Abu Dhabi’s ADS Securities Eyes Investment Banking, Asset Management

Abu Dhabi’s ADS Securities is expanding into new services including investment banking and asset management following its acquisition of a London brokerage firm, its vice chairman and executive managing director said on Tuesday.

Privately owned ADS, which started operations with capital of $400 million in March 2011 as a dealer in foreign exchange and bullion, plans to develop from a brokerage into a full-service financial firm.

“We want to consolidate on what we have initiated in the new era of finance post-financial crisis,” Philippe Ghanem told Reuters.

Headquartered in Abu Dhabi, ADS has a regional office in Hong Kong and a support office in Singapore, and a total of about 180 staff. On Tuesday it announced it had completed the acquisition of 100 per cent of London-based Pioneer Trader Ltd.

James Watson, former head of foreign exchange for Europe and the Middle East at Thomson Reuters, has been hired as the new managing director for ADS London.

ADS, which currently has over 10,000 clients, saw its revenues grow 60 per cent from a year earlier in the first half of 2014, Ghanem said without giving a monetary figure.