NYC Mayor Bloomberg company developing Islamic financing hub in Dubai, exec cites meltdown of western capitalism, virtues of Islamic finance

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Bloomberg chose the Statue of Liberty as a sales aid
to promote the Ground Zero mosque, 8/3/10, getty

• 10/29/08, "Bloomberg makes Dubai a hub," The National, by K. Hagey

"Spurred by a recent boom in sales in the region, Bloomberg is expanding its Dubai office into a regional hub, a move that will as much as quadruple its local staff over the next year.

• Max Linnington, the company’s newly appointed regional head of Middle East and South Asia, announced the expansion today in advance of a panel discussion with economists and dignitaries in front of the Dubai International Financial Centre’s iconic The Gate building, where Bloomberg has had offices for two years.

“We are going to be bringing all the elements of what you would find in one of Bloomberg’s largest offices here in Dubai,” he said.

Although Bloomberg gathers its news and data from bureaus all over the globe, it currently sells its terminals from seven main hubs: London, New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, Sao Paolo and San Francisco.

• The company has had a presence in Dubai for a decade. The planned expansion would increase its staff from 25 to 40 by the end of the year, and to as many as 100 by the middle of next year, Mr Linnington said.

The decision to expand was prompted by strong regional sales of its terminals, which provide financial news and data to bankers, traders, portfolio managers and corporations, as well as to other journalists.

“The region for us has seen explosive growth,” he said.

• “For example, last year in the UAE, we grew our core business by 61 per cent. ...
  

The company has also been developing

• an Islamic finance portal,
  

• which Mr Linnington said would be helped by having more people on the ground building relationships.

“Particularly since the meltdown of the western capitalist system, there has been an increasingly large focus on the

• virtues of Islamic finance,” he said.
  

“Today, there is no one single provider of information that caters to the Islamic finance market. So by Bloomberg being here,

• we are in the process of building out an Islamic finance product.
  

We are very confident that we can build a product that meets the needs of the market right now.”"...

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• As it happens, Dubai is in the middle of a huge financial crisis and must sell major assets. Among those major assets is its
  
• ports operating business, 4th largest in the world. The financial shangri-la is over. (No wonder Bloomberg cried as he imagined his investment in Dubai and Islamic finance not looking so hot now).
  

8/25, "Dubai World may raise up to $19.4 billion from asset sales in 8 years," Bloomberg News, by A. Sharif

• .
  

5/24, "Dubai targets reforms after crisis," ArabTimesOnline

• Dubai, May 24, (Agencies): "Dubai officials are outlining plans for financial reforms in the wake of the
  
• emirate’s credit crisis."...
  

Mayor Bloomberg's business interests were present at the conference addressing the crisis in Dubai:

• "Daniel Doctoroff, the president of Bloomberg LP and former deputy mayor of New York for economic development and rebuilding, said that giving expatriates in Dubai a path to citizenship is key for it to be globally competitive. “In order (for Dubai) to compete on a global scale, a path to citizenship is critical” for expatriates here, Doctoroff told the conference."...

10/2/09, "Bloomberg's office in Dubai to expand its activities," Dubai Chronicle



Bloomberg again using his office as NY mayor to
promote his other interests, at the UN in 2008
preaching global warming. photo gothamist