(Bloomberg) -- Evercore Partners Inc., the investment bank founded by Roger Altman, is planning to hire Elias Mouawad from Bank of America Corp. to run its new Dubai office as part of the bank's Middle East expansion plans, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mouawad -- who's a director for Middle East and North Africa, helping to manage Bank of America's business in Qatar -- will join the boutique adviser as a managing director responsible for Middle East operations, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. Mouawad is expected to continue to work with Bank of America in the coming months during a transition period and is expected to join Evercore in September, one of the people said.
He'll work with Waleed El-Amir, a former UniCredit SpA banker who Evercore appointed in April as senior adviser for the Middle East, Africa and Turkey, to help boost business from the region, they said. Mouawad and representatives for Evercore and Bank of America declined to comment.
Evercore has said it would open a new office in Dubai in the second quarter. The bank won a role to advise on the planned initial public offering of Saudi Arabian Oil Co., and will work alongside rival Moelis & Co., people familiar with the matter have said.
Boutique investment banks are seeking to expand in the Middle East as the governments diversify their economies away from oil, looking for roles as state assets are privatized and fragmented industries consolidate. Houlihan Lokey Inc. is planning to open a Dubai office to win acquisition and restructuring mandates, people familiar with the matter said in March.
Mouawad worked in Bank of America's Paris office as a director before moving to the Middle East in 2013, according to his LinkedIn profile. He previously worked at Credit Suisse before joining the U.S. bank in 2007, the profile shows.
To contact the reporter on this story: Dinesh Nair in London at dnair5@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Aaron Kirchfeld at akirchfeld@bloomberg.net, Amy Thomson, Vernon Wessels
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