Although the global economic crisis has not impacted the GCC quite like elsewhere in the world, it has changed the way companies look for financing, according to Dexia Asset Management regional head Firas Mallah.

'We have noticed an increasing trend to finance with bonds, or sukuk, and equity in reaction to the shrinking volumes of bank lending which was, up to recently, the typical way for companies to get financing,' he told guests at Dexia Asset Management's 2009 Middle East Investor Seminar.

'This increase in regionally sourced securities and the clear determination of governments to develop the local fixed income market will help to develop the local asset management industry to grow, especially with the observed appetite from regional investors for regional securities,' he said.-TradeArabia News Service