Altea Partners, a London-based merchant banking firm founded in 2024, has appointed Nawaf AlOtaibi as Chief Executive Officer of its Saudi Arabian platform, effective immediately, the firm announced on May 7, 2026. The appointment marks a significant step in the merchant bank's expansion into the kingdom as it builds out an onshore presence through a strategic partnership with a leading Saudi investment holding company.
AlOtaibi will lead Altea Partners' domestic operations and serve as a bridge connecting the Saudi market and broader Gulf Cooperation Council region with Europe and North America. The role comes at a critical moment for the platform, which cannot commence operations onshore until securing required regulatory licenses from Saudi authorities. Co-founders Henning Behre and Kabir Chhatwani emphasized in the announcement that AlOtaibi's standing within Saudi Arabia's financial community and his track record in building a major wealth management franchise aligned with the firm's partnership-driven approach. AlOtaibi noted that the merchant bank's entrepreneurial culture and long-term focus on value creation matched his professional philosophy during a period of significant capital redeployment driven by Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 transformation agenda.
AlOtaibi spent a decade at BSF Capital (formerly Saudi Fransi Capital), where he most recently served as Head of Wealth Management. During his tenure, he built one of the kingdom's leading wealth management platforms serving private clients, family offices, and institutional investors across the GCC. He transformed the business from a product-driven sales model to a fully advisory-driven platform. Earlier in his career, he held the position of Vice President and Head of Compliance at Al Rajhi Capital and spent nine years at Saudi Arabia's Capital Market Authority, contributing to the regulator's Authorized Person Committee since its inception. He holds an MBA in Finance from Alfaisal University and a BBA from Arab Open University, and maintains membership in the CFA Institute and CFA Society Saudi Arabia.
Altea Partners is a principal-led merchant banking firm founded in 2024 and headquartered in Luxembourg, with offices in London and Berlin. The firm operates across two business lines: Investment Advisory, serving long-term investors in private and public markets, and Investment Banking, providing mergers and acquisitions advisory, corporate finance, and capital markets guidance to founders, families, businesses, and their backers across Europe, the Middle East, and North America. The Saudi expansion reflects broader institutional momentum in the kingdom, where Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan have all established regional capital markets presences in recent years.
The appointment signals Altea Partners' deliberate positioning to facilitate cross-border capital flows in alignment with Saudi Arabia's diversification strategy. The firm's decision to recruit an executive with deep regulatory experience and an established track record scaling advisory platforms suggests confidence that onshore licensing will materialize, and that demand exists among high-net-worth clients and institutions for advisory services that bridge Middle Eastern capital with international investment opportunities. AlOtaibi's background spanning wealth management, compliance, and market regulation indicates Altea Partners intends to offer advisory services to sophisticated Saudi clients while maintaining scrupulous attention to regulatory requirements during the firm's critical licensing phase.
