Spain NAB: ‘Impact-Washing…? It’s a Thing, and to be Avoided at All Costs

The Spanish impact investment market is catching the eye of mainstream financiers — with increasing frequency.

With that attention comes the risk of “impact-washing”, which — according to the GIIN’s latest annual survey — ranks as the main challenge for impact investors in the next five years.

Regulation that provides transparency on impact classes is necessary, as is the availability of public catalytic capital to build a market for innovation and impact at scale.

SpainNAB — the Spanish National Advisory Board for Impact Investment — is associated to the Global Steering Group (GSG) for Impact Investment. SpainNAB estimates that the Spanish impact investment market amounted to €2.3bn at the end of 2020, up 26 percent from 2019 — mostly driven by venture capital funds, up 34 percent year-on-year.

Of the total figure, 64 percent was comprised of loans from ethical banks, and just 23 percent — €536m — was from private equity and venture capital vehicles. Foundations made up 10 percent of the market.

"We applaud the homogeneity and the regulation to achieve first-mover advantage. This is a feasible ambition that can improve the lives of many and preserve our planet."

This is in sharp contrast to SpainSIF’s 2019 estimate of €22bn in impact investment strategies from domestic manag-ers. This calculation includes investments in assets such as green, social and sustainability bonds, which have been growing at a cracking pace.

But should these assets be counted as impact investments? We think not.

Although the SpainNAB and SpainSIF’s figures are not comparable since the calculations are based on very different methodologies, we believe the large discrepancy is representative of the confusion in the market.

The rapid pace of mainstream players entering the sustainability space and widening the offering of so-called impact investment products has tested the boundaries of the traditional market. Incumbent methodologies such as the one used by SpainSIF are neither capable nor designed to provide the level of transparency required to understand the nuances of impact strategies.

These methodologies are based on surveys that ask for self-classification of assets, using the standard definition: any investment with an intention to generate a measureable positive impact for society and the planet along with a fi-nancial return.

This definition is vague enough to be subject to very different interpretations.

More importantly, those methodologies do not provide the granularity needed to understand the stage of devel-opment of the market and which spots may require support from public capital, mostly in the form of catalytic capi-tal. We believe that type of information is paramount to build a strong and healthy impact investment ecosystem that supports a more resilient and just society.

In an effort to provide transparency and ensure integrity, SpainNAB launched a study in October last year to gauge the Spanish impact investment market, supported by a group of experts in the space.

The methodology developed was based on a survey aimed at identifying the key features that define impact invest-ing — intentionality, measurability, additionality and financial return — but avoiding the explicit use of those terms. Responses were sorted using the impact classification system from the Impact Management Project, which allowed the market to be segmented according to the type of impact each specific investment strategy generated.

It only considered assets that were intended to contribute to solutions, and were managed from Spain. It included a wider scope of actors — beyond fund managers — active in the foundations, microfinance institutions and ethical banks.

This market segmentation exercise has gone a step further by encouraging other European National Advisory Boards for Impact Investment (NABs) that had developed, or were thinking of developing, proprietary methodolo-gies. The aim was to size their impact investment markets, to harmonise their numbers with the goal of creating a single impact investment market in Europe, and to provide transparency about the market development.

The collaborative was presented at the European Social Economy Summit held in Mannheim at the end of May. As well as helping to grow the market, the harmonisation could prove useful for policy-makers. That includes the Euro-pean Commission as it works out its new action plan for the social and solidarity economy for the period 2021-2027— and further develops its common sustainable finance strategy. It is also being considered by the GSG as a pilot for the NABs ecosystem, in an attempt to preserve market integrity.

The new European Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) along with the ESG taxonomy and the non-financial reporting directive are meant to provide transparency and create a single European market which leads the world in sustainable finance.

We applaud the homogeneity and the regulation to achieve first-mover advantage. This is a feasible ambition that can improve the lives of many and preserve our planet.

However, by creating an overly generic sustainable financial label that does not differentiate between impact clas-ses of investments and financial products, the EU strategy also risks diluting impact investment instead of making it mainstream. There should be a differentiated seal for investments that tackle urgent social and environmental chal-lenges and demonstrate they can improve the lives of underserved people and the planet.

To trigger systemic change, the use of financial instruments for impact and innovative finance will be key to attract much needed private capital. Not only to solve specific issues, but to start doing things in a different way, ensuring a just transition, and making our society truly more resilient.

To that end, it is vital that there is catalytic capital from public sources, able to assume disproportionate risk or re-turn in order to attract third party capital.

SpainNAB has activated corporates, foundations and investors to urge the government to launch a national strategy that leverages public catalytic capital to foster the impact investment ecosystem and support market building.

NextGenEU, the €750bn stimulus package from the EC — of which Spain is getting more than €140bn — to make Europe greener, more digital and more resilient, the €1tn 2021-2027 EC budget (MFF), and InvestEU, a package of guarantees, and other EU structural funds, present an opportunity to launch a national impact wholesaler. And it would be one that fosters private-public alliances to build-back better, similar to those in Portugal and France.

All investments have an impact, but not all of them are impact investments that can take us where we need to be as a society.

By Laura Blanco Director of Knowledge and Outreach & José Luis Ruiz de Munain CEO

[caption id="attachment_15259" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Author: Laura Blanco[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_15260" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Author: José Luis Ruiz de Munain[/caption]


Glued to the Box, or Linked to a Laptop? Streaming is Up-ending Entertainment

Digital consumer habits are reshaping the entertainment industry. A recent report by consulting firm Deloitte found that UK residents are now more likely than ever to have multiple subscription-based, on-demand services for film, TV, and video games.

That shift, and changes in mobility patterns, point to a lasting change in the £1.4tn global entertainment sector.

Stay-at-home orders affected almost all industries. According to the annual THEME report by the Motion Picture Association, the combined worth of the world’s theatrical, home, and mobile entertainment sector in 2020 was $80.8bn. An impressive sum, but there was a 72 percent decrease in the global box office.

Cinemas closed and film production was postponed or cancelled as the digital market shot up by 31 percent, driven by a flood of subscriptions to Netflix, Disney Plus, and Amazon Prime. Combine these stats with findings on consumer habits, and a picture of growth emerges for the streaming industry.

Over the past two years, on-demand services have increased by 17 percent. Traditionally, over-55s have dominated TV viewing figures, with around five hours spent daily “glued to the box”. This age group may comprise the traditional TV consumer base, but it has seen a 20 percent rise in subscription video on-demand (SVOD) services.

The major streaming companies have seen massive gains. According to the Deloitte report, 38 percent of UK residents have taken on such a service — and two-thirds of them intend to keep it. There has been a distinct change in consumer demands and preferences: people want to watch what they want, when they want. Adapting to that mindset is a challenge for traditional television companies. How will the networks compete?

The pandemic has put a hold on many staple productions from smaller production companies. Shows like Strictly Come Dancing resorted to shorter seasons, while The Great British Bake Off created a “bubble” for contestants and staff to ensure adherence to health guidelines. Insurance costs increased, with potential financial setbacks in the event of a Covid outbreak. Streaming sensations like The Mandalorian or The Queen’s Gambit also faced challenges, but the scale of production meant an increased ability to weather the storm of increased costs.

That situation is likely to endure, so the question becomes: Will consumers continue to value traditional media, or will streaming productions win out?

There has been a change in mobility patterns, too, as people spend less time commuting or in the office and more time at home. TV producers will need to capitalise on this extra free time, meaning a need for increased production.

Changes in consumer preference have altered the outlook for many industries. The shift to digital viewing, and the need for increased content, will further empower the streaming juggernaut — and could herald a new age of entertainment media.

By Yogesh Patel


Cartica’s Triple Threat: Three Women Leading the Way on Emerging Markets and ESG

Teresa Barger had a dream: to build an investment firm with high-performing individuals and passionate investors who put the needs and goals of clients first.

[caption id="attachment_20358" align="aligncenter" width="881"] Teresa Barger - Chief Executive Officer, Emily Alejos - Chief Investment Officer, and Kate Ahern - Head of ESG[/caption]

A positive, collaborative culture was a non-negotiable part of that dream. Barger grew up in the Middle East, speaks Arabic and French, and is no stranger to emerging markets. She spent 21 years at the International Finance Corporation, the private-sector investment arm of the World Bank.

During her time there, she held positions including division manager for Africa and director of private equity and investment funds. She co-founded the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA) and created the first index for emerging markets private equity.

She also developed the first corporate governance funds in emerging markets, for South Korea and Brazil, and was subsequently director of Corporate Governance and Securities Market Development. Barger has earned a reputation as a pioneer in corporate governance and EM investing, and is acknowledged as an expert in her field.

She knew value could be added through ESG and corporate governance improvements, which lower the cost of capital and advance economic development by providing increased transparency.

When a large state pension plan expressed interest in the strategy, Cartica Management was born. Barger and her partners, including former IFC executives, launched the first governance-focused ESG vehicle investing in emerging market companies in 2009.

Teresa Barger’s dream had become a reality.

More than a decade later, the firm is headquartered in Washington, DC, and remains focused on emerging markets and true to its mission. It has expanded its focus to include broader environmental and social issues, identifying emerging market companies with good business models, management teams, and balance sheets. Cartica engages with portfolio companies on ESG and other issues to increase shareholder value. The firm has evolved and modernised its processes through a best-in-class investment team that includes some of the industry’s top-performing female professionals. That combination of investment acumen, ESG engagement and diverse leadership that has come to be known as “Cartica’s triple threat”.

Emily Alejos joined Cartica in 2018 as CIO after a career investing in global equities, including emerging markets. She was a portfolio manager and co-CIO at Tradewinds Global Investors. Before that, she spent 10 years with Credit Suisse Asset Management as a PM and head of Latin American Equities. Emily Alejos leads the Cartica investment team and manages the investment process, built on rigorous bottom-up analysis, integrated macro and country research, and vigilant risk-management.

Kate Ahern leads the firm’s sustainability practice and its engagement process with portfolio companies. She brings more than 15 years of experience in ESG management, social impact diligence, and corporate responsibility. Before joining Cartica, Ahern was the first director of ESG and communications at Bain Capital, responsible for implementing ESG across all asset classes in the portfolio. She and Barger lead Cartica’s active ownership approach that seeks to unlock value by engaging with investee companies to improve ESG and capital markets-facing issues.

The firm is majority-owned and led by women, and continues to attract professionals motivated to be catalysts of positive change and create long-term value for companies, shareholders, and communities.


The Road to Decarbonisation

The transition to zero emissions will involve three simultaneous economic processes: change in the relative prices of goods and services, with prices starting to reflect the intensity of emissions of carbon; labour relocation; and asset value scrapping. The socioeconomic return from decarbonisation must include preventing heatwaves, hurricanes, droughts, floods, and storms like those of this year from becoming even more intense and frequent, the cost of which would involve even higher GDP losses for nations.

The report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released at the beginning of August, left no room for doubt. According to its estimates, it will be necessary to accelerate the pace of global containment of carbon emissions if the expected increases in global average temperatures are to be kept below 2 or 1.5 degrees Celsius, with correspondingly less-dramatic climatic consequences. Even if emissions of greenhouse gases are reduced over the next few decades, global warming will continue for at least another century.

To give an idea of what's at stake, look at the numbers in a paper by Jean Pisani-Ferry at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Starting from pre-pandemic emission levels (emissions declined during lockdowns, but have rebounded), the stock of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere compatible with limiting the global temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius would be achieved in less than 25 years. The period shortens to seven years in case the limit is to be reduced to 1.5 degrees.

Figure 1 shows projected global fossil fuel CO2 emissions, according to the International Energy Agency and IMF staff calculations. After falling during the pandemic, they are projected to rise by about 20% by 2030. This contrasts with the 25% to 50% decline consistent with the 1.5 to 2 degrees warming limit. Limiting temperature rises will require less smoothness and gradualism of emissions tapering than was expected until recently.

[caption id="attachment_20776" align="aligncenter" width="350"]
Figure 1: Global Fossil Fuel CO2 Emissions, 1990–2030 (Billions of tons). Source: IMF (2021). Fiscal Policies to Address Climate Change in Asia and the Pacific, March 24.[/caption]

Acknowledgement of the urgency appears in commitments by countries responsible for around 70% of global carbon emissions and global GDP to reach ‘zero emissions’ by 2050 or 2060 (IEA, 2021). Figure 2 shows the baseline CO2 projection of emissions in 2030, displaying China and United States as the world’s largest emitters.

[caption id="attachment_20777" align="aligncenter" width="869"] Figure 2: Large emitters. Source: IMF Gaspar, V. and Perry, I. (2021). A Proposal to Scale Up Global Carbon Pricing, June 18.[/caption]

However, decarbonisation will be a bumpy road. The transition to zero emissions will involve three simultaneous economic processes (Pisany-Ferry, 2021):

First, a significant change in the relative prices of goods and services, with prices starting to reflect the intensity of emissions of carbon, the price of which will have to rise from zero to significant levels. Gaspar and Parry (2021) proposed that, at international level, measures be taken to reach a carbon price equal to or greater than US$75 per metric ton by 2030.

Such a carbon price may be established and charged explicitly and/or indirectly through the effects of regulations or limits on uses. Decarbonisation will be negligible if the price of carbon remains that of a ‘free good’ provided by nature. Carbon prices will also have to be among the factors influencing people's behavior and lifestyle.

Additionally, workers will have to be relocated from carbon-intensive activities to greener substitutes. There will be not only the challenge of labour reskilling, but also of ensuring that new jobs are sufficiently created in dynamic activities. It is known, for example, that the production of electric cars requires less labour than that of combustion engine vehicles.

Third, there will be accelerated obsolescence of existing stocks of physical assets (machinery and equipment, buildings, vehicles) and intangible assets associated with carbon-intensive activities. The counterpart to this will have to be accelerated investment in new assets to replace what is being phased out.

The good news about such replacement is that the evolution towards cleaner technologies with declining costs is taking place. The bad news is the presence of obstacles to such investments, particularly in the case of green infrastructure in non-advanced countries (Canuto, 2021).

The transition of decarbonisation will possibly have regressive income impacts. For example, real estate to be rebuilt or retrofitted corresponds to the largest share of assets of people in the lower half of the income pyramid. Direct carbon taxation will have different impacts on different urban groups. Likewise, it is important not to lose sight of the re-qualification and employment needs of workers directly affected. It will be important to ensure income transfer mechanisms within countries and internationally associated with carbon pricing, to mitigate the regressive impacts of combating climate change.

The trajectory of decarbonisation will also have implications for public budgets and debt; see Zenios (2021) in the case of Europe. In addition to compensatory expenditures for the regressive impacts of carbon pricing mentioned above, public expenditure on infrastructure to enable the transition will be required. Except in the unlikely event of full coverage of expenditures with some carbon tax, the trend will be for increasing public debt. In this case, without intertemporal injustice, as future generations will be grateful not to have to live permanently with an even more adverse climate.

What about GDP and its growth during the transition? Here the duality of impacts discussed above is repeated. On the one hand, there will be capital destruction, in addition to a relative price shock that, as Jean Pisani-Ferry observes, bears similarities to the “supply shock” that happened when oil prices suddenly and drastically soared in the 1970s, including by temporarily reducing potential growth. But while oil prices were later reversed, the carbon price cannot be allowed to do so if the world is to be decarbonised. If the need for greater investment as a share of GDP to accompany decarbonisation collides with supply capacity limits, consumption will have to adapt downwards throughout the transition.

On the other hand, cleaner technologies will also generate opportunities to increase productivity. In any case, the socioeconomic return from decarbonisation must include preventing heatwaves, floods, hurricanes, droughts, floods, and storms like those of this year from becoming even more intense and frequent. The cost of that would involve even higher GDP losses for nations.

This article first appeared at Policy Center for the New South, September 8, 2021

Otaviano Canuto, based in Washington, D.C, is a senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings Institution, a professorial lecturer of international affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs - George Washington University, and principal at Center for Macroeconomics and Development. He is a former vice-president and a former executive director at the World Bank, a former executive director at the International Monetary Fund and a former vice-president at the Inter-American Development Bank. He is also a former deputy minister for international affairs at Brazil’s Ministry of Finance and a former professor of economics at University of São Paulo and University of Campinas, Brazil.


Creativity, Grit and Clear Thinking: All Part of the Package for Amy Chung

[caption id="attachment_20782" align="alignright" width="300"] CEO: Amy Chung[/caption]

Amy Chung, chief executive officer at Singapore-based Containers Printers, has learned over the years which qualities good corporate leaders need.

“They need to be creative, inclusive and exclusive,” she says, “decisive when required, and clear in their thoughts.” Following her own advice has worked well for Chung and the company. “My past exposure to the financial industry has been very useful for me to view the business from a new perspective. This allows me to take a new approach to management.”

Containers Printers began producing and printing metal containers in 1981 at its factory in Singapore. Early products included the square cooking oil tins so commonly seen throughout Southeast Asia.

The firm’s skills and offers have diversified over the years, and the portfolio includes metal and flexible laminate packaging solutions for customers around the world.

Chung’s aim is to transform the business, and the sector, to suit a more dynamic and volatile environment and play a key role in the lifecycle of the products. “I hope the industry will be recognised as having an important part to play in megatrends like climate change,” she says. “I would like to see a more globally harmonised regime of legislation and regulation. The minimum is to be more transparent, with less bureaucracy and a shorter approval time.”

The packaging industry has high capital expenditure, she says, and is evolving into an intensely competitive sector. “Good technical skills are always required, however, old business models and management styles are less relevant in today’s context.”

That evolution also leads to improved environmental friendliness. “The increasing awareness of ESG has compelled companies to demonstrate their commitment to improving sustainability outcomes,” she says. “Many publicly-listed companies, as well as larger privates and start-ups, have set up new teams to oversee ESG and sustainability and set sustainability targets. More start-ups with sustainability solutions are to be incorporated to leverage that increased interest.”

Containers Printers does face some challenges, Chung admits. “The company continues to face increasing costs in all areas, from raw materials to supply chain logistics. There is higher volatility in client outlooks, and there are manpower shortages and regulatory changes due to geopolitical tensions. The smooth recovery of the global economy for a robust recovery is not imminent.”

But challenges do not leave her in despair. “To become a global business, one must have strong determination to overcome all kinds of opposition, failures and unknowns.

“In the short- to mid-term, there will be further consolidation and re-prioritisation of focus to allocate resources. The new drivers of the business world excite me most. It will be interesting to see how all these geopolitical tensions, de-coupling of economies, and unpredictable disruptions and eruptions from planet Earth play out and influence our generation.”

Amy Chung believes in a decentralised control structure, and gives department heads the autonomy to show their capabilities and sense of responsibility. “The team’s key advantage lies in complementary strengths,” she says. “This harnesses collaboration and fosters stronger efforts. The success of the company does not depend on one person, but on a good support team that gets the work done together.”


Shock and Ore — India’s Love of Gold Goes Beyond Market Prices

 Gold is considered the most valuable of all the precious metals — especially in Indian culture.

While the fabulous ore holds value around the world, Indians often keep it for reasons that extend beyond monetary worth. Its purity makes it a fitting part of elaborate wedding ceremonies, and it features heavily in religious and society events. It has such symbolic significance that even the poorest Indians sometimes possess a few grains of it.

According to gold.com, the country has the world’s fourth-highest gold reserve, despite its low-to-medium average income. With or without the cultural reverence, the shock of pandemic-related job losses has left many of India’s poorest citizens with no choice but to sell their scraps of precious metal.

India’s per-capita GDP has fallen, and some 200m people are struggling to survive on less than five dollars a day. One of the nation’s biggest gold-loan providers, Manappuram Finance, auctioned gold worth $54m in just three months — January to March — compared with $80m in the preceding nine. The south of India saw a spike in sales in the first part of 2021, mostly to jewellers. But, in recent months, gold has entered an interesting space.

With the onset of the wedding season, demand is rising. With the cancellation or postponement of weddings in 2020, 50 tons of latent sales and purchases were pushed to 2021.

On a global scale, the gold market has seen significant change. The price rose to a high of $62m per tonne — it has since settled to $40.2m — because of a fall in supply. While this would have been the perfect time to benefit from the high price, many mines have ceased production because of pandemic-related restrictions.

A recent McKinsey report showed that mines in Australia, China and the US have been affected by the third-party consequences of pandemic restrictions. Most operations rely on diesel-fuelled generators; a slowdown in oil supply, along with decimated workforces and a rise in electricity costs, have challenged under-ground mining. These negative impacts will disrupt an estimated seven percent of global supply. Losses incurred will probably be recouped from a new equilibrium in the gold price.

As India recovers from its “second wave” of coronavirus, gold looks set to bounce back, too. According to MSNBC, a rise in value, driven primarily by seasonal demand, is likely. With the festival of Diwali in early November and the Hindu New Year celebrations to follow, wealthier Indians are expected to spark a demand boom.

With more festivals to come — many were cancelled last year, and revellers and faithful keen for their return — comes the risk of a third wave. While hospital infrastructure has improved, disruption is still likely — especially for those on lower incomes. The people who were forced to sell their gold still face job insecurity and low wages. Should India enter another lockdown, the speed of economic recovery will determine the likelihood of more misery on the unemployment front.

Gold is set to make a comeback; time will tell if India can follow suit.

By Yogesh Patel


Anthony Scaramucci: Mooching Towards Washington, With No Polyester Suits in Sight

[caption id="attachment_20795" align="alignright" width="300"] Founder and Co-Managing Partner of SkyBridge: Anthony Scaramucci[/caption]

Entrepreneur and author Anthony Scaramucci has seen plenty of ups and downs — and the US presidency may not be out of his reach, despite an unfortunate beginning to his political career.

Quintessential New Yorker Anthony Scaramucci was former US president Donald Trump’s outspoken communications director — and he was fired after just 11 days. His trademark wit didn’t fail him, even then. “When you take a job like that,” he said, “your expiration date is coming. I didn’t think I’d last too long, but I thought I’d last longer than a carton of milk.”

Scaramucci’s blue-collar background had prepared him for life’s ups and downs. Expectations of him were low, and he was never to develop a sense of entitlement. When his father heard that the young Scaramucci had been hired for a desk job, he laid down the law. “He told me that there should be no complaints now,” the Mooch recalls, “and no whingeing. ‘You are indoors, you are out of direct sunlight, and there’s no heavy lifting involved.’ So, when I got fired from the White House, it wasn’t such a big deal, and I thought, ‘Well, let’s just get back to work’.”

Culturally, he led a sheltered home life growing up. “There were no books in the house and the only newspaper we took was the tabloid Daily News. There may also have been a subscription to Readers Digest.

“I had never hit a golf ball or picked up a tennis racquet in my life, and my lack of social graces was to hold me back. My interviewer at Goldman Sachs told me that I was a smart kid, but he was appalled to see me wearing a polyester suit. I was by far the worst-dressed of the applicants.

“That had to change, and it did. But I got the job.”

He says his law school education allowed him to synthesise a lot of complex ideas. With college libraries suddenly available to him, Scaramucci became an avid reader and student of history. His academic hero is his faculty adviser at Tufts University, Sol Gittleman, now 87 and living in a retirement community. Anthony Scaramucci believes that a letter of recommendation from Gittleman helped open doors for him at Harvard.

Scaramucci prefers not to name any of the villains he has come across. “I tend to see the good as well as the bad side to people,” he says. He thinks of villainy in the abstract and mentions the “sins” of ego, pride, and self-importance — and is prepared to be called to account for such flaws in himself.

Scaramucci founded alternative investment firm Skybridge in 2005 and is still its managing partner. The organisation produces an annual thought-leadership event known as the Skybridge Alternatives (SALT) Conference. The Mooch, as he is affectionately known, also hosts a weekly podcast, Mooch FM, and is a busy author.

Reviewing his career, the Mooch offers a quotation from Winston Churchill: “When you’re going through hell, keep going.” Scaramucci resolves not to be distracted from his goals. He has suffered setbacks, pitfalls, market-based calamities — and several firings — without losing his sense of purpose. The business world excites Scaramucci because he gets his kicks from meeting people, from sharing ideas, and by adapting to new technology.

Scaramucci believes leaders in business and public life should be judged on their core values and principles. “And the team captain is there to help other people rather than fixate on themselves,” he says. “In politics, too many people are more interested in preserving their power than serving the public, and this is becoming dangerous.”

The markets, he believes, are probably the most meritocratic instrument of society. “(Markets) don’t care if you attended Eton, Oxford, or Harvard. You can drop out and still make it big if you’re brilliant. It’s the flattest playing field I know. What the markets care about are your acumen and insights.

“I wake up each day feeling challenged, recognising that my assumptions may turn out to be false. The world changes very quickly, and what is particularly exciting is that there are lots of unknowns coming our way. We must adapt.”

How does Anthony Scaramucci find the time to run the SALT conference, the portfolios, the podcast, and write business books? A readiness to delegate a massive amount of work. “I would rather people ask for forgiveness than permission,” he says. “I don’t mind them getting things wrong if they are trying hard. These arrangements have allowed us to break into the crypto markets, create thought-leadership programmes, and set up the publishing arm SALT Books. Skybridge initiatives are supported by entrepreneurs inside the organisation. They come to me with ideas and suggestions for growth.

“I am happy to allow autonomy. And whether it is the CEO of SALT or the CIO of a particular fund, they should create and run their own businesses. But with this empowerment comes accountability: our entrepreneurs are responsible to the rest of us.

“This has helped the organisation tremendously, and I’m proud of our team: they think with the right pronouns, namely, ‘we’ and ‘our’ rather than ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘mine’.”

The latest book by Anthony Scaramucci is The Sweet Life With Bitcoin, which raises awareness of the blockchain and cryptocurrencies which he believes are key elements of the future of finance. “It’s early days,” he admits, “but I think it very important that investors have some exposure.

“We have $700m in Bitcoin and Ethereum across our portfolios, and I maintain that it is critical to buy into publicly traded stocks that are tied to that ecosystem.” The First Trust Skybridge Crypto Industry and Digital Economy EFT was launched in late September.

The Scaramucci organisation will be conducting more private equity / venture capital business and digital assets exposure is to increase. “We believe that the hedge fund industry is alive and well,” he says, “and we are going to be growing that core business too.

“We hope to see a doubling of assets in five years, and this will come from organic growth and the acquisition of new clients. We are already coming to see a greater diversity of assets and expect to launch one or two more ETFs during the coming year.”

He is considered a likely presidential candidate and says he would never rule out a political future — but it’s not something he’s thinking about now. “My family comes first, but the possibility of public service may be something to revisit in five or 10 years,” he says. “Frankly, I am somewhat unsuited to public life because I’m not allergic to the truth. Our politicians don’t like telling the truth. As Jack Nicholson’s character in A Few Good Men points out: ‘The truth? You can’t handle the truth.’

“To take that step, I would have to see public exasperation and the voters tired of the same old politics. Perhaps they will be looking for someone a little more entrepreneurial, more common-sense-orientated, and a solutions-based thinker.

“I’m opposed to left/right attitudes and would want to look instead for what’s good for the people. I don’t think we are ready for that yet. To run for office, I would have to go through the labyrinth of the Trump Republican party, and they don’t look like or act like the sort of Republican politicians I respect. I’m progressive in terms of social issues and see myself as a moderate Republican in the classical sense.”

Scaramucci admits that he harbours some Democratic views. “I laugh at my conservative friends who want smaller government everywhere, except in the bedroom.” Women have a right to choose when it comes to abortion, he believes. “I am a Roman Catholic and it’s my right to practise my religion as I see fit, but that doesn’t mean I have to impose my views on others. Pro-life, pro-choice makes good sense to me.”

Both parties, according to Scaramucci, are failing. “The extremism on the left is unsatisfactory,” he says, “but perhaps not as dangerous as that of the radical right. There is no question that this extremism is hurting both parties. I reject the Republican hype about deficit-spending and the pretence that they are fiscally prudent — which could not be further from the truth.”

Anthony Scaramucci isn’t sure which party he belongs to anymore. “This is one of the big problems these days,” he concludes, “and is explained by the political environment of tribal identity. I’m hoping for a move to something more transformational.”

Such a move could take the Mooch all the way to Washington, DC.


GNB GA - Change, Challenge, and Reward: Portuguese Firm takes Teamwork to a Whole New Level

[caption id="attachment_20803" align="alignright" width="300"] João Zorro[/caption]

GNB GA, part of Novo Banco Group, is a leading asset manager in Portugal. The firm was born in 1992 and operates domestically, as well as in Spain and Luxembourg.

Fund manager João Zorro has been leading Portugal’s GNB Gestão de Ativos (GNB GA) fixed income team since 2001 — and it’s been quite a ride.

In the intervening 20 years, the team has won acclaim, recognition and trust. “Creating value to our clients is the most important thing,” Zorro says. “Awards are, in part, the recognition that we are achieving our goal.”

And with some 50 awards under the GNB GA belt — recognising the funds managed, the managers, and the team — things are being done correctly. And consistently.

“We take advantage of our flexibility,” Zorro says. “All managers are encouraged to think for themselves. To be bold. To build strong convictions.” Procedures are constructed for the swift implementation of any changes in strategy. “The proximity between managers and the CIO, João Pina Pereira, is also beneficial,” he adds.

The fixed income team has an average of two decades of experience in asset management. “We have a good mix of people who have worked in other asset management firms, including myself and my fellow senior fund managers.

“Vasco Teles and I had specific expertise in other asset classes, as did Paulo Joaquim and Hugo Custódio. Others had experience working abroad, like Manuel Aguiar. So, the whole is more than the sum of the parts.

“The markets are always changing and so we are always learning. New economic, social, or demographic trends can emerge at any time. The market evolves and new approaches, new segments, develop.”

At the beginning of the 21st Century, the more traditional fixed income segments — such as government bonds, investment grade corporate credit and some high yield credit — were the segments in focus. “But structured products started to emerge, and with that came an opportunity to learn, specifically in quantitative analysis,” says Zorro.

“We have been able to align our efforts with our goal: offering new added-value products. We partnered with a couple of the big European players and successfully launched a couple of Collateralised Debt Obligation (CDOs).”

Challenges come and challenges go. The financial crisis of 2008 was a major one — but again, new opportunities emerged, namely in the high yield space. “More recently, we gained expertise in the subordinated debt segment, mostly related to the financial sector.

“Markets always move forward, adapting to the new environment, to the impact of different players, including governments, central banks, institutional players, and private clients.

“The investing style has always been supported by a practical and experimental mindset that resulted in searching for opportunities and innovative applications in the fixed income assets.”

Zorro is a realist, and accepts that more challenges will lie ahead. “We are particularly excited about ESG. All the main authorities in Europe are taking this issue seriously. And we are developing our skills accordingly. Embracing sustainability for us is adding ESG’s criteria into our asset allocation decision-making process. We are adopting new investment methodologies and products. And adding new ones. It’s an on-going process, and we want to be at the forefront.”

Since João Zorro joined the company, a dozen university graduates joined the team. The team creates a suitable environment for learning and the development of skills. “I like to train newcomers,” he says. “It’s rewarding to see them grow, to become more independent, and to have a successful career.”

Some of them moved on within the company, others have landed senior roles in other asset managers — or other industries. “Fresh blood” is always welcome, Zorro says. “Newcomers have a positive impact on the rest of the team as they bring curiosity and new ideas, which make all of us reflect and grow. We are always excited when new people join the team”

The main goals, in terms of the team’s development, retain fluidity. “We now manage also multi assets and equity products. Also, there now a new set of quantitative approaches, including machine learning, which we are looking to integrate in our workflows for detecting ‘red flags’ and finding relative value.”

The integration of the equity team has brought huge benefits. “We are now more capable of looking at a broader universe of markets, issuers, themes, and events. This all adds up.

“A challenge is an opportunity to learn and to share knowledge amongst ourselves, and with the other teams in the investment department. The client guides us. But we want to grow. We are part of a group that wants to make a difference in people’s lives.”


Clarisse Merlet: Building a Better Future, One FabBRICK at a Time

[caption id="attachment_20806" align="alignright" width="300"] Clarisse Merlet[/caption]

The fashion industry is known for glitz and glamour — but it’s one of the biggest polluters on the planet.

According to a report from the UN Environment Programme, it’s responsible for an estimated eight percent of global carbon emissions, 92 million tons of solid waste and 20 percent of global wastewater per year. Global annual construction waste, by comparison, is expected to reach 2.2 billion tons by 2025.

Architecture student Clarisse Merlet sought to address these disparate and alarming statistics in an academic project that evolved into a sustainability-focused business: FabBRICK.

“I started making bricks with waste from plastic bottles, cardboard, and finally textile,” she told Design Wanted. “We can make panels that improve the ambiance of a room or a public space. (The bricks) also have good water resistance, but we recommend indoor use for now.”

The bricks have impressive mechanical strength, as well as insulating, acoustic, and thermal properties — and good fire-resistance. The Paris-based company has achieved national fire-resistance certification and EU certification is due soon. FabBRICK started as a one-woman operation. Merlet entered competitions — Faire Paris 2017, Petit Poucet 2019, Start’in ESS 2019 and Prix Gabriel 2020 — and won more than €15,500 in prizes to establish and grow her business. A crowdfunding campaign in April 2019 secured a further €10,000 to industrialise the production process. Merlet placed in the Refashion Innovation Challenge, which provided instalment payments to cover half the costs of employee recruitment and workshop installations, a total of €90,000.

Within 18 months, the FabBRICK team had grown tenfold. The company is still in the artisanal stage, with a small team creating multi-hued blocks, mostly by hand. The company sources textile waste — garments deemed unworthy of the second-hand market and scraps from fashion producers — from local suppliers. The shredded and colour-coded fabric is combined with FabBRICK’s proprietary, eco-friendly glue. The mixture is weighed to ensure consistent density, compressed into moulds with a mechanical jack, then left to air-dry for up to 15 days. The machines can make 200 bricks a day — and new equipment should soon boost production to 2,000 a day.

“We have already designed more than 40,000 bricks,” says Merlet, “which represent 12 tons of recycled textiles.” She attracted her first client on a French morning TV show: “I was lucky to have a very good client right away,” she told Les Echos. “An employee of the fashion brand Jules noticed my concept. At the time, I had just the idea, the drawings, but I had not filed a patent; I did not have a machine either.”

Now, FabBRICK works with 15 clients, mostly retail stores, fashion brands and architecture firms. The hands-on process requires the company to selectively sort client requests.

FabBRICK recovered 100kg of Vinci Construction’s worksite uniforms and converted them into eye-catching lamps and stools. “The Vinci brand initially wanted us to recycle all their textile waste,” Merlet said, but the volume was too great.

The eye-catching designs spark conversation and raise awareness of the social, economic and environmental consequences of fast fashion.

“FabBRICK can be developed worldwide,” says Merlet. “Fast fashion is everywhere, so we can always be close to a source of textile waste. The next step is to automate production so that we can recycle even more. At the moment, the process is artisanal, the machines are manually operated.”

The plan is to duplicate the model locally, in France, then begin global export.


Where are We Going? Nowhere, Fast, According to Travel and Tourism Stats

Whether domestic or international, business or pleasure, travel is an integral part of modern life — no longer just a luxury for the wealthy.

The rise of the affluent middle class, and increased access to global networks, have caused a rise in wanderlust. The cost has come down, too. The price of a first-class ticket on the Titanic, for example, was £30 (about £3,500 today). Travel is more affordable than ever.

By 2019, the global travel and tourism sector peaked in value at $9.2tn — and spending by tourists in the same year reached $1.5tn. But increased opportunities for the footloose and curious affected more than just holidaymakers.

Businesses have become more global, with offices and employees around the world. The constant flow allows for more efficient supply chains. And while businesses thrive, culture continues to evolve as immigrant populations influence and change food, fashion, movies, and music.

When Covid-19 struck, all sectors were affected.

After that 2019 $9.2tn high mentioned above came a drop — in 2020 — to $4.7tn; almost half. Stay-at-home-orders and measures to reduce migration stunted and stifled the industry. International border closures, complex testing procedures and more documentation proved effective barriers to casual travel.

For nations that rely on tourism, the pandemic has had a disastrous effect. According to the World Economic Outlook, the global economy shrank by 4.4 percent in 2020. For tourism-dependent economies, that was closer to 12 percent; Fiji saw an estimated drop of 21 percent. Many countries rely on the travel and tourism sectors to fuel economic growth.

The IMF says that in sub-Saharan Africa, tourism has been a key factor in reducing the wealth gap. Tourism-focused nations averaged a real-GDP per capita growth rate of 2.4 percent between 1990 and 2019 — faster than non-tourism-dependent countries. The sector has proven how valuable a tool travel can be to reduce wealth disparity. But countries such as the Seychelles and Barbados are locked into tourism, with insufficient resources to ignite other sectors.

A report form McKinsey and Co points to a few potential solutions. The firm analysed 24 economies which received a combined total of $100bn in direct aid for the ravaged tourism industry, and $300bn in aid across related sectors.

It recommends new financing mechanisms, such as revenue sharing for hotels competing in the same market segment, and government-backed equity funds for travel-related businesses.

It will take time for things to return to normal. With the confusing mess differing regulations, and the added hesitancy surrounding virus and vaccine rates, the IMF is estimating global tourism receipts will not bounce back until 2023.

But there have been some positives. Air travel has reduced, and so have greenhouse gas emissions. Destinations overrun by tourism have had a break and recovered some of their natural rhythms and pace.

The shift in our globetrotting ways has boosted eco-tourism and sustainability. One way or another, the pandemic may have irreversibly changed international travel.

Perhaps even for the better. Time will tell.

By Yogesh Patel


Uzbekistan on the Path to Becoming Carbon-Neutral

[caption id="attachment_20835" align="alignright" width="317"] Advisor to the Uzbekistan Ministry of Energy: Elmira Berkmurodova[/caption]

In the race to become carbon-neutral, it is useful to look at where the race began. In Uzbekistan, a nation rich in natural gas, it began with nearly all energy requirements — 96.75 percent in 2019 — being met by fossil fuels.

From that perspective, the goal of net-zero by 2050 looks intimidating, if not impossible. But Uzbekistan is on the way to making the impossible at least probable.

In just over a year, it has set a series of ambitious goals for a fundamental transformation of the national energy mix. Chief among them is a shift to renewables. From almost a standing start, the country is planning to build a renewables sector generating a minimum of 25 percent of its energy needs. This is despite a fast-growing population and an even faster-growing economy, demanding greater energy.

"In Uzbekistan, the average citizen consumed well under 10 percent of that: about 1,850 kWh. As incomes rise, so does energy use."

It is worth comparing low-income Uzbekistan with high-income Norway to illustrate the point. Despite its North Sea oil wealth, Norway has domestically relied on a different source of energy: water. Hydroelectricity provides as much as two-thirds of Norway’s primary consumption — and has done so for many years. In 2020, the average Norwegian consumed 26,500 kWh in electricity. In Uzbekistan, the average citizen consumed well under 10 percent of that: about 1,850 kWh. As incomes rise, so does energy use.

That is Uzbekistan’s challenge. By the end of the current decade, most forecasts indicate its population will surpass those of Ukraine and Poland, making it the second-largest of all the nations once dependent on, or part of, the USSR. It expects to graduate to middle-income status, with an increasingly affluent middle class expecting modern kitchens, air-conditioning and all the comforts of modern life.

There is one more challenge, or opportunity: to reduce the consumption of natural gas from 16.5 to 12.1 billion cubic meters by 2030 — and to use domestically produced gas for conversion into polymer products with high added value and export potential. This is an important component in Uzbekistan’s national industrial policy.

The nation is also hard at work upgrading transport systems to reduce waste and introducing smart metering for home and industrial power and gas consumption. Gas production and processing are also being modernised to minimise waste.

When you do the math, it becomes clear that other sources of energy are needed — and to stick to the Paris Agreement commitment to reduce greenhouse gas production by 10 percent by 2030, those new sources cannot be hydrocarbon-based.

Any visiting tourist can attest to Uzbekistan’s fine weather. On average, 320 days a year are essentially cloudless. In the three decades since independence, it has been so busy searching underground that the Sun’s potential has been overlooked.

That is now changing, as is the national attitude to the forceful winds that blow across plains and through valleys. Over the coming decade are plans for five GW in wind power and seven GW in solar generation. Independent power producers are being invited to enter into power purchase agreements for wind, solar and biogas production. Hydroelectric production is being expanded too, with 35 new plants planned along with modernisation of 27 existing facilities.

On August 27, the country's first industrial-scale solar photovoltaic power plant — with a capacity of 100 MW — was commissioned in the Karmaninsky district of Navoi by Masdar (UAE). The facility is expected to produce enough power for 31,000 households and save 160,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year.

Another 100 MW solar power plant will soon be commissioned in the Samarkand region. It is being built in public-private partnership with the French company Total.

In all, some 16 power-purchase agreements have been signed over the past year, most of them for renewables projects. The forecast is now for electricity production to double by 2030.

What once seemed impossible is now looking entirely achievable.


Sango Capital: What 10 Years of Investing in Africa Might Tell Us About the 10 to Come

The current African investment opportunity could well be one of “the greatest of a generation”, says Sango Capital co-founder and managing partner Richard Okello.

“As we reflect on the past decade spent building an institutional investment business that partners with global investors, we cannot help but wonder what the next 10-years of investing in Africa could look like,” he said.

Sango Capital is taking the opportunity to look over its shoulder at the experience gleaned from the past decade — and its implications for investing in Africa today.

A renowned historian once said, “History is lived forwards, but written in retrospect;” Okello points out, “We know the end before we consider the beginning.” The lessons from history — which we can consider only after it has happened — should be considered and applied to our day-to-day reality.

For Sango Capital, the period can be split roughly into three parts: 2011-2015 — a rising tide lifting all boats; 2016-2019 — a disconnect between macro and micro-the bifurcation of performance; and 2020/21 — the “Covid acceleration effect”.

From 2011 to 2015, the world economy grew 18 percent in real terms, mostly driven by emerging and developing economies — which were up 25 percent, in real terms.

“The US Dollar had its third-strongest appreciation in 50 years,” says Okello. “Developed markets roared ahead driven by easing monetary policy and declining rates. US 10-year yields, for example, declined by 50 percent from their starting levels.”

Emerging market returns, however, underperformed on a relative basis. Capital started to flow into public and private African markets from a broader set of North American investors, historically less active in the region. A large amount of that investment was deployed into large-cap private funds.

The rising tide lifted most boats. “We spent substantial amounts of time educating our investors on a region that few knew anything about, and even fewer understood,” Okello says.

The next four-year period (2016 to 2019) saw toppy developed market valuations and the US dollar weakened. African markets under-performed as a whole, weighed down by pre-global financial crisis private equity vintages, although there were some notable outliers.

“As private equity investors, we observed several key changes in our markets,” says Okello. “A bifurcation between likely winners and losers, the rationalisation of large-cap funds, the definition and rapid evolution of a core middle market space that was deeper, broader and more localised in its focus.”

Several funds started to prepare their companies for exit. “We also observed a deepening and broadening of the private investor base into Africa as commercially-oriented and impact-oriented investors increasingly deployed capital into Africa.

“A number of our investors started to invest directly alongside Sango Capital into private equity funds and into companies — albeit in toe-hold sizes.” More strategic investors started exploring how to build out more meaningful exposure in the region profitably over longer timeframes.

The disconnect between the macro-performance of the region and the lagging industry average performance had the effect of slowing inbound capital and obscuring more substantial changes.

At a macro level, several structural changes began to manifest in Africa. The accelerated adoption of mobile money, which underpinned the behavioural changes of the Covid period. Countries that had invested in infrastructure started to reap the benefits through greater population mobility, urbanisation, and sustained growth.

“Overall,” says Okello, “currency stability improved across the region as balance-of-payments strengthened and a number of currencies de-pegged or outright floated. That change has underpinned the difference in currency performance in the current pandemic versus previous crises.”

Debt capital markets deepened with substantial local and dollar issuance. Potentially transformative long-term themes took hold, such as the East African seaboard gas opportunity in Mozambique, Tanzania and Egypt, and Africa’s free-trade area — the largest in the world.

Then came the pandemic. The period had a meaningful impact on the private investment landscape. As developed markets contracted sharply, Africa was generally expected to suffer.

“Instead, it registered a modest recession in 2020 and has rebounded strongly in 2021, clearly showing its overall resilience to crisis,” Okello says. Foreign capital inflows slowed due to rising US markets, backed by central bank and fiscal liquidity.

“That has expanded the capital supply/demand gap — a beneficial position for investors with dry powder. Where the continent was already a leading adopter of digital technology (given the shortcomings of physical infrastructure), Covid has accelerated technology adoption far beyond what we could have ever imagined.”

Some of that is playing-out in a robust venture capital ecosystem, but the adoption of technology in “old world economy” companies is changing competitive dynamics — and could disrupt whole industries.

“These changes are not limited to sectors of commercial interest, but accelerate the delivery of positive social economic impact. Technology adoption is driving the costs of service delivery lower and bringing more consumers into the broader consumption net.

“We see this in portfolio companies that have changed delivery models for food and other essentials to reach new customers. In the healthcare industry, Covid-19 has brought African vaccine production closer to reality in at least four countries.”

Within the private equity industry, the gap between winners and losers has increasingly widened as stronger teams emerge. There is nothing like a crisis to refine the private equity value addition imperative, Okello believes. “That should benefit valuations and performance over the next few years. Exits are starting to pick up the pace. This year alone, we have had our first two technology unicorns as well as a number of strong growth private equity exits.”

What can we expect as we peer into the next decade? “First, Africa is expected to be the only region with accelerating growth. That growth is a tail-wind — we don’t expect that tide to lift all boats. Differences across countries, sectors, private funds and companies will be stark.

“Now, more than ever, it’s critical to identify, support and work with the right teams.”

Consistently superior information, and the capacity to add operational value to growing companies, are stand-out factors. “Company teams/sponsors coming through Covid are only too aware of the cost of the wrong partners and have become even more discerning.

“What is unlikely to change for African private equity in the near-term is that investors can purchase companies growing 20-50 percent per year for half the price that one would pay elsewhere.

“That should continue to support performance for GPs and management teams that can sustain that growth after the infusion of new capital in select sectors and countries.”

The venture ecosystem has evolved — and is gaining momentum. Continental venture fundraising is on track to match or exceed growth private equity fundraising supported by strong performance.

“Africa’s backdrop of mobile phone adoption, and the need to innovate past the myriad of geographic constraints, is making for very innovative and scalable solutions,” says Okello.

“A number of those, such as SWVL, are already being exported into other continental markets. Other markets, such as private debt solutions — which are still in their infancy — can only grow as demand for their services continues to exceed supply.

“Finally, we expect the investor complex to evolve and become more competitive. As co-chairs of the Africa Venture Capital Association’s Limited Partnership Committee, one of our key thrusts is helping local African pension funds invest a larger portion of their reported $350bn into private asset classes.

“As the world pays more attention to ESG and its impact, investors are realising what we already know, that Africa leads other regions and offers substantial impact without returns degradation. They want to invest more here. As commercially orientated investors saturate developed markets, we expect that a portion of that capital will increasingly look to Africa.

“Today, we estimate that Africa has less than 0.1 percent of North American pension and endowment fund allocations. Just as the US undertook to strategically support Silicon Valley 60 years ago, some African governments, such as Morocco and Egypt, are catalysing private capital by taking first-loss, or riskier positions ahead of foreign or local private venture capital, given the expected job-creation effect.”

So, is Sango Capital living history forwards? “We are working hard to apply lessons learnt from the past 10 years into our capital deployment and harvesting plans for the next 10,” is all Richard Okello will say.


No Relation, but Shared Values: The ‘Other’ CFI with the Goal of Becoming ‘The’ Investing Brand

The CFI Financial Group — no relation to CFI.co — has been a leading trading provider for the past two decades, operating around the world from bases in London, Larnaca, Beirut, Amman, Dubai, and Port Louis.

CFI Financial Group (CFIFG, for the purposes of this article) offers competitive trading conditions with spreads from zero pips, zero commissions, fast execution, and no minimum deposit on 7000+ stocks, forex, commodities, indices, and ETFs from 18 global markets. The group is renowned for its client support in over 100 countries, daily technical reports, free webinars, and dedicated account managers, ensuring a best-in-class trading experience.

“Our reputation is our main asset,” says founder and managing director Hisham Mansour, “and we’re proud it’s the number one reason why clients choose us.”

The group’s mission is to deliver innovative, competitive and accessible trading services — with passion. It aims to be “the” brand for all things investing and trading. Professionalism goes without saying, but the group ensures a personal connection in all its dealings, with support and empowerment for clients, staff, and associates.

It all began with a private banking department established within a sister institution, Credit Financier, in Beirut in 1998. The first entity was established under the name of Credit Financier Invest in 2005, after a separation of the credit business from the trading side.

The combination of talent, tech, and a winning mindset drove a sustainable brand to become one of the fastest-growing firms in the world, in a fiercely competitive sector.

There has been evolution over the past 23 years. “The CFI brand became synonymous with top players looking to conquer this industry,” says Mansour, “and our referrals — along with our stream of innovation — enabled us to stand our ground in a dynamic industry.”

CFIFG offers two account types: the Zero commission (all-inclusive), with no added commissions, only the spread, and the Dynamic (premium), with extremely narrow spreads and competitive commissions. The cost of trading is embedded in the spread, meaning that when someone buys a certain CFD, they have already paid the transaction cost. The group offers thousands of CFDs and listed products that are accessible from one platform.

Those products include stocks across the US, UK, Europe, and Asia, indices with broad exposure, forex — with access to major, minor and exotic currency pairs — bullion hedges in gold, silver and other precious metals, energies— including West Texas Intermediate and Brent Crude — EFTs and cryptocurrency. The final product offering varies according to entity, regulation and jurisdiction.

Platforms

CFI Financial Group's diverse range of products is complemented by best-in-class technology that creates an optimised cycle of trading on three sophisticated platforms that guarantee continuous updates and ease-of-use.

Metatrader 5 is one of the most widely used trading interfaces in the world. It continues the legacy of game-changing Metatrader 4, one of the most popular trading platforms in the world. It rose to popularity in the 2000s and 2010s and remains a stable, easy-to-use and versatile interface.

MetaTrader 4 is one of the most popular trading platforms in the world and the foundation that eventually led to MetaTrader 5. The platform rose to popularity in the 2000s and 2010s and remains a stable, easy to use and highly versatile interface for trading the global financial markets.

cTrader is a powerful up-and-coming trading platform, a new favourite in the trading community, and a glimpse into the future. cTrader’s next-generation interface offers advanced features beyond most other platforms.

All three platforms have powerful charting capabilities, advanced order types and execution, depth of market, one-click order entry, and strategy automation — available on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android.

For more information: cfifinancial.com.

CFI Financial Group Locations

London

CFI UK is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom – FRN 828955. Company Registration Number 11634673.

Dubai

CFI Dubai is regulated by the DFSA under license number F003933.

Larnaca

CFI Cyprus is authorized by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission with CIF license No. 179/12.

Jordan

CFI Jordan is regulated by the Jordan Securities Commission.

Lebanon

CFI Lebanon is regulated by the Banque du Liban (#40) and the Capital Markets Authority (#26).

Mauritius

CFI Mauritius is regulated by the Financial Services Commission.


IBM on Banks’ Reinvention Imperative: Don’t Leave Money On the Table!

The ability to change and digitally adapt has been a defining feature of business during the pan-demic. According to IBM, the Institute for Business Value (IBV), almost 60% of business lead-ers said they had already begun dramatically accelerating their companies’ digital transfor-mations as early as September 2020. With adversity serving as a catalyst for change, fully two-thirds of business leaders said the pandemic has allowed them to pursue specific transfor-mation initiatives that, pre-pandemic, had encountered stiff resistance.

Cloud technologies are central to this digital acceleration. And cloud is a fundamental enabler of successful transformation. But cloud adoption alone is insufficient to motivate significant gains in revenue and profitability. The ability to integrate functions and processes, and to enable intelligence and interoperability, is a key determinant in fully exploiting the potential value of cloud. Cloud - or, more specifically, hybrid cloud - can support levels of openness and collaboration far beyond what was possible in the past. Hybrid cloud, coupled with digital and business transformation, can generate unprecedented strategic and financial benefits for an organisation. In short, the democratisation of data and the dramatically increased intelligence and insight brought about by open hybrid technology and architecture promise to redefine the economics of business.

"Investment in cloud computing can generate up to 13 times greater benefits than cloud alone, when executed end-to-end in combination with other levers of business transformation. The potential impact on profitability can be up to 20 times when applied specifically to the banking industry."

The IBV has recently conducted a study in collaboration with Oxford Economics, based on a survey of almost 7,200 C-suite executives (almost 680 from financial institutions) across 28 industries and 47 countries. The study suggests that investment in cloud computing can generate up to 13 times greater benefits than cloud alone, when executed end-to-end in combination with other levers of business transformation. The potential impact on profitability can be up to 20 times when applied specifically to the banking industry. To harvest all economic benefits, the relationship between cloud technologies and business transformation must include:

Mastery of data capabilities.

Level of adoption of technologies, including AI, IoT, and RPA.

Maturity of operational enablers, including workforce skills, processes and extended intelligent workflows, and cybersecurity.

Extent of shift toward an open organisation, including cultural transformation, innovation, platform strategies, and ecosystems engagement.

Essentially, let’s assume that end-to-end enterprise transformation unlocks extra business value, which is 100% of a potential revenue amount on the CEO’s table. In banking, cloud adoption alone will yield only 5% of the total potential revenue from new cloud investments. This means that 95% of all the money that a bank can further earn will remain on the table if the CEO fails to see the cloud strategy as part of a broader enterprise transformation effort. Cloud’s contribution to business value expands dramatically when business reinvention involves adopting both state-of-the-art technology and an innovation-friendly, employee-centric organisational culture.

Comparing banking with other industries can provide insights about the business rational. In both industries, most of the revenue potential is expected to be generated by the interaction of new cloud investment with the other enterprise capabilities, such as transforming the organisation and the operating model with a refreshed culture that embraces open innovation, ecosystem interplay and platform-oriented business models.

However, the study indicates that cloud investments alone already allow automotive firms to grab 20% of the money on the table. As said, banks could size only 5%.
Financial institutions need to do more to achieve more. Why this difference? Among other aspects, the shift to an open organisation is a clear driver.

Typically, clients want to buy a car with as much personalisation as they can afford. Carmakers act as providers of "all-in" solutions. They assemble vehicles based on guided preferences, engaging providers of components like automatic gearboxes, leather seats, or Hi-Fi players. Ultimately, each client meets one dealer who manages the whole tailored relationship.

About banking and financial intermediation, clients (families or corporate) looking for solutions to their financial health do not typically buy a single banking relationship but are asked to deal with a multitude of intermediaries organised across product-focused business units. However, it is the whole portfolio of opportunities that help clients personalise financial decisions over time and succeed in their financial journey. Clients have a relationship for payments and transaction banking, a relationship for treasury investments, a relationship for funding needs to buy machinery or real estate. All these dedicated interactions generate siloed data repository about the same client. Typically, bank business units – and IT departments - operate with seemingly different incentives, which are focused on the clients’ sub-needs instead of their continuous journey. Consequently, the culture and organisation of banks is way more split compared to other industries. This indicates that the benefits of hybrid cloud in terms of facilitating the accessibility and interoperability of data, insights and applications can be dramatically enhanced by an open banking organisation that can make clients the center of a platform solution shaped around personalised full needs, instead of specialised financial products.

Banks are asked to revise their operating models to think and act as "all-in" digital providers of solutions. For banks, shifting from "product centricity" to "client centricity" is not only a matter of marketing. Most of all, it means changing the incentives and mechanisms of their offers to leverage exponential technologies and operate as "all-in" business platforms. This can only work when business culture is transformed to embrace the open organisation.

The key message is that to maximise the revenue impact from cloud technology it is necessary to complement its adoption with enterprise transformation.

More insights about unlocking the business value of hybrid cloud can be learned by accessing the full IBM study.

More insights about banking platformisation can be learned by reading Paolo’s latest book Banks and Fintech on Platform Economies: relinks.me/1119756979

About the Author

[caption id="attachment_20860" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Author: Paolo Sironi[/caption]

Paolo Sironi is the global research leader in banking and financial markets at IBM Consulting, the Institute for Business Value. He is one of the most respected fintech voices worldwide, providing business expertise and strategic thinking to a network of executives among financial institutions, start-ups, and regulators. He is a former quantitative risk manager and start-up en-trepreneur. Paolo’s literature explores the biological underpinnings of financial markets, and how technology and business innovation can bolster the global economy’s immune system in today’s volatile times. Visit Paolo's website thePSironi.com for more information.

Website: thePSironi.com

Read in the CFI.co Autumn 2021 Issue


Home is Where the Mortgage is: 2008 Crisis has Lessons for Sector

Of all the sectors affected by the pandemic, the housing market has performed better than expected.

In 2008, home loans were at the epicentre of one of the largest economic downfalls in history. The packaged selling of risky loans led to mass defaults, sparking a crisis whose effects were felt for more than a decade. Unemployment rose, incomes fell, and the global economy entered a period of uncertainty.

That sort of thing makes banks jumpy; they are less likely to lend during periods of high unemployment. Lost jobs in 2008 meant loan defaults, panic selling, and a glut of houses on the market. And the crisis wasn’t limited to the US. According to the Office for National Statistics, the average UK house price fell by 15 percent between January 2008 and May 2009.

The uncertainty surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic could lead to a similar situation. Some 9.6 million jobs have been lost in the US in 2019 and 2020, and the factors that prompted people to sell property in 2008 are again in play.

But despite all the signs, the housing sector has moved in an unexpected direction. The average US house price rose by 9.6 percent from December 2019 to December 2021. Changes to fiscal policy changes and consumer behaviour are propping up the industry, and allowing it to grow.

In the UK, landlord and tenant protectionist policies were enacted. In March 2020, the UK government implemented the Coronavirus Act with an increased allowance for housing benefit and universal credit, permitting local housing allowance to cover 30 percent of market rents. Landlords had more time to give notice of their intentions, allowing tenants a chance to financially recover.

In the US the focus was different. The government first provided relief through the federal CARES Act and stimulus cheques. They also allocated more funds to state and local governments for rent-relief programmes, and the CDC (Centre for Disease Control) enacted a temporary pause on evictions.

These policies ensured the industry did not suffer to the extent it did in 2008. Although there were significant job losses, household income in G7 countries was up $100bn in the second quarter of 2020 compared with the same period in 2019. Borrowers in Spain could suspend mortgage payments, and in Japan regulators asked banks to defer principal repayments on mortgages. Economies across the world were galvanised to prevent a crash.

But — as with all policies — there are likely to be some unintended consequences. The OECD released a report detailing some potential long terms effects these policies could have on the housing market. It tested for rent payment deferrals and eviction suspensions. In the long term, a loss in labour mobility was seen as likely. The new incentives cause a lack of willingness to relocate, making the allocation of resources difficult. Less mobility means less demand for new homes — affecting the construction industry.

Construction has slowed because of Covid-19 regulations —by 40 percent and 30 percent in the US. With low demand, the OECD report called for correctional polices to be introduced. It points to easing land restrictions and expanding public spending on affordable, sustainable, and environmentally secure housing. This would allow construction to match growing demand for environmentally friendly housing.

The manner in which governments resolve these issues could point the housing market in a new, and potentially better, direction.

By Yogesh Patel


Meet the SATORP Team: Guardians of the Rolls-Royce of Refineries

Sulaiman M Ababtain

[caption id="attachment_20874" align="aligncenter" width="900"] SATORP President and CEO: Sulaiman M Ababtain[/caption]

Sulaiman M Ababtain, president and CEO of SATORP, oversees one of the world’s most advanced refineries, capable of processing 460,000 barrels of oil per day.

He is also on the steering committee for the Amiral Project, a massive chemical plant that has attracted investment of over $9bn and produces 2.7 million metric tons of high-value chemicals in Jubail.

Ababtain has held several international roles, including president of Aramco Asia, the primary hub of Saudi Aramco global downstream expansion which oversees 60 percent of Saudi Aramco crude sales, including marketing and logistic services. He has represented Saudi Aramco on the boards of several global corporations.

Ababtain has more than 30 years of diversified industry experience and a deep understanding of downstream business. He is an active participant on various local and international committees. He has held various managerial positions with direct exposure to oil-supply planning and scheduling and Saudi Aramco International Joint Ventures Management. Ababtain has also managed crude oil and product sales and marketing departments.

Sulaiman M Ababtain is the chairman of SATORP’s social responsibility company, Torathuna, a non-profit that focuses on developing and protecting Saudi handicrafts, traditional arts, and cultural heritage, sponsoring over 90 kingdom-wide projects.

He holds a BSc in Systems Engineering from King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals, and an MSc in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana, US.

Vincent Guerard

[caption id="attachment_20876" align="aligncenter" width="900"] SATORP CFO: Vincent Guerard[/caption]

Vincent Guerard had a wealth of financial experience before being appointed SATORP’s chief financial officer in July this year.

He joined Total SA in 2000 and has held various positions in the gas and power downstream sector. From 2010 to 2014, he was corporate and project finance manager at Total, dealing with the financing of several international solar assets. From 2014 to 2016, he shouldered the CFO role at the Renewable Division of TotalEnergies.

He also served as deputy CFO of the Gas Renewable and Power Division of TotalEnergies SE. Vincent Guerard is a graduate of the London Business School.

Ramez Sabawi

[caption id="attachment_20875" align="aligncenter" width="900"] SATORP Treasurer: Ramez Sabawi[/caption]

Ramez Sabawi has more than 29 years’ experience in banking, corporate finance, and Treasury. He has also worked in sectors and industries including engineering, consulting, telecom, shipping, trading and oil and gas.

His career path started with major banks in London in the early ‘90s, after which he led the corporate treasury functions of major corporates in the Middle East and the GCC.

Ramez Sabawi holds an MBA from England’s Durham University, and a Bachelor of Business from Monash University in Australia. He holds many memberships and affiliations in a wide spectrum of professional bodies.


Locked and Loaded in the Battle for Sustainability, Neuflize OBC Maintains Its Priority Values

Three-and-a-half centuries ago, France’s Banque Neuflize OBC was founded by entrepreneurs and philanthropists — and social responsibility has been a priority ever since.

Neuflize OBC has been committed to a proactive CSR strategy for the past decade. Its teams strive to create a better bank for the future, transforming working methods and leading change in the products and services provided to customers. “It is possible to combine performance and responsibility,” says CEO Laurent Garret, “while fuelling momentum throughout the organisation.”

In less than 10 years, Neuflize OBC has achieved this goal and made the organisation a driver of transition. This approach guides investment towards worthy sectors, always committed to ESG. Extra-financial value of companies, based on CSR, ESG and SRI criteria, is taken into account to integrate sustainability into all processes.

Neuflize OBC supports clients’ transition towards a sustainable future, and enriches employee experience by integrating environmental concerns with community support.

Neuflize OBC’s strategy towards sustainability is based on four levers of action that include all stakeholders:

client’s transition to sustainability, through sustainable investments, philanthropy and green financing

social impact, through the two non-profit foundations created by Neuflize OBC (the Philgood Foundation and the Neuflize OBC Foundation)

employee experience, through its commitment to diversity and inclusion

efforts for the environment and to mitigate climate change (carbon emissions in the bank’s operations have been offset via reforestation programmes for more than a decade).

Together, these changes put Neuflize OBC in the driving seat for the spread of CSR adoption.

A 21st Century Bank

Neuflize OBC is gratified that companies are now willing to take an active and positive role in society, and take part in the shaping of tomorrow. While some may have considered CSR as a communication tool, today it seems clear that effective policies are a question of development for companies determined to survive. “Finance is one of the main opportunities to drive positive transformation,” says Garret, “and Neuflize OBC wants to enact those changes to embark on initiatives with far-reaching and virtuous impacts.”

The bank has championed responsible investing since it launched its socially responsible investment (SRI) mandates 10 years ago. Its track record in SRI has led to prioritise and add to its range of responsible products, in keeping with its strategy and customers’ aspirations. While assets under management under SRI mandates at Neuflize OBC grew by more than 30 percent in 2019, the trend has accelerated. In 2021, 90 percent of the new mandates are SRI.

Six out of 10 French people say that environmental and social impacts are an important element in their investment decisions. Some 44 percent believe they are having a real impact on the environment and society by directing their savings into positive areas. Neuflize OBC is accelerating its strategy towards a more sustainable future. In June 2020, it announced that SRI options would be the first investment solutions offered to customers. The Sustainability Scan allows gives clients all information related to the sustainability of the financial instruments in their portfolios.

The bank recently launched an impact investing mandate, with enhanced non-financial reporting procedures to measure the impact of investments over time. This mandate prioritises companies that best align with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Philgood Foundation by Neuflize OBC endowment fund was launched in 2019, designed to facilitate sponsorship. The fund operates on a simple premise: to select meaningful community projects for retail and corporate customers who wish to act as sponsors, tailored to their specialist needs and the amount of funding they wish to provide.

A dozen projects have been supported with some €2m, funded by customers or the bank itself. During the early pandemic in Spring 2020, the Philgood Foundation financed various initiatives with the French medical research foundation and the Salvation Army. It also provided computers to students enrolled at Fondation Apprentis d’Auteuil high schools to enable study via distance learning.

Neuflize OBC is part of the Dutch ABN AMRO Bank and is fully aligned with its strategy and the aim to have €46bn in sustainable AUM before 2025. ABN AMRO offers a full range of financial products and solutions. Its mission statement is: “Banking for better, for generations to come.” Sustainability is again at the core, aiming to integrate sustainability into products and services.

ABN AMRO is committed to the Paris Climate Agreement and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.


Sango: Friends and Founders Share Core Values — and a Commitment to the Future of the African Continent

Twenty-four years ago, Richard Okello and Charles Mwebeiha formed a friendship based on their shared values and passion for the African continent. That friendship, and those values, culminated in a business venture: the pair went on to found investment firm Sango Capital in 2011.

[caption id="attachment_20882" align="aligncenter" width="731"] Richard Okello[/caption]

The aim was to create a world-class company, committed to excellence and respected as a responsible steward of capital. Okello and Mwebeiha worked to bring capital into Africa — and labour on to positively impact the lives of the great continent’s people.

Prior to Sango, Richard Okello helped to build two organisations. The first was global hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, where Okello started out as an associate and left nine years later as a partner. The second was Makena Capital, where he managed portfolios substantially allocated to emerging markets and oversaw research into new investment ideas.

Okello joined Bridgewater when the firm managed $9bn in assets and had fewer than 50 employees. When he left, the firm had over $100bn in AUM and some 500 employees. His time with Makena Capital was similarly successful: he joined the firm nine months into its journey, deploying $8bn across various asset classes. Today Makena manages $18bn in various countries. Okello was instrumental in implementing investment, strategic, and management roles at both firms.

Charles Mwebeiha began his career as a corporate lawyer at Sebalu & Lule, a commercial law firm in Uganda. Prior to co-founding Sango, he was a principal at South African private equity investment firm Destiny Corporation. He participated in structuring and negotiating leveraged buy-out transactions, as well as re-financing transactions for portfolio companies and the holding company.

[caption id="attachment_20883" align="aligncenter" width="874"] Charles Mwebeiha[/caption]

Mwebeiha had previously been a partner and head of the Africa Practice Group at Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs (ENS), the largest law firm in Africa, where he acted on private equity, capital markets, and continent-wide M&A transactions. Prior to his time at ENS, he helped build the nascent Uganda Capital Markets Authority, the regulatory legal and compliance management authority for the stock exchange.

Mwebeiha helped drive efforts to aggregate institutional capital for investment into public markets, and was involved in the first equity and debt cross-listings in regional markets. He helped lay the groundwork for regional market integration.

Sango is a leading investment firm focused on the high-growth middle-market private equity and venture asset classes across Africa. It was the first all-private (non-DFI) middle-market fund of its type to focus on a pan African strategy. It has continued to attract the backing of global endowments, foundations, pension funds, family offices, and sovereign wealth funds.

The firm manages capital across three core funds, direct co-investments, and a long-term strategic equity fund. Sango’s investment approach targets global top-quartile performance while mitigating left-tail risk. By embedding ESG into its investment process, Sango has been able to maximise sustainable economic impact for each dollar invested.

Richard Okello and Charles Mwebeiha have built a world-class team with decades of experience in global and African investment, operations, and capital stewardship and they continue to incentivise the team to drive a culture of excellence into the future.


Erickson Davis: Forging Strong Relationships in European Capital Markets After a Return to the Fold

[caption id="attachment_20893" align="alignright" width="300"] Head of Equities: Erickson Davis[/caption]

Don’t tell Erickson Davis you can’t go home again.

Davis, an American citizen, re-joined investment bank KBW (Keefe, Bruyette & Woods) in April 2019 as Head of European Equities. Such was his impact, across both borders and product lines, that he has now taken on responsibility for the entirety of Stifel's equities operations on the Old Continent.

Stifel acquired KBW back in 2013 as its financial services arm, bringing with it a financial institutions specialist sales force, extensive research coverage and investment banking capabilities. In the United States, KBW was already the leading advisor on bank M&A deals and a top market maker of financial stocks.

Davis had returned after a successful tenure as CEO of Autonomous Research, an institutional research provider. KBW´s Chief Executive, Thomas Michaud, describes him as “a forward-thinker with deep knowledge of the financial services sector. This appointment was heralded as a prime example of the firm’s commitment to Europe and efforts to attract the very best talent.”

According to Davis, this has been “an exciting time to re-join one of the best recognised and most respected brands in global financial services.” Davis points out that “financials are the single largest sector of the European market and some of the world’s most innovative fintech companies are based on this side of the Atlantic.”

"Our industry expertise in corporate finance, thought leadership from research, and trans-Atlantic distribution capabilities combine to deliver the right outcomes and solutions for our corporate clients."

The first spell for Davis at KBW lasted seven years and saw him working out of New York, Boston, and San Francisco. His appointment at Autonomous Research took him to the UK. “After selling to Alliance Bernstein, I had the opportunity to join the Stifel and KBW platform and remain in London. And while I intend to spend time across all our offices in Europe, much of my time is going to be spent further improving our competitive positioning in the UK, where we have strong momentum.”

His experience at Autonomous in managing the global heads of research, sales, and trading across the European, US and Asian businesses, as well as implementing the firm’s MiFID II strategy, made Davis a perfect fit for the KBW & Stifel role. As Head of Equities in Europe, Davis leads a team of c. 250 staff across 8 offices spanning the UK and Continental Europe. His ambitions are to drive the firm towards being the leading pan-European investment bank for middle markets companies.

Considering the impact of Brexit, Davis comments: “Brexit has created a more cumbersome process for UK firms to service continental investors. Our advantage lies in our distribution footprint with sales teams across 7 cities in Europe that can leverage and monetise products and services in the UK. Stifel’s distribution capabilities in Europe, the UK and N. America are a competitive advantage for us.”

Davis jointly coordinates the strategy for ECM focus in Europe with Rob Mann, head of corporate finance, and that partnership has been productive. “Our industry expertise in corporate finance, thought leadership from research, and trans-Atlantic distribution capabilities combine to deliver the right outcomes and solutions for our corporate clients.”

He believes the thought leadership coming out of the research groups is a key differentiator for the firm. Fintech has been a key area of focus for Davis and the KBW/Stifel teams and is an example of where cutting edge research, which explores the intersections between tech and financials, work well, with the individual KBW and Stifel focuses remaining clear.

“FinTech has been a core focus for us, both in Europe and the US, and that’s where there's some intersection between KBW and Stifel. We are seeing real momentum building off the strategy we have implemented around various research products, unique and insightful conference experiences and corporate finance capabilities.”

Davis offers two examples in the UK:

“In April, we led the IPO of fintech company Pension Bee, which is a technology platform that enables consumers to consolidate dormant pension pots and take control of their retirement journey. We've been working with this company for several years helping to bring them more investor visibility through our conferences and research products. So when the company wanted to explore growth capital, KBW and Stifel was a very natural destination for them. With the listing of Pension Bee, we were able to reopen the high growth segment of the LSE which was another important milestone for the London market and for KBW.

“Several months later, we led a pre-IPO private capital raise for Lunar, a Nordic neo bank. We raised €210m to support their growth as a digital lending and neo banking operation”.

From his office opposite St. Paul's Cathedral, Davis is overseeing “strong momentum in healthcare, tech and other areas beyond fintech” while continuing to grow and invest in the business across continental Europe.

He signs off by emphasising, “We think this is an exciting story to follow.”

CFI.co will be doing just that.


Ghana Investment Promotion Centre: Laws of Attraction - GIPC Draws Global Attention to the Investment Opportunities in Ghana

The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre has over the years, adopted multi-tiered approaches to carry out its mandate, in promoting and attracting investments into Ghana. The Centre has initiated and supported dynamic measures to enhance the business climate for Ghanaian and foreign enterprises.

The GIPC takes pride in being world-class experts in facilitating international investments into Ghana and connecting Ghanaian businesses with the rest of the world. It serves as a major conduit between investors and the vast unified African market as Ghana hosts the secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area.

The Center is widely regarded as the best IPA in West Africa, having consistently attracted game-changing investments to Ghana in order to support new industries, improve existing ones, create jobs, and strengthen the Ghanaian economy.

GIPC’s diverse team — trade and investment analysts, researchers, and industry experts — continue to provide insights on investment opportunities and assist investors to seamlessly integrate into the Ghanaian business world.

A Unique Approach

The GIPC's work continues, despite increased global uncertainty as a result of the ongoing health crisis. The Center has transformed its services, leveraging digital technology and social media to better serve investors, reinforce its commitment to the buoyancy of the global economy and keep up with changing business trends.

At GIPC, the notion of investment promotion goes beyond traditional media and events promotion. It makes aggressive use of digital media, coupled with high-level stakeholder engagements and business-to-business links. With this strategy, the GIPC, even amid the pandemic, recorded impressive FDI inflows, placing Ghana among the top recipients of FDI on the African Continent.

To widen the investment pool, the GIPC is a pioneer of Diaspora Direct Investments in Africa as nascent steps are being taken by the Center to harness and coordinate the global African resource potential. Its Diaspora Investment Desk distinctively caters Investment and commercial activities between Ghana and the African diaspora. This compounds with the GIPC’s Aftercare Division, established to provide post-investment services to nurture lasting stakeholder relationships.

In line with the global drive for sustainable investments, the GIPC encourages investments that have positive economic, social, and environmental outcomes. It recently collaborated with the UNDP to launch the SDG Investor Roadmap, which aims to mobilize private-sector investments to advance the Sustainable Development Goals.

A Growing Reputation

The last four years have been busy for GIPC. The Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) awards named it best investment promotion agency in West and Central Africa for five years in a row, and CFI.co named it best investment promotion agency in Africa for two years in a row.

[caption id="attachment_15685" align="aligncenter" width="575"] CEO: Yofi Grant[/caption]

Yofi Grant, CEO of GIPC, was elected to the World Association of Investment Promotion Associations' Steering Board in 2019 to represent Sub-Saharan Africa. At the 25th World investment conference by WAIPA in Dubai UAE, the CEO was again reelected unto the steering board where he continues to represent Sub Saharan Africa.

Driving Regional Trade and Growth

The GIPC has been instrumental in boosting intra-African trade through its involvement in the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area.

The Centre works with stakeholders to ensure that the necessary infrastructure and policies are in place. The Centre spearheads the Invest Ghana agenda by disseminating limitless business opportunities in sectors such as agriculture, real estate, manufacturing, health, and tourism. Its multi-faceted approach to investment attraction has played a direct role in the increasing buoyancy of the regional economy.

“We welcome the world to explore Ghana’s investment opportunities,” says Grant, “with us being your first port of call.”

More information: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. Website: gipc.gov.gh