The Middle East finance sector has been experiencing significant momentum—and foreign firms are paying attention. Since launching as a metals and energy broker in 2005, Marex has grown into a global non-bank financial services platform. Headquartered in London, the company is focused on helping clients trade across all markets, including financial markets as well as commodities— from coffee to copper and gold to natural gas. Its next venture? The GCC.
Building on success
Marex has recently embarked on a remarkable growth journey. In April, Marex Group and its shareholders offered 15.4 million shares in a US initial public offering (IPO). The offering raised $292 million and paved the way to a predicted adjusted operating profit of $300 million for 2024.
“A lot of our success is down to how we’ve grown and diversified our business model: we have continued to add capabilities and geographies to our platform, so that we now operate across segments, including clearing and market making, and asset classes such as financial markets and environmental products,” Paolo Tonucci, Chief Strategist and CEO of Marex Capital Markets, explained.
Unlike a lot of our competitors,
we now offer a full-service
financial and commodities offering.
This is rare, if not unique, in the Middle East
– Shahab Hashemi
The company’s growth journey has been determined by four planned acquisitions. Marex is expanding its Middle East presence through the acquisition of Aarna Capital and its FX capabilities through proposed purchase of Hamilton Court Group. On the sustainability side, the company acquired biofuels specialist Dropet, and entered a carbon credit partnership with Key Carbon.
“We’ve made smart acquisitions,” Tonucci said. “We’ve been supported by helpful market conditions: the volumes within commodities and financial markets have grown steadily. Our diversification strategy means we’ve been able to capitalise on that.”
The Middle East expansion
The Middle East represents an important growth market for Marex. In 2022, the company also acquired ED&F Man Capital Markets. In the two years since that deal, Marex has grown from just over 20 people in the region to over 60, increasing its energy and commodities coverage, particularly for metals, energy and environmental markets.
Marex has established a reputation
for growing profitably and helping our clients trade even in the most turbulent conditions
– Paolo Tonucci
“The Middle East represents an important growth market for Marex,” said Shahab Hashemi, Senior Executive Officer, Marex MENA. “I’d say Marex now has the broadest offerings of asset classes in the Middle East versus our competitors. We still have a strong heritage in commodities, but now we’re expanding our capital markets capabilities, particularly by building teams with deep experience in MENA financial services.”
Marex’s opening of a new Dubai office— one of the largest of any non-bank in the Emirate— reflects the company’s growth in the region. For example, Marex has increased its energy and commodities coverage in the Middle East, particularly for metals, energy and environmental markets. In Hashemi’s words, the office is “a statement of intent”.
“We want to show our commitment to the region; we want to spend time with our clients across the Middle East–as well as Dubai and Abu Dhabi,” he said. “We can give them excellent service and growing our workforce on the ground shows that we mean business.”
Partnering for growth
When looking at its expansion journey, one of the key steps Marex has taken has been announcing its planned acquisition of Aarna Capital. Based in Abu Dhabi, the company provides clearing, execution and customised risk management solutions in energy, base and ferrous metals, as well as financial markets such as equities, fixed income and FX. The acquisition will allow Marex to form a team in Abu Dhabi, increasing the company’s presence in the region to around 100 people. Moreover, it is also expected to provide the firm with access to about 180 new clients, including investors, family offices and companies.
“At the heart of all these deals is our strategy to connect clients to markets,” Tonucci said. Discussing the potential for growth this new business will provide he added, “it fits with our strategy to expand globally and diversify”. “Marex has established a reputation for growing profitably and helping our clients trade even in the most turbulent conditions,” he added. “This deal will build on that strategy.”
Marex expects the new business to contribute around 5% of Marex Group’s profit after tax from 2025 onwards. Moreover, the deal is also set to bring synergies and increase profits “from day one”, as Marex will save on clearing fees and earn more from financing relationships. The deal is currently pending regulatory approval.
Full-service offerings
In contrast to many other commodities specialists in the region, Marex works across the entire trade lifecycle. As well as execution, the company offers market making, prime brokerage and clearing services, as a clearing member at the world’s major commodities exchanges—including CME Clearing, Eurex Clearing, ICE Clear and LME Clear. Thus, it has emerged as one of the few firms in the region to offer clearing as well as execution services. For clients looking for off-exchange solutions, it also offers bespoke hedging and investment capabilities.
“Having a full-service offering is critical. It really makes Marex stand out from our peer group,” Hashemi said. “Unlike a lot of our competitors, we now offer a full-service financial and commodities offering. This is rare, if not unique, in the Middle East.”
This breadth of service has allowed Marex to help clients on specific projects, such as carbon offsetting.
Hashemi provided an example. One of the company’s clients, a sovereign wealth fund in the Middle East, needed externally verifiable carbon credits to offset greenhouse gas emissions on a city-scale infrastructure project. Marex was able to source a package of voluntary offsets from across the world to meet the project’s scale and verification needs, ranging from wind turbine, natural gas leakage reduction, hydro and cook stove schemes. “These helped the project offset millions of tonnes of carbon,” Hashemi added.
Looking ahead
When examining the future, the Marex team has a positive outlook. The financial sector in the region is only growing, and the company is working to form talented teams that can best serve the needs of their clients, looking to become the perfect partner to support banks, hedge funds, investment managers and family offices as they grow across the region.
“The Middle East is an important hub for global trade, infrastructure and finance,” Tonucci noted. “There is enormous growth here, and it offers big opportunities in energy, metals and financial markets.
