Sun, Feb 07, 2010

On the last day of January 2010, Mr. Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor, chairman of Al Habtoor Group, received the top team for Goldman Sachs in his offices in the group’s head quarters in Dubai.

Mr. Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs headed the team.

Lloyd C. Blankfein, age 56, is the current Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Goldman Sachs since 2006, after nomination of former CEO Hank Paulson as Secretary of the Treasury.
For the last few days, Mr. Blankfrein’s bonus for 2009 has been the hot topic for all the financial media. The claims reported by the times that he could be paid as much as $100 million for 2009 were dismissed by the bank. Mr Blankfein was paid $67.9 million in 2007. He gave up his bonus in 2008, in common with heads of other Wall Street banks, but last year Goldman’s profits were $1.8 billion higher than in 2007.
Mr. Lloyd Blankfein was accompanied by Mr. Wassim Younan and Mr. Suhail A. Sikhtian. Mr. Younan is the Chief Executive Middle East, based at the bank’s Dubai office; and was formerly head of fixed income, currencies and commodities for Goldman in Hong Kong. And Mr. Suhail A. Sikhtian is the head of investment banking in the Middle East and North Africa region for Goldman.

The meeting which was held in the presence of Mr. Mohammed Al Habtoor, CEO Al Habtoor Group, and Mr. Ahmad Al Habtoor CEO of the group’s motors division Habtoor Motors, as well as top executive of the Group Mr. Alaa El Husseini, Chief Operating Officer and Mr. Sanjeev Agarwala Group Chief Financial Officer.

The chairmen of the two eminent groups deliberated on the state of the economy globally and in the United Arab Emirates. Mr. Blankfein pledged his confidence in the incessant growth of Dubai and the UAE. The two corporations are forecasting collaboration on projects in the UAE and Europe.

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