Despite the tensions of war, ex-Barclays CEO Bob Diamond is long Gulf. Here’s why

“The region isn’t hiding in their bunker; they’re doing business,” Bob Diamond tells me on a call from Bahrain, where the Gateway Gulf investment conference is taking place. He is talking to Fortune against a backdrop of simmering tensions around the U.S. midterms and the possibility that the President may restart attacks on Iran.

“I don’t want to be dismissive, there is a war, there is a conflict, whatever term you want to use,” he said. “It’s real, and I’m not going to be dismissive of the impact that’s having on the UAE, on Bahrain, on Qatar. But I will tell you, if you take the time to get here and you’re on the ground, it’s business as usual. The kids are in school. People are working from the office. They’re not hiding at home. They’re doing business. They’re investing.”

The former CEO of Barclays is in Bahrain to announce that the U.K.-based advisory firm, Panmure Liberum, is opening its first regional office in the kingdom. Diamond’s investment vehicle, Atlas Merchant Capital, bought Panmure Gordon for £15.5m ($21m) in 2017. It agreed an all-share merger with Liberum in 2024.

Panmure Liberum is now one of the biggest advisors to U.K.-listed companies based on the number of clients, which total more than 250. It specializes in mid-market companies, with valuations below those served by the bulge-bracket investment banks such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs .

Panmure’s move to Bahrain will allow it to serve the whole region and increase the deal-flow for the advisory firm. Activity levels in the Gulf are in sharp contrast to the number of deals announced in the U.K. In the first half of 2026, deals in the U.K. were down 13% compared with the same period a year ago, according to PwC, a consultancy.

“You have all the talent in the world in London. It’s still a very attractive place for a lot of people,” Diamond said. “The skill set of advisory is very, very deep. But there’s not a lot of deals. I think the statistics on the number of companies that have gone public or raised equity is paltry compared to what it used to be, and they’re losing out not to Frankfurt or Dublin, but to the U.S. and, more and more, to the Middle East.”

“It means that we can build an advisory business here in Bahrain to serve middle market and family-owned businesses, which are dying for cover,” he said. “And we can then expand that to the Gulf Cooperation Council.”

“You have all the talent in the world in London, but not a lot of deals. Companies going public or raising equity are paltry compared to what they used to be, and they’re losing out to the U.S. and more, the Middle East”