Spire makes push into Middle East, North Africa markets

Singapore

SPIRE Research and Consulting - a market research and consulting firm, with an emerging markets focus - is expanding into the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region through a joint venture (JV) with Zask Associates. The new company, Spire Research and Consulting Mena LLC, will be headquartered in Dubai.

Spire was co-founded in Singapore by Leon Perera, its global chief executive. In 2016, the company was acquired by TSE-listed Yamada Consulting Group (YCG) as the latter's global brand outside Japan.

Ryosuke Funayama, director in charge of international operations at YCG, called the Spire-Zask partnership an "exciting development" that would help the group support the growth aspirations of its Japanese and global clientele, who see opportunities in the Mena region.

Spire Mena will offer services such as market studies and local business partner selection to Asia-based and multinational clients seeking to crack Mena markets. The company may also work on public policy consulting engagements, as Mena governments seek to innovate and learn from global best practices in the policy arena.

"This is a region on the cusp of change," Mr Perera told The Business Times (BT). "Growth prospects are of course muted during this time of Covid-19. But if you compare the Mena region with other parts of the world, I would say it is really the next region of interest outside of the Asia-Pacific."

"The region is punching above its weight in terms of foreign direct investment (FDI) relative to GDP. The population is young, there is a rising middle class, and there is consumer spending that needs to be addressed. The construction market is very robust, driven by private sector demand as well as government demand for infrastructure."

"Being quite geographically spread out - with urban oases scattered across a lot of desert - the role of infocomm technology and social media is also critical. Many have taken well to social media, and industries like fintech ride on such consumer behaviour patterns."

For local familiarity with and experience in the region, Spire is looking to JV partner Zask Associates, a professional management consultancy established in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Tarek Elhousseiny - a career banker, with experience steering American Express and Visa's expansions into Mena markets - will be appointed as Spire Mena's chief executive.

"We are living in a very different world after Covid-19," Mr Elhousseiny told BT. "There's going to be a lot of difficulties for companies seeking to grow their market share, and spread their wings beyond where they operate at the moment. We want to help our clients develop products and services with an understanding of all the changes which are impacting every aspect of business that we know.

"We also want to make a positive impact in the markets where we operate," he said. "We want to help our clients improve standards of living by introducing better services tailored to these markets - not just ones that have been successful in Japan, or Singapore, or elsewhere. In a nutshell: how do we benefit our clients, and how do we make an impact locally? That's our strategy."

Acknowledging the heterogeneity of the Mena region, Mr Elhousseiny said key countries like the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait (which are Gulf Cooperation Council states), as well as Egypt, are priority markets for Spire Mena at present. The company also sees potential in Tunisia and Morocco, which could be springboards into francophone Africa.

"Mena has got the diversity, the scale, and the natural resources to jumpstart recovery more quickly than many other regions," he said.