Societe Generale saw its position improve most during the course of the year. From just one live mandate during 2003, SocGen held four in 2004 and - proving that there is plenty of work to go around in Qatar - staged a coup by winning the $5,500 million Qatargas 3 advisory. Its mandates are also well diversified across power, petrochemicals, and oil and gas.

HSBC scores for the largest number of live mandates during 2004, with eight under way at one point or another over the course of the year across four Gulf states. Through the formation of its joint venture investment bank with local affiliate Saudi British Bank, HSBC will be particularly well placed to pick up some of the many advisory mandates on power and petrochemicals projects likely to come out of the kingdom during 2005.

Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) is a new entrant in the table, having taken over ANZ Investment Bank's mandates through the acquisition of its project and structured finance portfolio in the region. The work will provide an ideal launching pad as SCB aims to step up its activities in the Gulf, offering positions in the two most active project markets of Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

While the advisory business remains dominated by the international houses, the trend towards regional banks developing advisory capabilities continues. Samba Financial Group and Bank Muscat appear in this year's survey, joining Arab Banking Corporation, Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (Apicorp), Global Investment House, Gulf International Bank, Gulf Investment Corporation and Riyad Bank. The volume of projects approaching the market makes the timing of their move up-market ideal.