Barclays exec adds Middle Eastern to African roles

FWR Staff

13 May 2009

Absa's Vitalo to lead Barclays asset, corporate, private-client biz in Gulf. London-based Barclays has given John Vitalo, CEO of its indirect South African subsidiary Absa Capital, additional responsibilities as head of its investment-banking and asset-management operations in the Middle East.

Barclays says the appointment underlines its commitment to doing business in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa.

"We are delighted John has been given additional responsibilities," says Maria Ramos, CEO of Johannesburg-based Absa Group, a direct subsidiary of Barclays. "This reflects the huge progress made by all the team at Absa Capital and the strength of its management team."

Bosses

As CEO of Barclay's Investment Banking and Investment Management division for the Middle East, Vitalo is responsible for expanding IBIM's three business lines -- Barclays Capital, Barclays Wealth and Barclays Global Investors -- in the region. In this capacity, he reports to Roger Jenkins, executive chairman of Barclays IBIM, Middle East.

As head of Absa Capital, Vitalo continues as a report to Ramos and to Benoit de Vitry, head of European markets and trading and head of commodities and emerging markets for Barclays Capital -- and as head of Absa Wealth, jointly to Ramos and Barclays Wealth CEO Tom Kalaris.

Vitalo will divide his time between Johannesburg and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

In 2006 assets held by Middle Easterners with at least $1 million in financial assets increased 11.7%, according to Merrill Lynch's and Capgemini's 2007 World Wealth Report. That put the Middle East ahead of Asia-Pacific's, North America's and Europe's rates of personal-wealth creation among millionaires that 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.

These statistics paint a poor picture of the staggering amounts of per-capita wealth on hand on in the oil-rich but sparsely populated Persian Gulf region. -FWR

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