We sat down with Dany Sabeh, a financial professional who moved from France to Dubai in early 2024, looking for a challenge. During a conversation with Sarwa’s CEO and co-founder, Mark Chahwan, Dany opened up about his investing journey – from the early wake-up call of the Lebanese financial crisis, to discovering undervalued stocks on the Paris exchange, to eventually building a portfolio that works for him. 

What started as a conversation about markets quickly turned into something more: candid discussion about career growth, stepping out of comfort zones, and why starting early is the single best thing you can do.

You’ve been investing since 2019. Walk me through how that started and how you landed on a tech-heavy portfolio.

Dany: It started in 2019 and the idea of investing came to my mind because of the crisis in Lebanon. Money in the bank was not safe. So in 2020 I purchased my first apartment in Paris because of this. For the stocks, it was Covid. I started in April 2020 when everything collapsed, I saw an opportunity. Without having any knowledge of the stock market, I decided to buy some stocks and brands I know. It started with small amounts. And of course in the beginning I was checking my phone all the time. Did it go up? Did it go down? I would spend 10 hours per day just checking what’s happening.

I had a friend who was an analyst at Exxon. He was telling me, buy this stock, buy that stock. Some stocks I bought, but I wasn’t satisfied. If I saw that it was going down, I thought “why did I follow him? This is not my own due diligence. It’s because he told me so.

In the beginning I invested only on the European stock market, mainly the French stock market as I was more familiar with that.

Then I came across a company. I heard about it on TV. It was called SES-imagotag. Electronic shelf labels. It was trading at €20 per share and I bought some. And then it was increasing and increasing and increasing. Three months ago it reached 280. I didn’t hold it all the time. I sold in the beginning, then purchased again, et cetera.

When you discovered the stock so early, how did you manage to keep buying at higher and higher prices? People usually find that very challenging.

Dany: It was more convincing. I heard that it was a leader in its market with a very small market cap. And every month there was news that they got a big contract. I didn’t do the technical and fundamental analysis, but based on the information I was seeing, I wondered “how is it so undervalued?” 

At some point it reached 170 and then dropped to 70 (shakes head)

Almost 70% drop in a single day. There was one investment fund that started spreading rumors about it. I did some research. Should I sell to limit my drawdown because I was still in the green. Or do I keep it because I’m still convinced it’s going well? Then it recovered a bit, it went to 80, 90. I decided to stay invested. Then it recovered back to the all time high and kept going up until a few months ago when it was at 280.

Six years as an investor, how has your style evolved?

Dany: Both dollar-cost-averaging (DCA) and being opportunistic. Usually I do $2,000 per month. But sometimes I inject more. Sometimes instead of making the same split, I think, okay, maybe I should invest more in other companies to reduce the impact in case Broadcom collapses or something happens in the AI sector.

Two months ago I invested fully in only two companies: IonQ in quantum and NuScale in nuclear. Nuclear and quantum are potential markets that will grow, multiply several x. So it’s more of a conviction bet. Some stocks I hold are big companies that almost everyone knows. Others I follow on Twitter or Instagram where the stocks were mentioned.

Broadcom I detected from one guy on Twitter called the Dividend King. He’s focused on stocks that pay dividends. And I have another one called Cintas. They rent all the equipment for cleaning. It’s not a company that you would think, oh, I’m interested in this. To me it’s not about what they do, it’s about what you can get from it.

On crypto, I wish that Bitcoin goes back to 50k. For me it will be a real opportunity. Same thing for other companies I own. 

Getting to career, you’ve been at Bureau Veritas for nearly ten years, which is rare. What kept you there, and what eventually pushed you toward Dubai from France?

Dany: I started at PwC. I did it for four years. Then Bureau Veritas. Four years internal audit, then four years internal control. I feel like I have four year cycles.

In 2023, we deployed the biggest internal financial project for Bureau Veritas. It was the internal control solution platform, which impacted 140 countries and 500 entities. This was a big project for financial people. After putting this project in place, it was complicated to go back to something more casual. It was the first time I was fully invested in something because it had a really big impact.

Once I finished this, I said, “okay, maybe it’s time to move again to something else.” And I also wanted to change my lifestyle. The best way to do it was by moving out of Paris. I was really in the comfort zone in Paris. Work became easy. You go with the same friends, you don’t meet new people because you are with the same ones. I was happy with this, I’m not saying I wasn’t. But it was too early in my life to feel settled. So I moved.

But I didn’t want to move completely from scratch somewhere with no network. I had eight years at Bureau Veritas with a good reputation and I traveled a lot with them. So the network knew me. They were willing to offer me an opportunity in the UAE. The position was not readily available; we created the role specifically for me. Six months after I joined, I expanded my scope. It was the Middle East region, then it became the Middle East, Caspian and Africa. 

How did you handle the move internally?

Dany: I came in undervalued but I accepted it because I wanted to come to Dubai. It was still a good amount of money. I told myself “take it, then once you are there, create the opportunity.” Since then, I’ve had two promotions in two years. It’s rare. And with significant readjustment of the package (laughs)

What advice do you have for people who are on the fence about investing?

Dany: I’m trying to encourage a lot of people to start investing. 

If you put €100 per month at 8% over 30 years, compared to someone who starts at 30 and doubles the amount, you will still get more. The figures speak for themselves. Start early.