP Paribas is a leading player in the Gulf Cooperation Council (G.C.C.) and all core business lines of the Group are present in Bahrain:
- Corporate and Investment Banking through its regional platform
- International Retail and Financial Services through the retail branches
- Asset Management and Services through the regional asset management team
BNP offers a comprehensive range of products to governments, large corporates, mid side companies, financial institutions and high net worth individuals throughout a network of six commercial branches in the region. This includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates "Abu Dhabi and Dubai" and an investment banking platform based in Bahrain.
Mr. Jean-Christophe Durand, Regional Director of G.C.C. Countries, BNP Paribas said:
"Our growth ambitions in the region started with the creation of the BNP Paribas G.C.C. regional hub in Bahrain in 2001. Since then, the bank has registered a very sustained revenues growth and its total number of employees in Bahrain has trebled. This increase is linked to the geographic expansion in the region and the relocation of several business lines specialists from the Head Office to Bahrain. The development success has highlighted the G.C.C. region on BNP Paribas worldwide map to be among the strategic regions for the Group.
"BNP Paribas conducted an exhaustive search in Bahrain to find a suitable location of its regional operations; and following these investigations selected BFH due to its landmark status and state of the art technologies which meet with BNP Paribas' corporate and development requirements in the Kingdom of Bahrain, added Mr Durand.
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Note to the editor
About BNP Paribas in the Gulf
BNP Paribas has been operating in the Gulf for over 35 years with a presence in five Gulf countries (Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia). The teams also cover Oman and Yemen. BNP Paribas in the region accounts for approximately 480 employees. The Regional Management is based in Bahrain which is the regional hub for BNP Paribas in the Gulf.
About BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas (www.bnpparibas.com) is a European leader in banking and financial services, and ranks among the world's top 15 banks by market capitalization. It has 150 000 employees, almost 120 000 of whom are based in Europe. The group occupies leading positions in three significant fields of activity: Corporate and Investment Banking, Asset Management & Services and Retail Banking. It is present in 85 countries and has a strong presence in all the key financial centres. Present throughout Europe, in all its business lines, France and Italy are its two domestic markets in retail banking. BNP Paribas enjoys a significant and growing presence in the United States and leading positions in Asia and in emerging markets.
About BFH
A fully integrated, master-planned development, the US$ 1.5 billion Bahrain Financial Harbour (BFH), is aimed at creating a complete financial city, a self contained community and reinforcing Bahrain's unsurpassed position as the financial capital of the Middle East. A first of its kind development in the region, BFH is a highly focused, committed and advanced financial environment spread over 380,000 square metres of prime seafront property in the centre of Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain. Furthermore, it comprises of 10 projects that uniquely combines business, leisure and residential components under one canopy. Phase I of the project ‘The Financial Centre' which includes the Harbour Towers - Bahrain's tallest towers and the Harbour Mall. The Financial Centre is operational and open for business
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