Gatehouse Bank appoints Ewa Gracey as Head of Distribution

Published: 9 May 2008

Ewa Gracey has been appointed Head of Distribution at Gatehouse Bank, the fully Sharia-compliant wholesale investment bank recently approved by the UK Financial Services Authority.

Ewa will be responsible for leading her team in placing capital market instruments, as well as structuring and arranging a range of investment options for Islamic institutions, institutional investors and Private Wealth Management clients in the Gulf Region. She will also focus on providing Shariah-compliant products to conventional investors in Europe and GCC. Ewa will report directly to Gatehouse Bank CEO, David Testa.

Ewa joins Gatehouse from WestLB where she spent the last 11 years in a number of capital market roles, most recently, heading its EMEA Loan Distribution team. Ewa was primarily responsible for the placement of loan and bond products to international investors and, from 2004, spearheaded the development of its international investor base for Shariah-compliant products, including sukuks, syndicated credit facilities and synthetic structured products.

Notable deals placed by Ewa include a US Dollars 1.1 billion Murabaha for Arcapita, a US Dollars 150 million Sukuk for The Investment Dar Company, a US Dollars 600 million Ijara Sukuk for Dar Al Arkan, a US Dollars 475 million Sukuk for National Industries Group and a US Dollars 225 million Islamic Acquisition Financing of Aston Martin.

Prior to joining WestLB, Ewa spent several years at HSBC within its Emerging Markets team, where her roles included inter alia head of secondary trading loan market documentation team, emerging market debt trading and arbitrage, debt origination for Latin America and fixed income sales.

David Testa, CEO, Gatehouse Bank, welcomed Ewa Gracey's appointment. “With her extensive experience and an impressive track record in not only investment banking, but also Shariah-compliant products, Ewa has the rare skill set that Gatehouse Bank looks for in its employees. We recruit talented individuals who combine a proven track record in Shariah-compliant products as well as world class investment banking experience."

He added, “Investors around the world are becoming more familiar with Shariah-compliant products like sukuks and Ewa’s appointment further strengthens our ability to provide diversified products for traditional investors as well as finance to Islamic issuers.”

Acording to Ewa Gracey, "Gatehouse is ideally positioned to benefit from the fast growing global interest in Sharia-compliant financial solutions. The City of London is emerging as a leading financial centre for Islamic Finance, which combined with Gatehouse’s network and focus on wholesale investment banking, creates very real opportunities.”

Gatehouse Bank plc (Gatehouse) was established in May 2007 and received authorisation from the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to act as a Sharia-compliant wholesale investment bank in the United Kingdom in April 2008. The bank says it will undertake all of its activities in accordance with Sharia principles and will focus on business opportunities throughout the Gulf region, Europe and North America, as well as targeted countries in the emerging markets and South-East Asia.

It has four key areas of business: Capital markets (including Sukuk issues and syndicated financings); Institutional wealth management; Treasury business; and Sharia advisory services.

Gatehouse is a subsidiary of The Securities House KSCC, Kuwait.