Deep Dive: Middle East & Türkiye
Navigating economic challenges and opportunities amid global volatility
Despite limited direct exposures to US tariffs, Middle East and Türkiye issuers are facing headwinds in the form of weaker global growth outlook, lower oil prices and increased market volatility. These challenges contrast with improving medium-term growth prospects related to the implementation of structural reforms and the strong momentum behind a wide range of public sector driven economic diversification projects. Türkiye's monetary and fiscal policy adjustment remains on track but is being challenged by depreciation pressure on the currency due to global market volatility and domestic political tensions. Elevated geopolitical tensions in the broader Middle East region remain the key tail risk.
Discussion Topics:
- What is driving sovereign creditworthiness and growth prospects across the region?
- How resilient is the GCC banking sector in the face of global challenges?
- How is GCC economic diversification transforming the corporate landscape?
- How are Türkiye’s issuers coping with high inflation and interest rates and increased volatility?
Speakers
Yasmina Serghini, CFA
Managing Director, Corporate Finance (including MEA corporates)
Moody's Ratings
Nitish Bhojnagarwala
Associate Managing Director, Financial Institutions
Moody's Ratings
Alexander Perjéssy
Vice President - Senior Credit Officer, Sovereign Risk
Moody's Ratings
Mikhail Shipilov
Vice President-Senior Analyst, EMEA Corporate Finance
Moody's Ratings
Aziz Al Sammarai
Assistant Vice President – Analyst, Corporate Finance
Moody's Ratings
Badis Shubailat
Vice President - Senior Analyst, Financial Institutions
Moody's Ratings
Paul Feghaly
Analyst, Corporate Finance
Moody's Ratings
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Yasmina Serghini is a Managing Director in Moody’s Rating's Corporate Finance Group. She manages the teams in Madrid, Milan and Paris that are responsible for investment grade and high yield companies primarily in the TMT, retail, pharmaceutical, healthcare, food, packaged goods, railways and postal services industries.
Since joining Moody’s in 2005, Yasmina has been in charge of the credit ratings of automotive and truck manufacturers, retail, consumer packaged goods companies, including beverages and business services companies. Prior to joining Moody’s, Yasmina worked for Caisse Nationale des Caisses d’Epargne as a credit risk analyst where she had responsibilities for the analysis of companies mainly in the airlines, telecoms and real estate industries as well as aircraft and shipping financings. Yasmina is a CFA charterholder.
She holds a Postgraduate Diploma (“DESS”) in Finance from Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and has a university degree (majoring in Finance) from Dauphine University (Paris). She is fluent in English, French and Moroccan.
Nitish Bhojnagarwala is an Associate Managing Director with Moody’s Financial Institutions Group. Based in Dubai, Nitish covers a portfolio of large conventional as well as Islamic financial institutions in the Middle East, Africa and Turkey.
Nitish joined Moody’s in 2011, and has led sukuk roundtables and conducted workshops on Banking and Islamic finance at various conferences in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. Nitish has also authored several research pieces, with a focus on regional banking, credit issues and issuer-in-depths for conventional as well as Islamic banks.
Prior to joining Moody’s, Nitish spent five years at Tamweel in the Treasury function. He has also worked for KPMG in the UAE, where he covered financial institutions. Nitish holds an MBA from S P Jain Institute of Management & Research, with a major in Finance (Investment Banking).
Alexander Perjéssy is Vice President – Senior Credit Officer at the Moody’s Sovereign Risk Group.
Based in Dubai, he has lead analyst responsibilities for a number of sovereigns in the Middle East, including most of the Gulf Cooperation Council member states and several regional multilateral institutions.
Prior to joining Moody’s in November 2017, Alex worked for two years as economist at the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Before relocating to the Middle East, Alex spent more than 12 years covering macroeconomic developments and sovereign risk assessment in the emerging markets of the EMEA region for AllianceBernstein and The Rohatyn Group, both US-based asset management firms in New York, as well as for Goldman Sachs in London.
Alex holds an MA in Economics from the University of Maryland and a BA in Economics from Middlebury College.
Aziz Al Sammarai joined Moody’s Corporate Finance in April, 2018. Aziz is based in Toronto office where he covers a portfolio of U.S. and Canadian based companies mainly in the paper and plastic packaging and forest products industry as well as Canadian based airlines and homebuilders. Prior to joining Moody’s, Aziz held multiple roles in the credit rating industry in Toronto. Previously, Aziz worked in external audit roles for KPMG.
Aziz has a Master’s in Finance from the Queen's University and a B.Sc. in Finance from the University of Bedfordshire Oman.
Badis Shubailat is a Senior Analyst with Moody’s Financial Institutions Group. Based in Dubai, Badis covers a portfolio of large conventional as well as Islamic banks in the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Morocco. He is the lead analyst responsible for the Bahraini and Tunisian banking systems and also covered in the past financial institutions in Kuwait, Qatar and Turkey. Since joining Moody’s in March 2014, Badis has authored research publications focusing on GCC and North African credits as well as Islamic Banking. Badis holds a Bachelor in Business Administration from John Cabot University (Rome, Italy) and an MSc in Finance from EADA Business School (Barcelona, Spain). Badis speaks English, French, Arabic and Italian.
Paul Feghaly is an Analyst in Moody’s EMEA Corporate Finance Group based in Dubai. He covers a diversified portfolio, including but not limited to regulated utilities, telecom and real estate companies situated in the Middle East.He joined Moody’s Dubai office in 2018, and previously worked as a senior associate in PwC’s Capital Markets Advisory team for two years, covering IPO and debt transactions in the MENA region. Before that, he has spent around 5 years working in different regional audit and tax functions with both Deloitte and BDO International.Paul holds an associate degree in Audit and Accounting, has passed the US certified public accountant (CPA) examination, and completed the executive CORe program at Harvard Business School Online