Dubai: Arqaam Capital Ltd, the Dubai-based investment bank focusing on emerging markets, is closing its South African office, a person familiar with the situation said.
The company, which opened an office in Johannesburg in 2014, said on Monday it was ceasing research coverage in South Africa, according to a note to clients seen by Bloomberg. Clients haven’t yet been informed that the office, which employs about 17 people, is closing, the person said, declining to be identified because an official notification on that hasn’t been sent out.
A call to the company’s corporate communications office in Dubai, where it’s a public holiday Tuesday, wasn’t answered. Jaap Meijer, Arqaam’s managing director of equity research in Dubai, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment sent by text message.
Arqaam’s closing follows an announcement by Macquarie Group Ltd. in October that it’s shutting its cash-equities business in South Africa this year and a significant reduction in the South African staffing of Deutsche Bank AG. Credit Suisse Group AG reduced its presence in the country last year.
