The iron lady

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She is the boss of Kuwait's biggest investment bank and controls more than $10bn in assests under management at Global Investment House. As the region braces itself for the aftershocks from the seismic changes taking place on Wall Street, Maha Al Ghunaim remains bullish on the Gulf's financial services industry's ability to come through the crisis intact.

A decade has passed since us-educated Maha Al Ghunaim founded Global Investment House. The group was formed with about $50m in start-up capital. Ten years on she's made it on to the Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women and her company has become Kuwait's largest investment house.

But the path to success, was an extremely rocky one. Global's year of formation was the same year that Saddam Hussein decided to invade Kuwait. That may explain why she has a more sanguine take on the ability of regional economies to withstand the growing turmoil in global financial markets.

"It has been a bumpy ride," says Al Ghunaim. "We started in what was a difficult year. Then we saw more crises with the internet bubble, the later crises in the Far East, and now this."

But this may well be the ‘bumpiest' bit of the ride so far. Global has been seeking to invest in wealth management and brokerage businesses in the UK and Malaysia at a time when global financial markets have been going through their most turbulent months in decades.

"Although we always say we should diversify our risks, a crisis like this occurs and shows that the markets are extremely correlated. As a consequence, certain markets like the GCC and good companies within the region have been impacted unfairly," says Al Ghunaim.

The situation is "very difficult" for all companies involved in the financial services sector across the region, stresses Al Ghunaim. Nevertheless, there are certain sectors within the economy today screaming value, especially with relation to blue chip companies, financials and segments of the services sector.

"I think we have seen corrections in their market prices that are exaggerated. The corrections we are seeing today are more psychological rather than having fundamental reasons behind them. We are seeing sort of a negative sentiment and panic. We are also seeing a lot of the big funds holding back from investing, waiting to see how the markets will evolve."

Additionally, the credit situation in different regional banks is tightening, which affects the psychology of investors and fund managers in the market, according to Al Ghunaim.

"From here to year's end we don't expect to see much more of anything that will change that sentiment," she says.

"Only then can we expect to see some confidence coming back into the markets," adds Al Ghunaim, but until then the region will stay in a "very nervous mood".

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