John Hobday

John is a partner at Finsbury, based in Dubai and covering the Gulf region. He established the region’s first dedicated financial and corporate PR business in 2003. He is one of the Gulf’s best-known communications professionals and is a regular commentator in regional media.

John headed the team that won financial PR campaign of the year 2013 at the PR Week awards for supporting the listing of Asiacell in Baghdad and was part of the team that won an award for supporting Morrisons in its successful acquisition of Safeway in 2003. He has worked in the Gulf region for more than seventeen years advising corporates and governments throughout the Arab world.

John is a renowned adviser in special situations. Recently he advised Dubai World on its $26bn restructuring, the largest such project in the Middle East. He worked with Arcapita as it sought Chapter 11 protection (the first time a Gulf entity achieved this). He advised Asiacell on its pathfinding listing on the Baghdad bourse, then the largest ECM transaction in the region since 2008 and supported Al Jaber Group, the largest employer in the Gulf on its restructuring. In 2012 John supported Lloyds Banking Group in its disposal of Lloyds TSB Middle East and advised HSBC on its acquisition of Oman International Bank. Most recently he supported NCB on its merger with Samba Bank.

He has advised on capital market transactions, corporate profile raising and crisis management in all Gulf states and other markets in the Middle East such as Jordan, Syria and Iraq.