If you’re a junior banker who recently banked your bonus, chances are you’re looking around for something else to do instead. The obvious option is private equity – private equity funds have been luring associates from Goldman Sachs in London. Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) might be a better alternative, however.
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) closed its London office late last year. This hasn’t stopped it from poaching junior bankers from firms in London. The latest joiner is Federico Polo, a former associate in Citi’s industrials investment banking team who was focused on the automotive and diversified industrials sectors. Polo joined ADIA this month after spending nearly three years at Citi, where he was promoted to associate in January. Polo is joining ADIA’s Abu Dhabi head office as an associate on the secondaries private equity team.
In January, ADIA also recruited Robert Clarkson-Short, a former investment analyst at GAM in London, It’s also recruited Maxime Wahab, a former senior auditor at PWC in Luxembourg. Over the past year ADIA has pulled analysts and associates from the likes of Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Macquarie.
With finance salaries in London subject to 40% rates of income tax and carried interest in private equity increasingly hard to come by, the appeal of ADIA is clear: there’s no income tax in Abu Dhabi. And according to Glassdoor, salaries for senior associates (Polo is just an associate) at ADIA in Abu Dhabi are anything from AED52k ($14k) to AED75k ($20k) a month.
Related articles:
Goldman hired a VP from Deutsche as its juniors quit for private equityJunior bankers are leaving Goldman Sachs for private equity funds. The firm is hiring to replace them.
How to Get a Job at Abu Dhabi’s $627 Billion Sovereign Wealth FundWould you turn down a role in London, New York or Hong Kong to go and work for what was until October the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund? The Abu
The best paying cities for investment banking analysts and directorsWhere should you base yourself as a senior or junior investment banker?