Davos: Seizing the Moment – Or Not

[caption id="attachment_11469" align="alignright" width="300"] Donald Trump[/caption]

The man himself was unable to attend the proceedings in Davos – he has other commitments, including an appointment with destiny next Friday. In his stead, the future disruptor-in-chief dispatched his wingman Anthony Scaramucci to Switzerland to make comforting noises. Obligingly, Scaramucci – an accomplished investment banker and reportedly host of rather wild après-event parties in previous years – assured his peers that, acerbic tweets notwithstanding, the future US president is committed to NATO and free trade. The latter, Scaramucci explained, would merely need a few adjustments to improve symmetry: “Free trade will no longer be tilted towards our partners. The incoming administration simply wants to level the playing field.”

Calling Trump “one of the last great hopes for globalism”, Scaramucci emphasised that free trade is not to be used as a means to provide development aid and said that globalism cannot continue to undermine livings standards: “If the Chinese believe in globalisation, they have to reach out to us and create this symmetry because the path to more prosperity is via the American middle class and workers.”

Europeans leaders, Scaramucci warned, ignore growing popular distrust and anger at their peril. However, he also cautioned against taking the president-elect’s twitter rants too literally or attach much importance to his colourful language and hard-hitting metaphors: “Mr Trump is just trying to get his message across to ordinary people in the most effective way.”

The incoming administration is not about to renege on US support for NATO, though it will expect European allies to assume a larger share of the burden. Any changes to the treaty proposed by the US will seek to update the alliance to ensure its effectiveness in meeting new security threats, Scaramucci said.

Falling slightly afoul – at least on one end – of this year’s Responsive and Responsible Leadership theme, Trump seems to care less about the goings-on in Davos – or the concerns of the decision makers assembled in the Alpine resort town for their annual gathering. “I suspect he knows that the conventional wisdom on display in Davos is nearly always wrong,” says Kenneth Rogoff, professor of Public Policy and Economics at Harvard University and, perhaps more interestingly, a chess grandmaster. “Last year, Davos was sure that Donald Trump could not possibly win the US presidency and that the UK would remain firmly anchored in the European Union. No matter what picture is painted, the most likely outcome is without fail the exact opposite of the Davos consensus.”

“Mr Trump is just trying to get his message across to ordinary people in the most effective way.”

In his rather sombre pre-summit brief, World Economic Forum (WEF) founder Klaus Schwab calls for swift action to prevent the escalation of the various crises assailing the world. According to Prof Schwab it is clear that a global shift in the balance of power is already underway: “This requires leaders to set and implement policies that take into consideration the need to bridge inequalities, reform capitalism, and address the legitimate anger felt by citizens who grapple with an identity crisis.”

The annual WEF summit has established a well-earned reputation for coming up with big solutions to big problems. As such, the event suffers from a trend, first identified by the Canadian economist John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006), to proclaim the need for new ideas as a substitute for them.

The ambition displayed by the attendees does not always fit on-the-ground reality. The über political correctness unfailingly adhered to does not help either. Intercultural dialogues may provide venues for harmless dreamers to exchange visions of utopia; they do not usually impress or produce outcomes that may readily be applied to real-life situations.

Though it may be a worn-out cliché that the world has changed – after all, it always does – this time around the most powerful country on earth is set to break the mould and stop kowtowing to convention. Love him or hate him, Trump’s ascension to the US presidency represents an abrupt departure from business-as-usual. The chattering of the globalists has been overtaken by facts.

As President Trump sets about making America great (again) and Prime Minister May takes inspiration from Thelma and Louise, the old thought bubble has burst. And it is not just developments in the US and the UK that require a new form of group think: whilst most of the big name participants of the WEF meeting continue to profess a belief in trickle-down economics and consider world poverty as good as solved, the number of people in Sub-Saharan Africa subsisting on two dollars per day has doubled since 1980 to around 500 million.

Predictably and with clockwork precision, development organisation Oxfam – a confederation of international donor institutions – produced its annual report on global inequality on the eve of the WEF Davos meeting, concluding that the world’s eight richest men jointly own as much wealth as the poorest 3.6 billion people. Oxfam’s UK chief executive Mark Goldring warned that inequality is fracturing societies and poisoning politics: “It is beyond grotesque that a group of men who could easily fit in a single golf buggy own more than the poorest half of humanity.” The organisation also calculated that the average compensation awarded to CEOs of leading British companies equates to the combined wages of over 10,000 garment factory workers in Bangladesh.

Last year, Oxfam concluded that the combined wealth of the world’s richest 68 people – many of whom were present in Davos – equalled the total possessions of the poorest half of humanity. Improved data now shows inequality to be even worse than previously thought.

Whilst WEF Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab tries his level best to convince guests to tackle the grave issues at hand, most participants continue their deliberations almost mechanically as if they reside on Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain – largely immune from developments in the outside world. The danger, of course, is that today’s movers and shakers become mere observers to events that have slipped from their grasp through inaction.


Kommunalkredit Austria AG: Always First with Speed and Precision

[caption id="attachment_17429" align="alignright" width="240"] CEO: Bernd Fislage[/caption]

Kommunalkredit Austria is a specialised bank for infrastructure and energy financing with a clear objective: to create sustainable value to improve people’s lives.

Vienna-based Kommunalkredit (KA) is partner of choice for corporate and financial sponsors active in the construction, acquisition and operation of infrastructure and energy projects. It matches the needs of developers and project sponsors with the growing number of investors seeking sustainable investment opportunities.

Those investors include insurance companies, pension funds and asset managers, and public financing of infrastructure investments is key in KA’s business model. It maintains strong relationships with local communities on one hand and international clients and investors on the other.

KA is an “infra-banking” expert which combines in-depth industry expertise and structuring know-how to provide tailor-made solutions for its clients. It adheres to its motto of “Always first – with speed and precision”. This is reflected by swift decision-making and reaction to market developments.

"What sets Kommunalkredit apart is its will to participate in creating a better world by enabling the development of sustainable infrastructure."

The European infrastructure market is evolving – and so is KA. The demand for investments is increasing, which is why Kommunalkredit provides a range of products, from financial advisory services to arranging and underwriting of senior and junior debt, as well as asset management through the Fidelio KA platform. KA is also expanding in the areas of acquisition finance, hybrid/corporate finance, and financial advisory services.

What sets Kommunalkredit apart from other financial institutions is its will to participate in creating a better world by enabling the development of sustainable infrastructure. Kommunalkredit aims to provide benefits to communities, fight climate change and promote sustainability.

The concept of sustainability is firmly embedded in its business model and processes. In 1997, KA established an EMAS (environmental management system) that it has since developed. Its commitment to sustainability is evident: it has become the first Austrian issuer of a Social Covered Bond.

Investments in infrastructure serve as a tool for answering social needs. This is reflected in KA’s core investment segments.

Infrastructure is essential to the efficient functioning of society. Improvements in this area have a positive effect on economic growth, at local, regional and global levels. As Kommunalkredit’s CEO Bernd Fislage says: “Infrastructure is the backbone of society.”
By giving populations improved access to essential services — water, electricity, roads, schools and hospitals — the standard of living will be improved.

Fislage has been a member of the executive board of Kommunalkredit Austria AG since February 2017, and chief executive since September 2018. He has established a clear path for the company: to take “always first” as an obligation to improve every day, to be nimble and flexible, and to stay committed.

He has three decades of international experience in capital-market, institutional and bank financing, as well as in infrastructure, energy and transport. His banking career spans more than 25 years, including 18 in leading regional and global management positions with Deutsche Bank.

Fislage was in charge of Deutsche Bank’s global asset finance, and had regional responsibility for its structured finance business (ABS, CRE, illiquid trading) in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Previously, the Technical University of Darmstadt graduate worked for NatWest Markets and BHF Bank.


My Clinic in Saudi Arabia: Taking the Lead in Premium Care and  Relieving the Strain on Patients

My Clinic, the largest such out¬patient facility in Jeddah – with a premium approach to patient care – is located on Prince Sultan Street and has been rising in popularity since opening in May 2017.

[gallery columns="4" link="file" ids="17473,17474,17475,17476"]

Fehr Nazer, the General Manager, is a man with a positive and progressive approach to healthcare. While talking to him, the reason behind My Clinic's steady success becomes clear; it's the motivation to create a seamless patient journey and experience: "One of the things we focus on is minimising the time patients spend on paperwork and billing: creating ease in the process so they get maximum time with the doctor."

On your visit to My Clinic, whether It's for a lab test or dental check-up, you'll find relief in the convenience of their one¬-stop reception desks, where everything from booking an appointment to getting approvals for insurance can be achieved. You'll spend little time finding your way around, as the layout of the clinic is very straightforward – with no excessive directions or signs that can confuse.

"The clinic arranges everything electronically, so you don't have to carry paperwork around to get your treatment."

My Clinic is unlike any other facility in the city. With its simplistic approach to branding and an open space with plenty of sunlight and refreshing plants, the clinic provides patients with a calm and peaceful environment. The walls are uncluttered; there are no charts and visuals filled with medical jargon that is of no interest to patients.

The waiting area on the floor that houses the Children's Health and Women's Health departments features a private nursing station and vibrant playroom, with some rooms having animated wallpaper to ensure a pleasant and fun experience for the kids.

The clinic arranges everything electronically, so you don't have to carry appointment slips or other paperwork around when arranging your treatment. A nurse will collect you from the waiting area, take you to triage, and instantly send your vitals to the doctor, who will evaluate them while you're on your way to the consultation room. If the doctor assigns any medication or requires lab tests, the pharmacy and lab will be ready to attend to your needs prior to your arrival.

My Clinic takes patient experience very seriously. Each day, the management team walks around the clinic to help any patients who may have concerns. Service agents work daily on follow-up calls to gain feedback. Nazer explains, "Our service agents encourage patients to discuss any negative experiences. We review feedback daily and fix any issues that are highlighted. We've been doing this since the day we served our first patient."

My Clinic offers all clinical specialties with an individualised approach to medical care. Most of their doctors are experienced Saudi consultants with Western Board Certifications.


Jury for AIM IPA Awards Receives Recognition

The esteemed jury members for the AIM 2018’s Investment Promotion Agency (IPA) awards receives recognition for their kind support when the final winners results are presented at the gala ceremony at the Armani hotel at the The Burj Khalifa (in Dubai on April 9th, 2018).

Jury members include:

Mr. Jamal Saif Al Jarwan, Secretary General of UAE International Investors Council

Mr. Bostjan Skalar, Executive Director & CEO of WAIPA

Mr. Andreas Dressler, executive from FDI Advisory

Mr. Kai Hammerich, former WAIPA president; now president of KA Foreign Investment Co.

Dr. Douglas van den Berghe, CEO of Investment Consulting Associates (ICA)


Fitch Ratings: Global Perspectives, Strong Local Experience and Credit Market Expertise

Fitch Ratings, a division of Fitch Group, is a leading provider of credit ratings, commentary and research.

The additional context, perspective and insights the company provides have helped investors fund a century of growth — and make important credit judgments with confidence.

Fitch Ratings is dedicated to providing value through independent and prospective credit opinions, and offers global perspectives shaped by local market experience and credit market expertise.

The firm — ranked number one in Latin America — has 13 offices in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Central America and more.

Some 200 analysts are dedicated to credit ratings and research in Latin America, providing more than 600 corporate ratings and 1,500 banks and financial institutions.

It provides 90 percent coverage for Public Finance, Infrastructure and Project Finance markets, and oversees 340 local and cross-border Structured Finance transactions.

In the past year, Fitch has undertaken 6,100 investor interactions around the world, and published 11,000 reports globally in 2019, including 1,400 special reports.

Drawing on the insight of some 1,000 analysts, the company brings diverse viewpoints together to render objective and forward-looking assessments.

What goes in to, and stands behind, that analysis is a world of capability and expertise that spans the local, regional and global fixed-income markets. Capital market participants recognise Fitch Ratings’ transparency in presenting its credit views.

Within emerging markets, Fitch Ratings has extensive knowledge of the Latin America region, and rates more entities in regional financial institutions, corporates, structured finance, and infrastructure sectors than any other agency.

The company’s credentials have been honed over many years. Fitch combines global expertise and local talents accumulating more than 27 years of local presence through a strong leadership and accomplished staff.

For more information, visit fitchratings.com

Fitch Ratings Management Team in Latin America

Business Relationship Management

Carlos Fiorillo
Managing Director
BRM Head of Latin America, Mexico City
carlos.fiorillo@fitchratings.com

Kathleen Holtzman
Managing Director, Corporates, New York
kathleen.holtzman@fitchratings.com

Diego Alcazar
Senior Director, Financial Institutions, New York
diego.alcazar@fitchratings.com

Samuel Fox
Managing Director
Structured Finance & Infrastructure, Chicago
samuel.fox@fitchratings.com

Fabio Astolfi
Senior Director
International Public Finance, Sao Paulo
fabio.astolfi@fitchratings.com

Erick Campos
Managing Director, Central America, San Jose
erick.campos@fitchratings.com

Rafael Guedes
Managing Director
CBL and Investors – Southern Hub, Sao Paulo
rafael.guedes@fitchratings.com

Alejandro Bertuol
Managing Director, CBL and Investors – Pacific and Caribbean Hub, Bogota
alejandro.bertuol@fitchratings.com

Frank Laurents
Senior Director, Investors, New York
frank.laurents@fitchratings.com

Analytical Team

Shelly Shetty
Senior Director, Americas Sovereigns, New York
shelly.shetty@fitchratings.com

Charles Sevilla
Senior Director, Americas Sovereigns, New York
charles.seville@fitchratings.com

Daniel Kastholm
Managing Director, Corporates, Chicago
daniel.kastholm@fitchratings.com

Glaucia Calp
Managing Director
Global Infrastructure Ratings, Bogota
glaucia.calp@fitchratings.com

Maria Paula Moreno
Managing Director
Structured Finance, Bogota
maria.moreno@fitchratings.com

Alejandro García
Managing Director
Financial Institutions, New York
alejandro.garcia@fitchratings.com

Eduardo Recinos
Senior Director, Insurance, San Salvador
eduardo.recinos@fitchratings.com

Davie Rodríguez
Senior Director
Fund & Asset Manager Ratings, New York
davie.rodriguez@fitchratings.com

Gerardo Carrillo
Senior Director
International Public Finance, Mexico City
gerardo.carrillo@fitchratings.com


Linklease Founder & CEO Steve Thomas-Williams: A Midlands Man with a Mission

[caption id="attachment_17480" align="alignright" width="300"] Founder & CEO: Steve Thomas-Williams[/caption]

Steve Thomas-Williams is not just another copy-paste banker who has followed a well-trodden path to running financial institutions in the Middle East.

He grew up in the industrial heartland of the UK and left school at 16 to join the local branch of Lloyds Bank. He was raring to get into the business world.

Fast-forward 16 years to 2004. Having completed almost every role in retail and commercial banking, Thomas-Williams had climbed the ladder to become the COO and board member of Lloyds Bank in Dubai. There he worked with Emaar & Nakheel to pioneer mortgages in the UAE as expat-owned property became available. He completed the first mortgage-backed property sale for an overseas bank.

Several innovations later (in the fields of credit cards and internet banking), Thomas-Williams saw the region had an appetite for global best-practice — and this was something he understood from his grassroots beginning.

Over the next four years, he grew the consumer and business banking sector from a single branch to a multi-branch operation spread across the Middle East.

In 2007, he became CEO of Gulf Finance. He delivered strong results and the company won many awards during his tenure. In 2013, Steve Thomas-Williams was voted one of the Top 50 Influential Brits in the UAE by Arabian Business.

In 2014 he set up Linklease with his wife Claire — also a senior banking executive — and colleagues Edward Allely, Mathew Kuban and Czes Brodalka.

The plan was to bridge the gap between the demand for equipment from SMEs in the UAE and the appetite for global investment into asset-backed structures. It’s a plan the players are all well qualified to perform. Linklease has working partnerships with companies such as Oracle, BLME, Aston Martin and Zoomlion to provide leasing solutions across the Middle East.

The scale of opportunity for equipment-leasing in the UAE and surrounding region is daily motivation the Linklease CEO. On one day he’ll be dealing with a clean energy bio-diesel business, looking at acquiring refining machinery, the next purchasing vital healthcare equipment for a hospital.

Linklease has a pioneering multi-sector operation in the UAE, with operations now expanding into Saudi Arabia, India and Africa.

Thomas-Williams is a former director of business development for the British Business Group UAE, and was the contributing editor for a nationally acclaimed book, Sink or Swim. The book explores the lessons learnt from businesses that survived the UAE economic downturn in 2009.

He’s come a long way from his origins in the industrial Midlands, and is well equipped to deal with the challenges faced by companies growing in the UAE, as the country goes through its own growth revolution.


AMC Natural Drinks: Research & Innovation to Achieve Sustainability & Circular Economy Commitment

AMC Natural Drinks is a leader in the research, development, production and sale of chilled fruit juices, smoothies and other high-quality, innovative and functional veggie drinks. Sales have doubled during the past five years and turnover now exceeds 600 million euros, driven by a spectacular growth of 17% in 2018. This was accompanied by a 25% reduction in its carbon footprint, all under the watchful eye of CEO Antonio Muñoz Beraza.

This Murcia-based company is one of the two cornerstones of the AMC Group, along with AMC Fresh – which works with fruits, flowers and other fresh products. The group has become the third largest Spanish business conglomerate for foods sold abroad, with a consolidated turnover of 1,290 million euros in the last fiscal year.

AMC Natural Drinks has its own production plants in Spain, Holland, England, Portugal, and holds minority technology investments in strategic suppliers in Costa Rica, Poland and India. It sells in the 70 most prestigious retailers in Europe, in over 50 countries worldwide and has experienced large-scale growth in the Middle East and Asia (primarily in Japan, Korea, China and Vietnam).

Sustainability and the circular economy have always been key elements of the research and development programme of AMC Innova, the scientific-technical division of international holding company AMC Natural Drinks. The European Commission and government of Spain have recognised its research excellence in more than twenty pioneering projects of fundamental and applied science.

[caption id="attachment_17390" align="aligncenter" width="900"] The AMC’s Bio-bottle made from citrus peels from their own squeezing process and potato starch[/caption]

Many of these AMC Natural Drinks research projects are led by AMC Innova and developed under an Open Innovation model with the best international research centres. These efforts aim to develop, demonstrate and apply continuous improvements in environmental sustainability, natural functionality and bring efficiency improvements in the food and natural drinks industry.

AMC Innova designs, researches, scientifically validates and improves the sustainability and natural functionality of food thanks to the development of new value-added products from the squeezing of fruit and vegetables.

AMC Natural Drinks develops patented processes, extracting natural bio-actives present in the peel and rinds of fruit such as pomegranate, watermelon and oranges, where nature deposits large doses of valuable nutrition.

Thanks to these new technologies, AMC adds value so that the ingredients can be applied in other foods to bring nutritional improvement. The same applies in nutricosmetics, perfumery and natural pharmacy – being more environmentally friendly, reducing and reusing raw materials (of which not all functionality was extracted) and providing society with a sustainable source of natural added value.

AMC Natural Drinks is also part of the pioneering LIFE CITRUSPACK Research project, funded by the EU, to create a bio-packaging made out of orange peels from its own squeezing process and potato starch. The company aims to bring the first 100% compostable bio-bottles to the market by 2021.

Cosmetic containers, straws, utensils, fruit transport materials will also be made from this orange fiber material and this will have a great impact on reducing the environmental footprint.

At AMC, packaging is eco-designed through the most advanced technologies. This allowed the company to reach great milestones and produce food packaging with important sustainability attributes, which consumers value as alternatives to the obsolete model of linear consumption of use and disposal.

[caption id="attachment_17392" align="aligncenter" width="900"] State-of-the-art AMC Natural Drinks squeezing site for Mediterranean fruits[/caption]

Since its establishment in 1931, AMC Group has been committed to the principles of the circular economy. Currently AMC Natural Drinks bottles are fully recyclable and incorporate up to 52% of post-consumer re-used plastic. The use of recycled raw materials promotes the recycling and reintroduction in the market of these flows of secondary materials, providing them with a new value and closing the circle of sustainability. In addition, recycled PET (polyethylene terephthalate) has a carbon footprint much lower than virgin plastic.

It is also important that technological innovation reduces the weight of the bottles without compromising the quality and safety of the food. AMC Natural Drinks has reduced more than one million kilos of raw material in the past five years.

All other components of food packaging are also part of the AMC eco-design programme. For example, the label is made of a material fully compatible with the PET of the bottle at the recycling level, since they have different densities and must be easily separable in the recycling plants. The reduced size is also relevant – covering less than 60% of the bottle surface, thus favoring the correct selection of materials when passing through the selectors in the recycling plants to identify the label components from the bottle.

The company avoids the use of black plastic in the cap and other components of the container, since this type of plastic is invisible to the optical detectors of the selection plants and in many cases ends up in the landfill.

[caption id="attachment_17393" align="aligncenter" width="900"] AMC Vlissingen: one of the AMC state-of-the-art bottling sites in The Netherlands[/caption]

Antonio Muñoz Beraza, CEO of AMC Natural Drinks

Antonio Muñoz Beraza, co-CEO of the AMC Group and CEO of AMC Natural Drinks, won the Spanish National Innovation Award of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, and this was presented by the King of Spain.

[caption id="attachment_20999" align="aligncenter" width="624"] CEO: Antonio Muñoz Beraza[/caption]

Along with this recognition, AMC Natural Drinks has been honored with numerous prestigious international awards for innovation, sustainability, quality and health. These include the New York SOFI Special Innovation Award and the Japan International Beverage Award. It has also achieved the PLMA ‘Salute to Excellence’ award for the best European product – presented in Amsterdam) on three different occasions, as well as the environmental award ‘Zero Waste to Landfill’ by Marks & Spencer UK, and the European Sedex Awards for ethical practices and society. Further, Via Nature, an AMC own brand, was distinguished as ‘Best Flavour of the Year’.

Today, the AMC Group is an international agri-food group with 70 companies throughout five continents, over 5000 employees and provides a well-regarded reference and benchmark for innovation, research, patents and competitiveness.

For further information, please see:

LinkedIn

Web: amcnaturaldrinks.com


Enfuce: Finnish Game-Changers Revitalise Payment Industry

Innovative payment service provider Enfuce, strives for long-term, fast and secure solutions. Just recently they announced My Carbon Action, a pioneering sustainability service for banks, financial service partners and merchants. “We founded Enfuce to enable change and innovation within the financial industry and our service offerings are proof of that,” says CEO and co-founder Denise Johansson.

The five founders had been working at the intersection of payments and digital technologies since the early 2000s. Denise Johansson, Monika Liikamaa, Niklas Apellund, Tom Gråhn and William Ekström met at another payment service provider and decided that they wanted to do things differently.

[caption id="attachment_17399" align="aligncenter" width="900"] My Carbon Action: a pioneering sustainability service[/caption]

“Our backgrounds are entirely in the financial industry. We have worked both within the business and IT sides of banks, delivering services to the industry for the past 15 years. This gives us a unique position to really embrace the change our industry needs.”

The founders asked themselves: “If we were to rebuild payments from the get-go, how would we do it?” It quickly became apparent that cloud-based solutions were the best way forward as they offered unrivalled scalability.

“Going to public cloud with payment processing was a bold move in 2016, but we saw no other way to build a scalable solution for the global financial industry. Also the security budget and standard provided by the largest cloud-providers in the world are far more ambitious than any stand-alone company can achieve on its own."

Acting on their initiative, they founded innovative payment service provider Enfuce in 2016. A week after it was founded, Enfuce pitched – and won – its first account. That was the beginning of a new cloud-based platform. Enfuce was the first company in the world to run a card-issuing platform on the public cloud and to receive PCI DSS (payment card industry data security standard) certification.

“Enfuce is an enabler – we are a hub and integrator that enables our customers to test and launch innovative new payment services,” says Johansson. “It could be a consumer credit, debit or prepaid card, a corporate or fleet card, or tokenised payments. We have the full range of services and the platform to deliver them.”

What makes Enfuce stand out is its extensive product range and a platform that is enabled for the whole world: “Thanks to our scalable platform companies could start working with us in Europe for instance and easily expand to Asia or North America.”

By combining industry expertise, collaborative partnerships and compliance, Enfuce is delivering long term solutions fast and secure. They have been breaking records when implementing services to their customers. Enfuce integrated Apple Pay for one customer in just three months – and migrated five million cards in less than three hours for another.

[caption id="attachment_17400" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Enfuce Co-Founder & CEO: Denise Johansson[/caption]

The arrival of Payment services directive (PSD) 2 offered a range of opportunities for the Enfuce team to use its skills and entrepreneurial spirit to explore the era of open banking.

Enfuce Open Banking regulatory service goes further than Application Programming Interface or sandbox test environments. They handle consent management, transaction trails, fraud monitoring, dispute handling and compliance reporting. Enfuce also offers a single point of entry for third party providers (TPPs) to access account information and initiate payments. “I’m so proud of our 100% PSD2 compliant Open Banking API Hub that went live in November when Finland's first TPP transactions were processed via us,” says Johansson.

Recently, Enfuce partnered-up with D-Mat, a Finnish consultancy experienced in lifestyle carbon and material footprint calculations, and decided to build a solution to help consumers become more carbon-conscious and give individuals accurate feedback based on both purchase history and lifestyle.

“Our goal is to unite consumers with banks, merchants, retailers and financial service partners in the fight against climate change.”

The new sustainability service is called My Carbon Action and is a fully-automated digital tool for banks, other financial service providers and merchants to help their customers track their actual carbon footprint per purchase. The service is offered as a turn-key solution that can be integrated into existing platforms, such as mobile banking applications.

My Carbon Action is based on a validated calculation method called Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The calculation takes into account the environmental impacts of a product’s entire lifecycle from raw-material extraction, manufacturing and transport to use and disposal.

The journey for Enfuce has only just started. Enfuce is now Finland’s biggest fintech start-up, and one of the fastest growing fintech companies in the Nordics. In November 2019 Enfuce announced its new funding round of €10m, led by the early-stage VC firm Maki.vc including venture debt from Nordea, LähiTapiola and Finnvera. Enfuce employs over 50 professionals in the Nordics and has more than eight million end-users on its platform.


SG Finans AS: Financing Green Revolution to Keep the World Turning

The financial sector is at the heart of an essential shift to more sustainable development, based on a more inclusive and sustainable economy.

Société Générale is one of the founding banks for the Principles for Responsible Banking, and has been a pioneer of Positive Impact Finance. This calls for a new paradigm: turning Sustainable Development Goals into business opportunities for its clients by developing new financing solutions to bring about the sound and sustainable development of societies.

[caption id="attachment_17403" align="aligncenter" width="900"] SG Finans Treasury Management: Team[/caption]

The smart use of resources is a major consideration with the crucial challenges the world faces today. Action is needed — now — on climate change, social inclusion, and the development of emerging economies. SG Finans is implementing a pragmatic, step-by-step approach to develop impact-based solutions.

SG Finans AS is a wholly owned company of the Société Générale Group and part of the Société Générale Equipment Finance business line, Europe’s leading player for equipment leasing. Factoring is an integrated part of its services and an important solution for clients' liquidity and ability to maintain growth.

The company is the number one provider in equipment finance in the Norwegian market, and also holds top spot in factoring: 27 percent for Equipment Leasing and 34 percent for Factoring (based on figures from the Association of Norwegian Finance Houses as of end 2018).

With its European network, SG Finans AS aims to satisfy the requirements of Scandinavian businesses for capital-intensive equipment, liquidity and administrative services. It has a broad distribution network, with 15 regional and sales offices in Norway, four offices in Sweden and two in Denmark. The head office is in Lysaker, Bærum, Norway, and at the end of 2019, the company had 358 employees.

Teams are helping to develop innovative solutions by exploring new business models and by contributing to various alliances and partnerships. By looking at projects through the prism of their holistic impact on society, SG Finans is tackling world challenges.

Green Transition in Scandinavia

In 2018, the company launched an initiative to support clients in the green transition. It aims to relate a substantial part of new financing to climate action projects, including replacement of technology with newer, cleaner technologies, taking steps to reduce emissions or consumption of energy, and adapting to new requirements for greener equipment. SG Finans’ ambition is to be a partner and adviser in the transition to greener technology.

The Treasury Team

In September 2018, SG Finans signed a climate action credit facility with the European Investment Bank (EIB) to support climate relevant projects with a focus on low-carbon transport solutions in Norway. It has granted financing for projects involving electric- and biofuel-powered buses for public transport, electric bicycle leasing programmes for smart cities mobility initiatives, electric heavy-duty excavators for zero-emissions construction sites as well as specialised equipment for the construction and maintenance of the national rail infrastructure in Norway.

“We finance projects right at the heart of the Scandinavian economy and are well positioned to advice and support our 50,000 clients in their transition to a greener future,” says Hans Einar Herzog, deputy CEO at SG Finans. “Financing the shift to a low-carbon economy is a momentous task and Societe Generale Group is committed to supporting its clients make the transformation to tomorrow’s world. We share the EIB’s objectives and are glad to include this important collaboration in our sustainable and positive impact finance offering, which brings together all our environmental and social expertise across our full range of investment and financing solutions.”

In addition, an SME credit facility was signed with the EIB for other markets in Scandinavia, resulting in the allocation of green financing to upgrades of mobile agricultural and forestry equipment to support qualified entrepreneurs in Denmark and Sweden to reduce their carbon footprint, as well as the financing of the first biogas upgrade plant in Denmark from an SME client.

This first round of green funding in partnership with the EIB demanded the implementation of new internal processes to guarantee the highest standards for the use and allocation of funds and the evaluation and selection of green projects and new reporting tools. There was a paradigm shift within the organisation to fully embrace SG Finans’ leading role in the energy transition of the region. The experience has served as a positive impact test case for other European markets.

SG Finans has financed a range of climate change mitigation projects, including financing to municipalities for bicycle-leasing programmes for public sector employees since 2016 (to more than 30 municipalities). It also granted financing for a hybrid diesel-electric work boat to serve the aquaculture industry in Norway.

It is participating in green initiatives such as Finance Norway’s Sustainability Group and Hordaland County Council’s pilot project to establish the first heavy-duty hydrogen fleet in Norway. It is collaborating with ENOVA, the Norwegian government enterprise responsible for promotion of environmentally friendly production and consumption of energy.


Nordea Asset Management’s Responsible Investments Team: Using ESG Engagement to Create Value for Investors and Companies

Nordea Asset Management’s Responsible Investments Team is tackling climate change one investment at a time.

As sustainability increasingly becomes a critical issue for business risks and opportunities, many investors are gravitating toward those with strong ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) performance.

Katarina Hammar, co-head of Responsible Investments at Nordea Asset Management (NAM), believes that positive ESG selection can have strong influence on sustainability factors.

Engaging with companies is one of the best ways to create value for investors and holding companies, Hammar says. It’s her job to establish and maintain dialogue between NAM and the companies in which it invests.
Exclusion of a company is a last resort, she stresses. “We do not give up so easily, because we do not think it solves the problem to just sell the shares in the company. If we do that, we just pass it on to another investor.”

Instead, Hammar and her team work with companies to address ESG factors and help them to improve in areas such as pollution, worker compensation and transparency. When a company does not meet NAM’s standards, engagement is her first line of action.

NAM’s Responsible Investment (RI) Team team has travelled to Indonesia to evaluate the sustainability of palm oil plantations, engaged with a food and beverage producer to establish fair labour practices in agricultural supply chains, and worked with a major fashion label to address fair living wage concerns.

If a company that is otherwise considered a reasonable investment shows willingness and ability to improve its ESG practices, it can still be included in NAM's strategies.

[caption id="attachment_17407" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Co-head of Responsible Investments: Katarina Hammar[/caption]

Talk Isn’t Cheap

Engagement begins with dialogue. The RI Team has two goals: to listen to the companies and to talk with stake-holders, including company representatives. This is an important part of the responsible/sustainable investment process.

Every year, ISS Ethix, which provides norm-based screenings, studies the investments in all NAM strategies. If a company is seen to violate international norms in ESG, the RI Team seeks dialogue.

“We first try to hear the company's version of what has happened,” says Hammar. “Then we try to find out how, and within what time horizon, the company plans to rectify the situation. It might take months or even years to change things in more complex cases.

“We have different types of dialogues with the companies and choose to do them in collaboration with other investors or on our own. We can be one of the 10 largest shareholders in a company, and we really want to ensure that it handles its ESG risks in the best way possible, and develops its business strategy and capital allocation from it.”

Most companies welcome NAM’s RI Team. “Questions regarding a company's ESG risks and opportunities are rarely black and white,” says Hammar. “Companies are happy to draw on our experience and advice. The talks also give us some answers that allow us to better assess the company's future prospects.”

Striving for Strong ESG Profiles

NAM is a significant shareholder in many companies — particularly in the Nordics, where the asset manager is the largest fund company. This gives the RI Team a unique opportunity to engage in business strategies and ESG considerations. The asset manager has also created a range of solutions focused on companies that have already embraced ESG practices; it's called the STARS.

STARS strategies select companies with strong ESG profiles and sustainable business models, running in a responsible manner. Dialogues with companies in the STARS range aim to influence the companies to improve their already strong ESG profiles.

NAM has developed proprietary ESG research models, which are continuously developed and upgraded. ESG analysts use a risk model to assess companies and assign them a score based on the ability to responsibly conduct business and whether its products or services are well-positioned with sustainability megatrends such as climate change and demographics.

This risk-modelling integrates external ESG data and scores from several data providers. This offers coverage of over 6,000 companies globally, in terms of their practices and in tracking controversial issues. It also uses spe-cialised thematic brokers’ ESG reports to underpin analysis. Combining internal and external analyses enables NAM to identify tomorrow’s winners.

And while data are essential, the final and most important part of NAM’s ESG analysis is engagement. Going beyond the numbers and engaging directly with company management allows NAM’s RI Team to enhance its as-sessment — and steer companies towards meaningful change.


CEO of Reitan Convenience AS: Johannes Sangnes

[caption id="attachment_17410" align="alignright" width="219"] CEO: Johannes Sangnes. Photographer: Ingar Sørensen[/caption]

Johannes Sangnes is a Norwegian businessman with broad international experience from the convenience industry, having successfully led Reitan Convenience in Norway, Sweden and Finland.

As CEO of Reitan Convenience AS he oversees 10 companies in seven countries. Sangnes believes in value-based leadership and wants to build solid companies — and successful people — through the group’s vision: “We want to be known as the most value-driven company.”

Sangnes drive to create the right set of values in Reitan Convenience is exemplified by his decision to rename the organisation’s “Head Office” the “Support Office”. He then flipped the organisational chart upside-down, with customers on the top, then the franchisees and their employees — and himself at the bottom.

Sangnes is a trusted leader in the Reitan Group, Reitan Convenience’s parent organisation, and he has led successful turnaround projects in Sweden and Finland. Sangnes became the CEO of Reitan Convenience in 2016, prior to which he was CEO of R-kioski in Finland from 2012-2015, a new market for the Reitan Group. Between 2009 to 2012, Sangnes was CEO of Reitan Convenience in Norway, and from 2004-2008 he headed the operations of Pressbyrån and 7-Eleven in Sweden as CEO of Reitan Convenience Sweden.

Johannes Sangnes believes CSR and sustainability are important points of focus for a convenience business — issues that will be crucial to meeting customers’ future demands.

“I am very proud of our franchisees and employees,” he says, “because I know they have a positive attitude towards sustainability. Without them and their involvement we would not have achieved recognition as Best ESG Convenience Retailer in the Nordics and Baltics,” says Sangnes.

“The customer is our ultimate boss and we have to stay focused on that fact, and continuously work on becoming even more relevant and value-based. Value-driven leadership is a performance culture and our structure gives our franchisees the freedom to drive results.

“We should always ask: ‘what do we need to do to remove more friction from the customer’s transactions? How do we become more relevant?’ I think it is vital that we focus on our values in our everyday work, to reach our vision: to be known as the most value-driven company.”


Reitan Convenience: Value-Based Leadership to Drive Sustainability Effort

With a 125-year history of convenience retailing, Reitan Convenience has an established and enviable position in the convenience market.

With branches across seven countries in the Nordics and Baltics — and, with its franchisees, almost 14,000 employees — the group had a turnover of NOK 16.1bn ($1.74bn) for 2018. It has a customer base seeking simplicity of choice and believes in value-based leadership.

It cultivates employees’ ability to understand local customers’ immediate needs — and to take responsibility for global challenges.

Responsibility is central to Reitan Convenience’s philosophy and values. One of the company’s eight core pillars emphasises the importance of moral considerations in business. This is an organisation that turned CSR — corporate social responsibility — into OR: “Our Responsibility”.

Another central value — that of being debt-free — also ties neatly into this ethical structure. Reitan equates this drive to “working hard to become debt-free to Mother Earth”.

“There is still much to do as we move forward with this important task to do better for the World,” says Johannes Sangnes, CEO of Reitan Convenience AS. “Our franchisees and employees have a positive attitude towards sustainability, and without them and their involvement we could not have achieved all we have.”

[gallery link="file" ids="17413,17414,17415,17416,17417,17418,17419,17420,17421"]

Reitan Convenience is part of the Norwegian Reitan Group, with convenience stores Narvesen in Norway, Latvia and Lithuania, Pressbyrån in Sweden, 7-Eleven in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, R-kioski in Finland, R-kiosk in Estonia, Lietuvos Spauda in Lithuania, Northland in Norway, and Caffeine Roasters in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Reitan Convenience has a market-leading position in all countries, and 2,140 sales locations.

Reitan Convenience’s corporate social responsibility efforts are centred on three main areas: People, Product, and Planet. The goal is to operate as efficiently as possible while constantly striving to minimise environmental impact throughout the value-chain. Reitan Convenience tasked its suppliers with finding environmentally friendly solutions that did not contribute to climate change.

When renovating or establishing stores, as in business, the company focuses on measures to minimise negative environmental impact. Reitan Convenience participates in return and recycling schemes for packaging waste, as well as national and local co-operation initiatives with NGOs and suppliers on waste reduction.

People are Reitan Convenience’s most important resource, and the company believes organisations with a positive working environment — where employees feel well treated and respected — are more likely to succeed. Creating and maintaining a safe and happy working environment is seen as a prerequisite for profitability.

Reitan Convenience believes in individuals, and “developing great people who act based on trust”. “Our people are encouraged to make good decisions by creating a performance culture focusing on personal development and driving results,” says Sangnes. “We want to build successful people and solid companies.

“In 2018, we carried out programmes including value-based leadership courses, talent programmes, assessments of corporate culture and individual employee engagement programmes.”

The result? The Reitan Group was recognised by the Great Place to Work organisation (second place in Norway). It also made the top 10 list for the whole of Europe in the category “large businesses” category.

All companies in Reitan Convenience are operated independently and nationally. “Our belief is that the best decisions are made locally, as close to the customers as possible,” says Sangnes. “An evolving understanding of the customers’ needs can only be captured in the stores, where the goods and services are purchased and the meeting with the customer takes place.”

Reitan Convenience AS sees its duty as “being a good owner” of the subsidiary stores and franchises, he adds. “We have clear financial standards and make sure all colleagues are equipped with a true understanding of our values for best possible decision-making and execution.”

Commuters and customers in a hurry seek frictionless transactions. Strong growth in the sale of takeaway, baked goods and hot and cold drinks is a major trend in kiosk and convenience.

“Answering our customers' demands for high-quality food and beverages on-the-go, including healthier options, is of high importance to us. Our daily distribution of fresh food, juices and shots to our stores, and the preparation of fresh food on-site ensures freshness and quality in all our products.”

Reitan Convenience has succeeded in a competitive market by continuously evolving in high-traffic locations, becoming a preferred partner to landlords and suppliers, and maintaining a strong market position in the countries where it operates.
“We have a positive view of the future,” says Sangnes. "Convenience is considered a megatrend around the World, and we feel confident that the market will continue to grow.

“We must respond quickly to our customers' needs and follow trends closely so we can react to changing demands. With passion and excellence behind us we hope to expand into new European countries. We want to become the biggest, best, and most profitable convenience retailer in Europe.

“We’re proud and humble to have been recognised with CFI.co’s Sustainability Award. The motivation will help us to maintain our continuous efforts, and to take our responsibility seriously.”


Fondex: Trading Reinvented

[caption id="attachment_17425" align="alignright" width="300"] Fondex CEO: Alex Katsaros[/caption]

Fondex, an award-winning, CySEC-regulated broker, is raising the standards in online trading.

The recent CFI.co award for Best Technology Corporate Leadership in Southern Europe has sealed the broker’s reputation among its faithful and growing client base.

In a volatile and competitive market, Fondex has secured its place by constantly striving to offer its clients advanced tools and features, while also remaining true to its key value, transparency.

Trading with Fondex means trading with an advantage. With more than 1,000 instruments across seven asset classes, traders can diversify their portfolio and develop their trading skills.

Keeping up in a rapidly evolving environment is key to achieving goals in this world. Fondex provides traders with a pioneering platform as their main trading tool.

The recently launched version of Fondex cTrader combines four ways of trading within the same interface, amplifying the experience and eliminating the disruption of switching between platforms. Traders have a wide choice to give them a competitive edge: manual trading, copying top-performing strategies, using cBots to automate their trades, or following free, in-platform trading signals.

Fondex cTrader is equipped with the latest technical analysis tools and risk-management features. Being also available on desktop, web and mobile, the platform allows for seamless trading anywhere, at any time.

In such a competitive industry, the difference is in the details. Seeking the best value and ROI, traders are not ready to compromise or drop their standards. With price-streaming from Tier-1 liquidity providers and employing the most advanced technology for the execution of orders, Fondex clients benefit from seamless order execution.

With raw spreads starting from 0.0 pips and the lowest cTrader commissions globally, Fondex offers traders ultimate transparency, the most competitive market rates and optimal trading conditions. The firm knows that trading sometimes requires assistance and provides a professional support team — primed and ready to help, 24-hours-a-day, from Monday to Friday.

“We are honoured to have received the Best Technology award from CFI.co,” said CEO Alex Katsaros. “In Fondex, we offer the best technology through our exclusive, custom Fondex cTrader platform which provides access to more than a thousand global markets via all modern devices.

Our years of experience in Liquidity allow us to combine the best global platform with raw spreads starting from 0.0 pips, while charging the lowest commissions in the World.

In regards to corporate leadership, I've always upheld integrity, fairness, and transparency to be the core values of Fondex, which is the reason we have gained our client's trust and loyalty. We aim to keep improving our core product while retaining our values to continue providing traders a powerful ecosystem that helps them achieve their financial goals. By always striving to improve our clients’ experience, we can mutually succeed and evolve. ”

About Fondex

Fondex is a trade name of TopFX Ltd, which is registered as a Cyprus Investment Firm (CIF) and licensed by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) under licence number 138/11. i

For more information, visit fondex.com


SID Bank: Engine of Slovene Economy Maintains Its Green Focus

[caption id="attachment_17436" align="alignright" width="300"] President: Sibil Svilan[/caption]

Slovene Export and Development Bank is a national promotional, development and export bank, as well as an export credit agency.

According to its mission and mandate, sustainability is one of SID bank’s main objectives. It acts with responsibility towards its stakeholders, as well the shareholder, society and environment. Environmental responsibility is a major challenge for modern society, and SID bank has influenced green and circular economy implementation since 2010 through its financial services.

SID Bank is owned by the Republic of Slovenia and provides long-term financial services for supplementing financial markets with the emphasis strengthening the Slovenian economy, creating jobs and ensuring sustainable development.

With the balance sheet of €2.5bn, €420m capital and €12m profit in 2018, SID Bank’s main objective is to fill gaps and intervene in the market by providing commercial banks and insurance companies with financial and insurance instruments such as long-term and other loan facilities such as mezzanine, various risk-sharing schemes and non-marketable insurance and equity financing. It also provides financing within the framework of the Investment Plan for Europe. Financing for developmental, environmental, infrastructural, RDI and other projects is made available to companies of all sizes. This comes either directly or through financial intermediaries (on-lending) with a special focus on SMEs, municipalities, research and educational institutions, and legal entities that qualify as eligible borrowers under several dedicated programmes.

The new loan programmes financing in 2018 exceeded €400m for 2,200 companies, mainly SMEs.

The provision of modern financial services and tailor-made solutions with favourable conditions is motivated by SID Bank’s moto, “Ideas beyond frontiers”. It relies on its funding instruments and conditions, close co-operation with other national and multilateral development financial institutions, ministries, state-owned funds and other stakeholders. Particular attention is paid to the proper qualitative risk assessment of all projects which ensures adequate funding conditions.
This includes environmentally friendly support for society and production by means of Green Bond issuance in 2018, through which SID Bank intends to provide €75m for environmental protection, renewable energy sources, energy and material efficiency as well as environmentally friendly products and services in the next three years.

Financing for projects entailing the energy-efficient reconstruction of public buildings and sustainable urban development projects contributes to energy efficiency across all sectors. Its support of the revitalisation of urban brownfields was enabled by ESIF funds, with SID Bank acting as the Fund-of-Funds manager.

Appropriate financing and insurance services allow exporters risk mitigation and facilitate stable expansion in foreign markets.

SID Bank’s ability to provide coverage for projects with mid- to long-term maturity — not covered by commercial banks and insurance companies — supports the internationalisation of Slovenian companies. As the national export credit agency acting on behalf of the Republic of Slovenia, SID Bank provides export credit and investment insurance, reducing the risks incurred by Slovenian companies operating in foreign markets. SID Bank also provides insurance to commercial banks and reinsurance to insurance companies. SID Bank Group has insured and financed international commercial transactions of Slovenian companies for €1bn and covered 20 percent of Slovenian export in more than 100 countries.

Corporate Social Responsibility

As an initiator of the circular economy concept in Slovenia, the bank wants to see it implemented in practice. It formed its own methodology for evaluating the potential of companies for circular transformation.

The “Five Balance Sheets” business assessment is a comprehensive framework for evaluating businesses by considering environmental and social effects. The assessment of companies is valued and placed in interest rate policy to enable favourable financing for circular economy projects. of These companies generally have sustainable long-term business models and enable swift achievement of environmental, social and economic goals.


Q&A with CEO of First Pension Custodian, Nigeria: Kunle Jinadu

His excitement hasn’t faded — and nor has his optimism for the sector.

[caption id="attachment_17443" align="alignright" width="300"] CEO of First Pension Custodian, Nigeria: Kunle Jinadu[/caption]

What excited you about the businesses you worked for during your earlier career, and what excites you about the business you now lead?
Kunle Jinadu: My first full employment was with Deloitte Haskins and Sells (now Deloitte Touche), a firm of chartered accountants. I had just graduated from the university and had been selected from the country’s National Youth Service Corps because of my grade. I was excited by my posting to an International firm of accountants.

I have matured now, but I still feel excitement. The people I lead give me the impetus to deploy my time and energy to bring about initiatives that drive the company’s narrative.

What is special about the management style at your organisation, the team you lead, and the workforce?
KJ: The pension industry reform in Nigeria is fast evolving, and managing a pension custodian had been made very complex by reform. Custody operations as a stand-alone process was novel to the environment. We had to employ transformational and collaborative management styles to inspire our workforce.

My company is a member of a larger group, the First Bank of Nigeria Ltd. The group management style allowed subsidiaries considerable autonomy within the group governance framework.

How would you characterise short to mid-term prospects for the pension industry in which you operate?
KJ: The short-term project was to establish pension reform. Pension administration in Nigeria was determined to be unsustainable, and there was a need to convert to a contributory scheme and move away from defined benefits, which were largely non-contributory. This has been, to a large extent, achieved. The aim is to find benefit adequacy to achieve the goals of adequate benefits for workers.

What are the personal and business strengths that qualify you as a corporate leader?
KJ: Knowledge of the subject of the business comes first. This is capable of delivering values when combined with situational awareness, collaboration skills, and ability to work with different personal styles.

Business strength is situated in knowledge, self-awareness with confidence. Collaborative skill is the acceptance of delegation as a tool for getting results. I think also that a positive attitude helps with creativity. It’s usually not difficult to get my colleagues to see the usefulness of the initiatives.

What, to your mind, makes for good corporate leadership?
KJ: I think the first thing is to understand oneself. One must be honourable, positive, with strength outweighing the weakness. One must be strong in one’s knowledge, have ability to seek information, and be decisive when required. People must have faith in your judgement, and trust your abilities and enthusiasm. It is important to try new approaches, either by personal innovation or by working with a small creative team. When things go wrong, it’s time to wake up the team.

What are your short-term hopes for the future of your business, and for the industry as a whole?
KJ: The business is in its 14th year, with considerable growth in all areas. One major hope is for consolidation of all the company’s initiatives to ensure the success of digital processes, and guarantee quality service to clients. One of the aspirations of the company is to be the custodian of First Choice and this a target, to surpass clients’ expectations and assist with the increase in market share. We hope to shed operational costs to achieve a competitive cost-to-income ratio.

For the industry, continuing stakeholder collaboration is needed to tackle various drawbacks to the smooth implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme. If this is not addressed, it could erode the gains to this point.

How are pension funds impacting the wider economy?
KJ: What is certain is that the pension fund administrators remain committed to deploying funds for the benefit of the wider economy. We see willingness to participate in financing for infrastructure that has come into the market space. The operators want enabling government instruments to ensure that funds remain safe and liquid. The largest potential sponsor of infrastructure transactions is the government.

The contributory scheme is mandatory, and compels employees and employers in the public and private sectors to collectively save a minimum of 18 percent of an employee's monthly salary into the RSA. This has increased national savings. The fund has come in as an independent financial intermediary, as the nation's private businesses no longer rely on banks as the sole sources of outside capital. The fund has developed the equity market, which has been shown to enhance overall economic development.

The Pension Reform Act 2014 made provision for specific institutions that should manage the contributory scheme, including PenCom (regulator), PFAs, and CPFAs, who employ hundreds of graduates of diverse professions. This helps to provide for young graduates who otherwise be roaming the streets in search of jobs.


Rokel Commercial Bank: This ‘Gateway’ Bank Named After a River Knows How to Flow and Grow

[caption id="attachment_17446" align="alignright" width="300"] MD & CEO: Ekundayo Gilpin[/caption]

The Rokel Commercial Bank is a gateway to modern Sierra Leonean banking, the second-largest commercial bank in the country in terms of profit margins, depositors’ base and national coverage.

After a decade of turbulence, the bank was restructured, recapitalised and repositioned in 2014 to regain its place as a dominant force in the country’s banking industry. It is named after the River Rokel, the longest in Sierra Leone.

New management was appointed in 2017 to roll out the ambitious benchmarks set by the Bank of Sierra Leone as regulator and majority and minority shareholder.

Restructuring kicked off with an aggressive rebranding and marketing programme, with a new logo and innovations that ultimately heralded a paradigm shift in its policies and operations. Public response was remarkable.

Rokel is led by an astute and results-orientated managing director and CEO Ekundayo Gilpin. Gilpin is a renowned economist and banker who has worked in more than 38 countries in Africa, South America, the South Pacific, Caribbean, Europe, the US and Asia.

He is assisted by management team comprising of 36 senior members of staff. The bank’s board is headed by a chairman and supported by six non-executive directors. The board advises on policy matters and approves limits/expenditure outside management discretions.

With several branches across the country and booming performance, the bank now has 400 employees. It has come a long way in just a short time.

Back in 2016, it made a meagre profit if Le1.6bn ($1.64m). In 2017, after Gilpin took over with an aggressive marketing and rebranding strategy, profits soared to Le52bn ($6.7m). In 2018, the bank continued its upward motion, registering a Le66bn ($7.6m) profit after tax – a 30 percent increase over 2017. Customer deposits increased from Le770bn ($79m) in 2017 to Le873bn ($89.5m) in 2018.

Rokel has adhered to its corporate social responsibility, touching lives and making a difference in society. No financial institution has surpassed Rokel Commercial Bank in terms of recognition: it has won more than 30 awards from indigenous and international organisations over the past two years.

Rokel Commercial Bank has become a champion for financial inclusion in Sierra Leone. Revolutionary mobile-based products like the Rokel Simkorpor has taken banking to virtually every corner of the country, while its sponsored national debating competitions on financial literacy have invariably helped to broaden the financial knowledge base of a critical mass of young people.

The government holds 65 percent shares in Rokel, with 35 percent owned by private institutions and individuals. It provides about 25 percent of all banking activities in the country.

Originally Barclays Bank, it was established in 1917 and operated with 100 percent shares owned by the parent company – Barclays of England.

The name changed to Barclays Bank of Sierra Leone Limited in 1971 after it was incorporated with 25 percent shares owned by Sierra Leoneans and 75 percent Barclays Bank International. In 1999, Barclays transferred 100 percent ownership to the government and people of Sierra Leone, and Rokel.


Banco FINCA Ecuador: Everything Is Possible with ‘Small-Is-Beautiful’ Model from FINCA

Equador’s FINCA Impact Finance (FIF) is a network of 20 microfinance institutions and banks that focuses on reaching low-income clients through responsible financial services.

With an average loan size of $800, FIF delivers a double bottom-line of profitability and positive social impact. It has 2.38 million clients globally — more than half of them women. It serves unbanked individuals, families and communities through branch banking and branchless channels such as agent networks, mobile services and digital field automation.

[gallery link="file" ids="17483,17484,17485,17486,17487,17488,17489"]

FINCA Impact Finance operates according to a social purpose to provide innovative and impactful services to enable low-income individuals and communities to invest in their futures. FIF provides business loans and savings accounts, facilitates money transfers and oversees insurance, and provides e-wallets and other financial services.

The network was founded by US-based FINCA International in 1984 to support the development of micro-entrepreneurs through access to responsible finance. Its success led to subsidiaries forming across Latin America, among them Banco FINCA Ecuador, which was established in 1993. In 2008, Banco FINCA Ecuador transformed from a microfinance institution to full-service bank. Ten years on, it received a SMART certification in recognition of its long-standing commitment to client protection.

CEO of Banco FINCA Ecuador, Iván Tobar, highlighted the reasons for the success: “At a social level, microfinance makes a strong impact in a community,” he said, “which is proven to produce greater standards of living and increased employment.
“Banco FINCA Ecuador has shown remarkable growth with a portfolio increase of over 25 percent, as well as growth in total assets. The solutions it provides have been developed over more than 20 years.

“This growth rate shows us two things. First, that we are contributing to the economic well-being of individuals, families and communities, and second, that we are offering a portfolio of products and services that are attractive to the Ecuadorian market.

“Our mission is to help our clients take their business ideas and turn them into concrete action.”

For Andrée Simon, President and CEO of FINCA Impact Finance, “Microfinance is about creating positive social impacts. Responsible financial services come with transparency and financial education for our clients. This ensures that each client understands the purpose and implications of each of our products and services, so that granting a loan is beneficial and empowering for the recipient. That is what sets us apart, our commitment to this social purpose, and that is what gives us a great opportunity to keep growing in the Microfinance market.”


Eccelsa Aviation at Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport: — This  Sardinian Airport is Worth a Visit

The Olbia Costa Smeralda airport in Sardinia offers Eccelsa Aviation passengers a golden welcome to the famous Costa Smeralda.

The airport caters to more 11,000 private jets winging into one of the world’s most beautiful stretches of coastline — and Eccelsa Aviation is the only certified FBO (fixed base operator) on the site.

Eccelsa’s leading-edge air terminal is a symphony in glass and steel, with a finish in beautiful local granite. It lies at the heart of Costa Smeralda, allowing passengers to easily reach it from anywhere on the island by car (or by helicopter, for the adventurous, impatient or well-heeled).

Looking at the black-and-white photos dating from the early 1960s, it’s clear that the designers of Costa Smeralda possessed a visionary capacity, as well as the ability to turn dreams into reality.

Eccelsa embraces its role of combining professionalism with a touch of charm to deal with a constant flow of discerning clients, and is controlled by the airport management company Geasar SpA.

A customer-centric approach and a proactive problem-solving attitude empower the 45-strong professional team, led by general manager Francesco Cossu.

“We train hard and strive on a daily basis to meet new heights of service standards,” he says. “In the service industry, service is the key word.

“Our mission is to make sure that customers leave our premises happy and satisfied. Tourists are the real asset, not only for Eccelsa and the airport, but also for the entire territory”. Cossu has the passion and energy to tackle all requests to the Eccelsa Aviation operational desks.

The 4,000-square-metre terminal includes luxury brand outlets and companies offering exclusive services to high-net-worth individuals. There is de Grisogono jewellery, Maori Yachts, high-end sunglasses, as well as selected delicacies and fine wines from Sardinia and the Italian mainland.

The terminal hosts the San Marino Aircraft Registry and the New Jet International and Bombardier sales offices. It features a formidable outer wing that allows guests to enter and exit the terminal directly from their aircraft. (In the “worst case” scenario, passengers will be ferried between terminal and aircraft in a sleek Audi automobile.

July and August are the busiest months for Costa Smeralda, with 3,000 to 4,000 arrivals and departures each month. The giant wing provides shelter even to large aircraft such as B737s, A319s and A320s.

Privacy, security and comfort are the star qualities of Eccelsa Aviation. The operation runs smooth and slick thanks to the Eccelsa team. The terminal’s concierge service can even organise activities — from horse trekking and private aircraft hire to limousine and sports car rentals and yacht charters.

Through its sister company Cortesa, Eccelsa also provides first-class in-flight catering, offering a menu of 120 dishes — from simple sandwiches to exotic lobster dishes — all complemented by fine wines.

The terminal has a coffee shop and bar, open all day for snacks, local dishes and drinks to occupy and satisfy those waiting for flights.

Eccelsa Aviation also offers line maintenance services and the option to shelter aircraft in the modern hangars for the duration of the owners’ stay in Olbia.


SFO Group: A Disciplined Approach to Real Estate Investing

SFO Group is a multi-family office and an active global real estate investor.

It focuses on international direct real estate investment and offers wealth-management services to member families. Real estate is SFO’s preferred asset class which, when coupled with traditional asset classes, lowers the overall volatility of a portfolio. This constitutes a defensive alternative, hedging against inflation while providing geographical diversification.

[gallery link="file" ids="17468,17469,17470"]

Led by CEO Mohamad Abouchalbak, SFO’s 20-strong team of professionals operates from bases in London, Paris, Miami and Beirut. The team members bring diverse and complementary experience to the table, specialising in private equity real estate, advisory and investment banking, with its members having held positions with global financial institutions and/or real estate investment funds. The result is a balance of youth and experience that makes SFO a dynamic and agile player.

SFO follows a disciplined approach to real estate investing by adopting distinct investment strategies in select geographies. It has developed deep knowledge of the markets and the investment landscape.

“Our solid track record shows that we are on the right path,” says Abouchalbak, “working with trusted partners to source, underwrite and manage high quality assets in promising locations.”

SFO’s US housing programme — which accounts for more than half of its existing portfolio — acquires income-generating assets with long-term appreciation prospects. This provides a hedge against inflation and interest rate hikes, targeting US multifamily properties in secondary cities benefitting from favourable demographics, talent pools and business-friendly fiscal environments, and generating strong in-place cash flows with predictable yields and solid leasing history.

SFO also focuses on student accommodation close to top-tier state universities with sustained enrolment growth and supportive supply and demand dynamics, attracting investors who seek stable income streams.

A case in point is the acquisition of Landmark at Creekside Grand, a multifamily community of c. 500 units in Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta is the economic powerhouse of the south-east, leading job-creation efforts and home to 16 of America’s Fortune 500 companies.
“Our acquisition of Landmark, followed by the implementation of our value-add programme and successful exit, cements our reputation for delivering attractive returns in highly competitive markets,”, Abouchalbak says.

The Commercial Value-Add programme represents a third of SFO’s growing portfolio, focusing on the acquisition of under-invested assets by implementing capital improvement programmes. It targets office buildings in select European cities including Paris and Germany’s “Big Seven”.
This programme caters to investors seeking currency and geographic diversification, capturing value in the form of capital appreciation realised over shorter holding periods.

As of November 2019, SFO has acquired assets totalling some $1.1bn, comprising more than 4,000 US housing units and 5 million of square feet of commercial space. SFO is a member of Saradar Capital Holding, a diversified family conglomerate with a 70-year-old history of building excellence across sectors and geographies.


Global Commodity Exchange Map for EEX Group in 2020

The global commodity exchange EEX Group’s growth path marches on for 2020, with 2018 and 2019 outstanding years.

The group’s global positions are: number one in power, number two in emissions, and number three in natural gas. It has an established presence in Europe, Asia and North America, connecting more than 600 trading participants from 36 countries worldwide via 17 offices worldwide.

Traders have faced many uncertainties such as MiFID II (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive) and Brexit. Yet for 2018, group sales revenue increased by 19 percent to €267.7m.

The group generated significant volume growth in power (up 32 percent) in the spot and derivatives markets — maintaining its position, for the second consecutive year, as the number one global exchange in power trading.

In the natural gas market, the group saw major volume growth in the short end of the curve, with the spot markets achieving double digit growth rates (up 33 percent) compared to the previous year.

Its emissions business also saw success in 2018, more than doubling its overall volume, recording a year-on-year increase of 110 percent. Futures and options, in particular, saw growth in trading.

The group aims to continue to complete its product range in existing and new markets. In the power futures markets, EEX has continuously expanded its regional reach to 17 market areas over recent years.

In 2019, it continued to expand by launching products for the south-eastern European market — including Bulgaria, Serbia and Slovenia — in co-operation with local partners. On EEX’s gas platform PEGAS, products for 12 European gas hubs are currently available, including the recently launched offering for Spain.

[caption id="attachment_17433" align="aligncenter" width="600"] EEX CEO: Peter Reitz[/caption]

Plans for the future include an increase in market share in existing markets. EEX is in constant dialogue with its customers to develop its product range and increase liquidity.

To this end, it is working to reduce market entry barriers for new and existing customers. This includes solutions to fulfill regulatory obligations in commodity markets: One example is the group’s regulatory reporting services for different regulations such as MiFID II, EMIR, MAR, and REMIT.

The group will continue to put forward innovations in the energy and commodity sectors, as shown by its engagement in the ENERA project or the B2B platform “enermarket”.

EEX will also evaluate an extension of its offering for long-term trading by adding Cal maturities up to Y+10 in order to support long-term PPA hedging.

The group will also continue to explore inorganic growth opportunities which could contribute to its vision of a preferred Global Commodity Exchange Group.

The acquisition of Grexel enables it to further develop the markets for energy certificates in Europe. (Since February, Grexel Systems has been fully owned by EEX.)

The group has recently redefined its Asian business with the launch of EEX Asia and Cleartech. The strategic repositioning under two separate brands enables better service for clients through greater focus and specialisation in each business area.

EEX Asia is now the Asian Exchange of EEX Group, offering futures contracts on freight and seaborne commodities such as fuel oil and iron ore, with contracts clearing through ECC (European Commodity Clearing).

In March 2019, Nodal Exchange introduced Trucking Freight Futures – the world’s first exchange contract. In May, PEGAS launched an LNG contract based on the Japan-Korea Marker index.

In July 2019, EEX Group announced its plans to extend its Power Derivatives offering in the first half of 2020 by launching Trade Registration services for Japanese Power Derivatives.

Following meetings with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), it confirmed plans to launch clearing services for financially-settled Japanese power derivatives is allowed under the Japanese Commodities Derivatives Act.

In September, Powernext and EEX announced their intention to merge, subject to required regulatory and stakeholder approvals. The exchange will offer all products at a single marketplace while simplifying the admissions of new participants.

Members will be able to easily trade a larger EEX portfolio including gas, power and emission allowances. As a result, customers will gain access to increased trading opportunities and a growing liquidity pool, while continuing to benefit from cross margining effects as ECC will remain the central counterparty for clearing transactions.

In November, EEX Group and US-based Nasdaq Futures (NFX) announced that they had reached an agreement to sell NFX’s futures and options exchange business to EEX Group. EEX Group will acquire the core assets of NFX, including the portfolio of open interest in NFX contracts.

The transaction involves the transfer of existing open positions in US Power, US Natural Gas, Crude Oil, Ferrous Metals and Dry Bulk Freight futures and options contracts to EEX Group’s clearing houses Nodal Clear and ECC.


Clarion Call to Unite Behind  Push to Achieve SDG Targets

[caption id="attachment_14499" align="alignright" width="300"] Michael Moeller[/caption]

In September 2019, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced a Decade of Action for the SDGs — a clarion call to accelerate progress for people and planet.

Amake-or-break aspect of this push is to unlock the resources needed to finance the 2030 Agenda. Bridging the investment gap — estimated at between $2.5 to $3bn per year — will require partnerships involving the public and private sectors.

The level of investment required to achieve the SDGs makes it abundantly clear that governments alone cannot achieve them.

Private investors must be encouraged to align investments with sustainability-driven portfolios. The focus for investors must move away from niche to mainstream.

Despite increasingly positive signals, sustainable investment remains largely misunderstood and fuelled by misconceptions.

"Private investors must be encouraged to align investments with sustainability-driven portfolios."

Significant efforts must be made to connect financial actors with development practitioners, ensuring there is a common language and a common understanding of what qualifies as a sustainable investment, and providing a pipeline of investable projects.

Initiatives such as Building Bridges Week, held last October in Geneva — organised by a partnership of the UN SDG Lab, Sustainable Finance Geneva, the Canton of Geneva, the city of Geneva and the Government of Switzerland — exemplify the level of collaboration that is needed to connect key actors from all sectors and to create incentives for engagement.

While the positive response to Building Bridges Week demonstrated the appetite for socially responsible investments, it also highlights the need to accelerate the momentum.

Sustainable finance will not just happen on its own, and driving the required mindset shift requires the commitment of leaders to bridge the SDG investment gap. i

A Career Civil Servant with a Mission to advance the UN

Michael Møller has 40 years of experience as an international civil servant in the United Nations.

His career began in 1979 as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and he worked for the organisation in various capacities in New York, Mexico, Iran, Haiti, Cyprus and Geneva.

In 1995-1997, he served as senior political adviser to the Director-General of UNOG. Between 1997 and 2001, he was head of the Office of the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs at the UN headquarters. From 2001 to 2006 he was director for Political, Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Affairs in the Office of the Secretary-General, while serving concurrently as deputy chef de cabinet of the Secretary-General for the last two years of that period.

Møller also served as the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Cyprus from 2006 to 2008, and was the executive director of the Kofi Annan Foundation from 2008 to 2011.

From 2013-2019, he served as the director-general of the United Nations Office in Geneva, and as secretary-general of the Conference of Disarmament, with the rank of UN under-secretary-general.

In recognition of his efforts, Møller received prizes from the City of Geneva, the Union Suisse des Attachés de Presse, the Fondation pour Genève. He was most recently honoured by the Canton and Republic of Geneva, who conferred on him the Bourgoisie d’Honneur.

He is now the chairman of the Diplomacy Forum of the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator Foundation, senior adviser to Macro Advisory Partners, honorary president of the Digital Health Global Initiative Foundation, honorary president of the Advisory Board of the Defeat Non-communicable Diseases Foundation, honorary president of Art for the World, member of the executive board of the Kofi Annan Foundation, and member of the advisory boards of other foundations.`

He was born in 1952 in Copenhagen, Denmark, and earned a Master’s degree in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University, US, and a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations from the University of Sussex, United Kingdom. i


Fondo Pensione Nazionale: ESG and Risk Minimisation are Top Priorities for this Progressive Fund

Fondo Pensione Nazionale, founded in 1987, is a complementary pension fund for Italian co-operative and agricultural banks.

As a fondo preesistente, a type of fund found only in Italy, it is subject to regulation that prohibit free investment. Fondo Pensone Nazionale (FPN) has a diversified team that with discreet duties to monitor investment risks and to comply with the recent IORP 2 regulation — something that will have a great impact on pension funds.

The FPN financial team is divided in two branches, one controlling direct investments and the other mandates, and with one team member involved in financial reporting and compliance activity. FPN has created an innovative structure of risk management, independent of the financial department, that supervises all risks and complies with IORP 2.

This structure is composed of a team of two, one of whom monitors financial risks, while the other focuses on operational risks. The general manager, Sergio Carfizzi, who is also the head of finance, oversees these (and other) activities.

FPN is sensitive to ESG issues, aware that they are key factors in ensuring long-term competitiveness. Facing climate change and its consequences, as well as resource depletion, FPN believes public policies needs to be revised. The financial system has a key role to play here: redirecting private capital to more sustainable investments can be part of the solution to achieving a greener and more sustainable economy.

FPN has decided to factor ESG considerations into decision-making in direct investment and external mandates. It is developing specific agreements with external managers to integrate these criteria in the investment process.

Some have already implemented in Climate Risk Policies, with exclusion criteria that covers companies from coal-power generation, the extraction sector for mining activities, and pipeline companies for tar-sand resources.

Direct Investments

FPN has recently invested in the green economy, including forest regeneration and photo-voltaic systems. Every new investment that is evaluated is ESG-orientated.

Direct and indirect investments are structured to avoid exposure to certain sectors or activities, excluding some companies based on criteria such as unsuitable or controversial businesses.Above all, capital is aligned with positive outcomes that enhance the investment process across all portfolios. This avoids the necessity to develop ESG versions of existing portfolios and leaves other products and processes unchanged.

The company is developing an ESG score for all its assets that analyses each pillar of E, S and G to become a leader in the sector.

It achieved a positive overall net return of +0,15% (overall average weighted return of all investment lines of FPN) for 2018, a year that will be remembered as one of the most trying in the decade.

Financial markets and almost all traditional asset classes registered negative return in that period. FPN kept a lower level of risk than the benchmark for each Investment Line (-27 percent standard deviation for the Raccolta; -29 percent for the Crescita, and -34 percent for “Semina” Investment Lines).

General manager Carfizzi has transformed the pension fund, leading it towards greater efficiency and nurturing innovation. He implemented the diversification of investment, with focus on ESG issues, with the intention to invest in the Real Economy.

In addition to managing financial processes, he initiated a restyling of investment line design, introducing a lifecycle programme to help fund members make informed choices. He also developed some forms of additional benefit for pension members (Solidarity, RITA).

Carfizzi believes that fund members should always take the highest priority, maximising their returns and minimising risk. He promotes caution and order, allowing members to follow the lifecycle logic with dynamic choices.

All this is geared to increase collective welfare and adhere to the Fondo Pensione Nazionale mission of good Investment, and a greener, better life.


First Ally Capital: Ebenezer Olufowose has Sharp Eye for Financial Solutions

[caption id="attachment_17449" align="alignright" width="300"] Founding Managing Director and CEO: Ebenezer Olufowose[/caption]

In attendance were representatives from the oil and gas, finance, agriculture, insurance and other sectors of the Nigerian economy. FACL offers an array of products and services capable of raising the standards of the financial services industry. Over the course of 2019, the group acted as Co-Issuing House in respect of a major bond issue by a tier one Nigerian bank. It also acted as M&A advisor to the Mauritius-based acquirer of a leading Nigerian asset management business, and launched its first money market fund.

That fund was over-subscribed and listed on the FMDQ Securities Exchange. The Group extended its network to Abuja and acquired its new corporate headquarters in the highbrow Ajose Adeogun Street in Victoria Island, Lagos.

The First Ally brand has commanded attention for its achievements within a short time. The firm was licensed by the Nigerian Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) as an advisory, issuing house and underwriting firm in November 2014.

FACL was founded with a vision to redefine the financial services landscape through the adoption of global standards and exceptional service delivery. After its first full year of operation, the Nigerian economy slipped into recession, bringing economic and business challenges. Key amongst these were a loss of confidence in Nigeria’s economic direction, the withdrawal of foreign investors and a contraction of the capital market.

Established as a dynamic, forward-thinking financial services firm, the company was built to serve the high-end, middle-class and under-served socio-economic sectors. Different vehicles were established to serve these segments. While FACL, the parent brand, provides corporate/project financial advisory and capital raising services to corporates; FAAM, its asset management subsidiary, provides funds and wealth management services on pooled and segregated bases.

Particular attention is placed on attracting retail investors into the capital market, which had been the almost exclusive preserve of portfolio investors and wealthy individuals.

Its second subsidiary, Personal Trust Microfinance Bank (Personal Trust) was established 25 years ago as a savings and loans organisation. It was acquired by FACL and converted to a microfinance bank in 2014. The re-positioned bank has a mandate to provide services to small- and medium-scale businesses, as well as to under-served sectors of the economy. The growing demand for retail lending products and the fintech evolution have been instrumental in revolutionising banking services in Nigeria.

With the advances of technology, the path to new banking transactions has opened. Personal Trust plays in this space via a partnership with a leading fintech company. The bank has also developed its own digital lending product, MoniNow, aimed at low- to middle-income salary earners.

FACL’s third subsidiary, First Ally Bureau De Change, has its headquarters at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, providing retail foreign exchange services to the group’s clients as well as travellers. It provides personal and business travel allowances, offshore school fees and mortgage payments, as well as retail foreign-exchange purchases and sales. First Ally harnesses digital technology to build its growing retail franchise.

In the words of the founding managing director and CEO, Ebenezer Olufowose, “corporations and individuals face a number of remarkable opportunities and challenges”.

“They are tasked with finding lucrative areas for expansion, growth and value-creation,” he said. “They seek insight and direction to decipher where opportunities are highest. They also seek financial support to maximise every opportunity. We fill the gap by supporting organisations and individuals in their move to the area of largest opportunities. For us, it is courage in the face of reality.”

Olufowose, an alumnus of the Harvard Business School, is a respected professional in the investment banking world. He holds a first-class honours Bachelor Degree in Economics from the University of Lagos, and a Master’s in International Economics from the University of Sussex, England, where he studied as a Sir Adam Thomson Scholar.

Prior to setting up First Ally Capital, he was a director with Citigroup, and executive director with Citibank Nigeria and Access Bank. He started FACL with a select group of professionals as shareholders and directors, with Olufemi Akinsanya as chairman. Akinsanya is one of the founders of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, and a major player in modernising the Nigerian securities market.

Other directors include engineer Funsho Kupolokun, a former special assistant to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on petroleum matters. He was previously group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Biodun Arokodare was group executive director at NNPC, and Ayoola Oduntan is the group managing director of Amo Farm Sieberer Hatchery, whose initiatives have been the subject of a case study by the Harvard Business School.

Ebenezer Olufowose says the swift achievement of FACL was noteworthy. “We are particularly proud of the combined track record of our team,” he said, noting the diverse industry background of shareholders and directors, management’s wealth of experience and performance record. He also gave credit to the firm’s robust business network and strong capital base.

“Our team’s record and complementary skills position us to effectively support clients’ transactions,” he said, “and enable us to create continual growth opportunities for all stakeholders.”

“First Ally is a group driven by excellence and integrity through commitment to ethical behavior, innovation and quality. Our core values of trust, integrity, professionalism, client-focus, teamwork and innovation underlie all that we think and do.

“We are committed to making First Ally the best place for smart, inquisitive and ambitious people to thrive. We are committed to improving productivity and empowering every person to do, and achieve, more”.