Brain Capital: An Emerging Investment Opportunity

To solve existential brain challenges spanning neurology, mental health, psychiatry education, workforce development, and neuroscience, we need a fresh approach to technologies and investing. We need a new investment opportunity: Brain Capital.

We believe that in the 21st century, there are no brains without capital, and no capital without brains: cognitive development and brain health will require ever-growing investment while seizing market opportunities will have to take the latter into account. Therefore, a novel approach to building Brain Capital and mitigating global brain health challenges is critical both to ensuring and improving societal health and for economic growth and prosperity.

Brain Capital has the potential to introduce a paradigm shift to our understanding and agency in brain health. We define Brain Capital as neuroscience-inspired technologies that integrate and optimise for mental health, brain health, education, diversity, and positive psychology – including resilience, wisdom, and creativity.

Brain Capital Technology Overview

Human societies continue to be affected by brain challenges, from mental health disorders to learning disabilities, the impact of long COVID, the effect of a global conflict, and disparities in access to health and education.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by a massive 25%. Young people and women were hardest hit. The ongoing invasion of Ukraine highlights that women and children are often disproportionately affected in times of conflict. Moreover, the traumatic experience of war is amplified in the case of those suffering from brain disease and/or mental illness (e.g., dementia, anxiety).

Brain health is central to wellbeing and a productive society. Without it, human communities cannot sustain themselves economically or socially.

It’s Time to Rethink Brain Health

“The Women’s Brain Project brings together experts from various disciplines who work with patients and caregivers towards the implementation of sex and gender in precision medicine, from basic science to novel technologies. We need to bring precision approaches to brain and mental diseases as well as prevention and diagnosis. The shallow approach does not work any longer. Neuroscience, neurology, and psychiatry need to merge and transform their framework as the field of oncology did.” - Dr Maria Teresa Ferretti, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of the Women’s Brain Project.

Furthermore, deeply comprehending the human brain will make new achievements possible, stemming from a better understanding of mental processes such as creativity and innovation.

We need new ways to move the needle on these unprecedented challenges and opportunities.

Brain Capital is one possible solution, a new investment category placing a premium on technological healthcare innovations that improve brain health and brain skills. It constitutes a promising new opportunity within ESG – Environmental, Social, and Governance – investing.

Global brain challenges are worsening. Our economies and societies are becoming more turbulent. Dependence on personal technologies is accelerating, with citizens struggling to keep up with unlimited access to massive amounts of information and data, adding to increasing stress and anxiety. There also have been positive developments: knowledge-intensive economic activity; neuroscience breakthroughs; and developments such as cognitive immunology.

There are major new policy initiatives such as the WHO’s Intersectoral Global Action Plan on Epilepsy and other Neurological Disorders, as well as new, large-scale public-private partnerships aimed at tackling global brain health issues (e.g., Healthy Brains Global Initiative, Davos Alzheimer’s Collaborative). In some ways, we are therefore already living in a brain economy — a neuroscience-inspired, knowledge economy.

Still, there are substantial limitations in our current system of innovation and investing to tackle these brain challenges. Approaches to screening, diagnosis, and treatment of brain and mental health disorders are not optimised, relying on a “shallow approach”.

The concept of one-size-fits-all in psychiatry and neurology has been insufficient to cure and treat brain and mental disorders. This is because there are substantial limitations in our current understanding of brain pathology and sex and gender differences related to them. It is time to address this unmet need by precise investments.

Frontier neurology technologies aim to improve access, screening, prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. Concurrently, there is an increasing convergence of these types of solutions as experts, systems, and payers attempt to simplify workflows and minimise fragmentation of new products and services.

Sustaining Brain Health

To put brain health front and centre and integrate it as an investment opportunity into existing frameworks will require the support of diverse stakeholders working together. Health, venture capital, and philanthropy are three examples of such key sectors.

“ESG approaches have driven positive business and societal value; however, they are incomplete. Incorporating Brain Capital into ESG frameworks would provide a more comprehensive, robust approach to create long-term positive impacts for the economy, the environment, and all stakeholders.” - Mark Faulkenberg, Managing Director of Investment Management at Boomtown Accelerators.

Such an approach would allow us to leverage the financial markets to develop Brain Capital technologies and opportunities, reduce brain challenges, and send a signal for more investment in venture capital-type vehicles to fund the scaling of neuroscience-backed solutions.

What’s more, Brain Capital technology and investment will advance neuroscience and bring high-value, durable benefits to our global community. That’s why we invite you to consider this Brain Capital framework as you innovate, invest, and tackle social challenges – because as Peter Drucker put it, the best way to predict the future is to create it.

About the Authors

[caption id="attachment_21826" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Author: Antonella Santuccione Chadha[/caption]

Antonella Santuccione Chadha MD is a medical doctor with expertise in clinical pathology, neuroscience and psychiatric disorders. She is head of stakeholder engagement for Alzheimer’s disease at Biogen until end of April 2022. In May, she will be appointed as the chief medical officer at Rejuveron, a company focused to identify and support scientific discoveries in the field of ageing. In 2016 she co-founded the non-profit organisation “Women’s Brain Project” which is addressing the influence of sex and gender on mental and brain diseases. Since then, she acts the pro bono CEO of the organisation.

[caption id="attachment_21827" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Author: Harris Eyre[/caption]

Harris Eyre MD, PhD is co-lead of the OECD-PRODEO Institute Neuroscience-inspired Policy Initiative (NIPI). He is Senior Fellow for Brain Capital with the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute. He is an Instructor for Brain Capital with the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) at the University of California at San Francisco and Trinity College Dublin.

[caption id="attachment_21828" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Author: Paweł Świeboda[/caption]

Paweł Świeboda is Director General of the Human Brain Project and CEO of EBRAINS AISBL. In this capacity, he manages one of the largest global research programmes in the area of brain science. He is also in charge of building a Research Infrastructure EBRAINS for the study of the brain. In his previous role, he was Deputy Head and Head of Research at the European Political Strategy Centre (formerly EPSC, now IDEA) of the European Commission.

The original version of this article was published in the Psychiatric Times on 23 February 2022.


Crypto Jitters: Unhinged Stablecoins Add Volatility to an Already Unstable Market

The dig is impossible to resist. On Thursday, tether – the world’s biggest ‘stablecoin’ – briefly became untethered from its dollar peg. tether’s value sank to 95¢ before recovering to 97¢.

That may seem a minor oscillation but indicates a bigger issue that does not bode well. Stablecoins are supposed to be, well, stable and fully backed by readily convertible assets.

However, of late, the stablecoin complex has witnessed violent price swings and even implosions. TerraUSD (UST) last week crashed rather spectacularly after some minor initial wobbles not unlike those experienced by tether.

UST, an ‘algorithmic stablecoin’, hovered around the 90¢-mark for a little before dropping of the cliff. Its value plummeted to a low of 30¢ before regaining a bit of lost ground by climbing to 43¢ and then 81¢ – still a far cry from dollar parity.

The UST crash was followed by the even more nerve-wrecking descent of its sister cryptocurrency ‘luna’, used to stabilise the UST/USD peg. On Tuesday, luna all but evaporated, losing 97% of its value in barely 24 hours. It hasn’t staged a noticeable comeback yet.

Déjà Vu

In an eery replay of the Great Crash of 1929 – Black Tuesday – a luna-dedicated Reddit forum (u/TerraLuna) put up pinned posts with exhaustive lists of help lines around the world, including the US National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Elsewhere on the forum, users shared their misery with some lamenting the loss of their entire life savings.

Luna’s crash pulverised an estimated $25bn in market capitalisation. The Luna Foundation Guard, presided over by the token’s (and TerraUSD’s) founder Do Kwon (30), has appealed to unnamed hedge funds for an additional $1bn in collateral.

Yesterday, Mr Kwon ordered a halt to his Terra blockchain to prevent a governance attack on luna which had its market capitalisation nearly wiped out, in theory enabling a third party to hoover up more than half of all lunas in circulation – and gain control over the pseudo currency – for next to nothing.

Mr Kwon now supports a community initiative to mint fresh lunas to ease UST sell pressure. “Naturally, this is at a high cost to UST and luna holders,” he explained, “but we will continue to explore various options to bring in more exogenous capital to the ecosystem and reduce supply overhang on UST.” Mr Kwon’s apparently frantic search for cash mirrors the existential concerns of most Ponzi scheme operators.

Famous Last Words

User NoForever2056 had his lunas locked in a ‘staking pool’ – touted by US crypto trading platform Coinbase as a sort of savings account – when disaster struck and watched powerlessly how the value of his $17,000 worth of tokens plunged. Staking pools often promise returns of up to 20% to holders of stablecoin. NoForever2056 was unable to cash out before the tokens hit the floor: “I really believed in the project and the builders of the ecosystem. I didn’t get out because I got greedy and hoped it would go up more.” Famous last words.

Another user claimed to have lost more than $450,000 and feared he may now lose his house as well. In the comment sections of major newspapers and on social media, some of the now duped speculators used to respond to warnings with the sneer ‘OK, Boomer’ or worse. Cautionary tales were routinely dismissed out of hand and ascribed to ‘grandpa’s geriatric ignorance or fear of technology’. However, it was fear of missing out (FOMO) – and of course timeless greed – that attracted young speculators to crypto and its many derivatives in a replay of Money for Nothing.

Though stablecoins, usually pegged at parity to the US dollar, are unrelated to cryptocurrencies, they derive their existence from the need for near-instant settlement times in the digital asset market. Stablecoins also offer a temporary refuge for jittery speculators who long for a breather. When stablecoins lose their stability, a like degree of volatility spills over into the broader crypto market.

Swing Low

On Wednesday, crypto’s flagship token bitcoin fell another 7% to $26,250 – its lowest level since December 2020 – before adding 5% in a series of hectic swings. Bitcoin appears to be looking for a floor that will support it. In another sign that the fate of the crypto universe is tied to that of stablecoins, the Luna Foundation Guard prepares to dump its sizable stash of bitcoin on the market to generate enough ready cash to underpin its ailing luna token – pouring on additional sell pressure.

In a mostly unregulated and decentralised market there are no bailouts or other instruments to ensure stability and continuity. Fears of market contagion abound as investors re-evaluate crypto and are seen moving towards the exit.

Meanwhile, El Salvador and the Central African Republic – the only two countries that have embraced bitcoin as legal tender – are “buying the dip.” However, few are following their example. According to Swiss blockchain data cruncher Glassnode, nearly 40% of bitcoin holders are currently ‘underwater’ i.e., have lost a slice of their cash. That percentage is higher still when considering short-term holders only. Just last month, close to 16% of all bitcoin wallets dipped into a loss which belies the oft-heard assertion that crypto can be deployed as an inflation hedge.

Glassnode also detected a big surge in ‘urgent transactions’ from users willing to pay a premium to have their trades expedited. In their report, Glassnode analysts conclude that bitcoin holders are seeking to de-risk or add collateral to margin positions.

Whilst trading volumes in global crypto market have ballooned, the world’s leading exchange Coinbase reported a staggering $430 million net loss in the first quarter ($1.98 per share), attributed to an exodus of users (-19%) and disappointing revenues. Analysts had expected a profit of 8¢ per share. To make matters worse, Coinbase management admitted publicly that its users’ deposits were “not necessarily” protected if the exchange went bust. By now properly spooked, investors dumped Coinbase stock and halved the company’s valuation in under a week.

The recent crypto jitters do not point to a complete dismemberment of its universe. Just like traditional bank runs, depositors flee from unsound banks towards solid good ones. UST and Tether holders have mostly swapped their unstable coins for tokens such as USD Coin perceived to be of a higher quality.

To see in the troubled crypto waters of the present the beginning of the end of a ‘dangerous fad’ would be premature and probably contain a measure of wishful thinking.


Ahmed 'Tunde Popoola, CRC Credit Bureau: Nigerian Firm Well-Established — and There for the Long Haul

[caption id="attachment_21838" align="alignright" width="300"] Group Managing Director/CEO of Nigeria’s CRC Credit Bureau Ltd: Dr Ahmed ‘Tunde Popoola[/caption]

When Ahmed ‘Tunde Popoola became pioneer Managing Director of Nigeria’s CRC Credit Bureau Ltd in 2008, he identified a gap in the market.

A lack of credit information and reporting was impeding growth in the Nigerian economy and preventing lenders from making informed decisions on small businesses’ creditworthiness.

Now, the company’s database covers 95 percent of the Nigerian credit industry, including commercial and micro-finance banks, non-bank institutions, retailers and utility service providers. The firm has set the benchmark for financial empowerment and information-sharing.

After academic stints in Nigeria and South Africa, Popoola dedicated himself to developing SMEs, first in the banking industry, then as CEO of the Abuja Enterprise Agency, where he nurtured start-ups, stimulated entrepreneurship, and fostered business growth in the capital, Abuja.

He was the perfect fit to lead CRC Credit Bureau, created by 10 leading Nigerian banks and the global risk-management solutions company Dun & Bradstreet. From the word go, he identified innovation and efficiency as keys to success.

Popoola’s mission has always been to transform the credit market in Nigeria, and more widely in Africa. The goal is to help young businesses to thrive and contribute to the country’s economy. He and the CRC Credit Bureau team have introduced many products and services to meet their partners’ needs — with full transparency to instil confidence and provide a smoother lending process. This, in turn, provides credit seekers, especially MSMEs with much-needed working capital and leads to lower prices, benefitting not just the companies concerned, but consumers as well.

Always seeking to live up to its goal of helping its clients for advanced insight and to take informed decisions, the company offers data-analysis products. This allows companies to identify customers in three ways: those who would come back for further loans, those who wouldn’t, and those who would go to competitors.

In 2022, the company, under a group structure, created a new subsidiary, CRC Data and Analytics Ltd, with a mission to accelerate data-driven outcomes across lines of businesses, develop faster results, deeper insights, enable better decisions and drive business development.

Dr. Popoola, known to everyone as “Tunde”, believes that the value of this new structure goes beyond credit reporting. “We are now able to go past our previous limits to play a deeper role in unlocking hidden avenues by creating additional insights that enable our customers optimise business operations, achieving customer loyalty, incremental revenue, optimised costs, and free cashflows for businesses,” he says.

The team has also developed a product to deliver a 360-degree view of its customers. This was developed as a response to the effects of the pandemic and now enhanced to identify the probability of default due to events that may occur. The firm looked at previously good credit customers (i.e. non-defaulters) and enabling lenders and credit granters approach them to renew or restructure payments.

CRC Credit Bureau deployed APIs to enhance report-generation and assessments, making it easier for customers to supply data and support institutions with technical services.

For Popoola, developing and enhancing the skills of customers to be more creative in identifying credit risks and for consumers in using their loans is essential for sustained growth. Training courses at the CRC Financial Education Centre (CFEC) build in-depth knowledge of credit assessments. The training arm of the credit bureau organises and delivers value-adding, capacity building, and bespoke financial courses.

Popoola pledges that his company will continue to develop new products to support its customers — and the wider economy.


Plus ça Change: Mired in Multiple Crises, Lebanon Votes for Continuity

In a scathing indictment of the country’s political elite, Lebanon tumbled some 25 places on the annual United Nations World Happiness Index and now ranks only above Afghanistan as the most depressing country in the world. Severely dysfunctional states such as Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and Somalia all trump the country formerly known as The Pearl of the East.

Years of civil war, followed by acerbic sectarian politics, gross administrative mismanagement, and meddling by foreign powers have reduced Lebanon to a mere shell of its former self. Whilst shiny new Mercs, Beemers, and Porsches share the rubbish-lined streets and avenues of Beirut with rust buckets that attest, if anything, to the ingenuity of their owners, the country’s once dominant middle class has all but vanished, crushed and beaten into poverty by inflation, confiscation, and marginalization.

Only one out of every five Lebanese has managed to stay above the poverty line. The collapse of the country’s financial system saw an estimated $73bn in dollar deposits vanish. Nobody really knows where that money went, but accountholders have been frozen out and are unlikely to ever recover their lost savings in full.

In the autumn 2021 edition of its Lebanon Economic Monitor, the World Bank called the country’s plight a ‘deliberate depression’ orchestrated by an elite that captured the state and now lives off its rents. According to the bank, GDP has shrunk by 58.1% since 2019. Tax revenues have halved and in 2021 represented only 6.6% of national income – the third lowest ratio globally after Somalia and Yemen.

The question is not if Lebanon will hit rock bottom, but how far down it still has to go. There is about $15bn waiting in emergency financing from the IMF, World Bank, France, and other donors but disbursement has stalled over demands that Lebanon form a functioning government willing to push through a reform agenda. That is a tall order.

Two Powers

Sunday’s general election is unlikely to help. Lebanon has not one, but two governments: an ineffectual one in Beirut and an de facto one in Baalbek where Hezbollah rules. Backed and lavishly funded by Shia Iran, Hezbollah was the only group allowed to keep its weapons after the 1975-90 civil war. It was supposed to use this kit against Israel, but that country withdrew from Lebanon. Instead, Hezbollah sent thousands of fighters into neighbouring Syria to help prop up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Sunday’s general election was the first after the collapse of the Lebanese economy which the World Bank called the worst witnessed anywhere in over 150 years. It’s also the first vote since the August 2020 port blast that killed over 200 people, injured thousands, and laid to waste large swaths of the once swanky capital.

Three former cabinet ministers allied with Hezbollah were charged with criminal negligence but flatly refused to be questioned by the courts. After lambasting the judge leading the investigation, Hezbollah promptly called for his replacement. The case has since become mired in legal and political wrangling that would have put Byzantium to shame.

Ruling One’s Own Roost

In Lebanon, every sector or faction jealously guards its own roost whilst apparently nobody cares for the country. It shows. Littering is almost universal with rubbish piling up everywhere. Public accounts have been plucked and plundered to the degree that no foreign exchange is left to pay for imported essentials such as wheat and fuel.

Though last month’s queues at petrol station forecourts have dissipated, power generation remains intermittent due to fuel shortages with most homes and businesses, even in Beirut, only receiving electricity for a few hours each day.

In a microcosm of the country’s plight, many polling stations were without power yesterday and some ran out of ballot papers, even though only 39% of eligible voters showed up. In another disconcerting parallel, voters were lured by party militants waving wads of dollar bills. Entire families showed up to cash in their vote. Delegates of the Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections had to beat a hasty retreat from several polling stations after receiving threats from gun-toting Hezbollah supporters.

Apathy seems to have bested anger as voters opted for more of the same with entrenched sectarian groups expected to retain their grip on power. The protest movement of 2019 and the popular revolt that erupted after the port blast have all but fizzled out although a new generation of independent candidates has since appeared and may even claim a

However, non-sectarian politics has no place in – and often clashes with – the complex power sharing arrangement that, in theory if not practice, ensures a voice for each of the country’s faith-based constituencies. By convention, the president is a Maronite Christian, the premier a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of the house a Shia Muslim.

In parliament, seats are assigned to representatives of each group with half reserved for Christians and the remainder divided between the Shia, Sunni, and Druze communities.

Frustrated over his inability to form a functioning government, former Sunni Prime Minister Saad Hariri left politics earlier this year but not before calling on his following to boycott the general election. Mr Hariri was also angry after being unceremoniously dumped by his Saudi paymasters who expressed concern over the rising influence of Hezbollah during his premiership. Outside Lebanon, Hezbollah is widely considered a terrorist organization.

Instead of encouraging dialogue and cooperation, Lebanon’s complex electoral system has created an ensemble of mini-fiefdoms – playthings of regional powerbrokers such as Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia – constantly vying and juggling for a turn at the trough and the opportunity to misappropriate the few crumbs left in the national treasury.

Meanwhile, the opposition, sectarian or otherwise, remains hopelessly divided with some electoral districts boasting as many as five competing lists claiming to represent the ‘spirit’ of the 2019 protests. Attempts to convince voters of the need for political reform also face a well-greased system of patronage and clientelism that offers a lifeline of sorts to many. Traditional parties are not shy, subtle, or discreet when it comes to handing out favours – including cash and jobs – to the same people they victimised whilst in power.


Liberalism and Its Discontents: Francis Fukuyama on the Future of History

[caption id="attachment_21848" align="alignright" width="300"] Francis Fukuyama at Fronteiras do Pensamento São Paulo[/caption]

Poor Francis. History didn’t end after all. Neither did liberalism triumph over the forces of evil. Possibly one of the most misunderstood or misinterpreted books of recent times, Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History and the Last Man[1] did not necessarily imply a happy ending to humankind’s convoluted narrative. Rather, Prof Fukuyama argues that, after the inglorious demise of communism, democratic liberalism remains as the only viable political edifice able to promote wellbeing, ensure freedom, and shelter diversity.

In a slender new tome, Liberalism and Its Discontents[2], the professor rather bravely takes on all those conspiring to derail the establishment from the exotic fringes on both the far left and right of the spectrum. Prof Fukuyama is not the first to map discontent and subject the disgruntled to rigorous analysis. He is, however, the most experienced of diagnosticians.

Written before Russia’s latest assault on a neighbour got underway, Prof Fukuyama’s book proposes an inward look rather than an investigation of the forces that shaped contemporary (geo)political reality. The academic is most interested in how liberalism deals with its critics and deflects their often-misinformed attacks.

A palpable sense of urgency lends coherence to the book – and provides it with a clear purpose. Prof Fukuyama stresses the need for democratic liberalism to overcome its natural shyness and cast aside its tendency towards constant self-reflection. He argues that liberal democracies must reclaim the narrative, and deliver improved outcomes, lest authoritarians seize and carry the day.

Me, Myself, and I

Helpfully, Prof Fukuyama reminds his readers that democracy and liberalism are distinct concepts that do not always travel together; although when they do, magic can happen.

Liberalism as practiced in, say, Singapore (or Hong Kong before its fall) is quite authoritarian whilst Viktor Orban’s Hungary and Narendra Modi’s India prove that democracies can also become quite illiberal.

Prof Fukuyama directs most of his ire to free-market thinkers on the right and sociocultural warriors of the left. Both extremes seem most preoccupied with ensuring and protecting the sovereignty of the individual – a fashionable concept first masterfully captured in the 2002 Adam Curtis documentary The Century of Self[3]. They seem less interested in the collective or just pay lip service to the concept for political convenience.

Dogmatic followers of neoliberal thinkers like Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman wish to entrust and expose the individual to the invisible hand of the free and unfettered market, considering that most, if not all, interference from the state – the embodiment of the collective – detracts from the sovereignty of self.

The sociocultural warrior, of course impeccably woke, wishes to confine the individual to ever-smaller identity groups: cocoons where existentialist angst is carefully formulated and cultivated – and invariably redefined as a form of oppression. However, such angst is never expunged for that would, of course, defeat the purpose of the exercise. Freud is alive and well in progressive politics.

On the left, Prof Fukuyama identifies several culprits: Herbert Macuse of the Frankfurter School who provided the disruptive 1960s with a philosophical framework – “tolerance equals repression” – and radical feminist Carole Pateman who considers liberalism just another excuse to perpetuate patriarchy.

Alt-Truth’s Founding Fathers

Charles Mills, the inventor of the much-maligned critical race theory, also gets a few swipes from Prof Fukuyama’s sharp mind and pen. Prof Mills, who passed away last year, dismissed liberalism as another form of institutionalised racism: almost every societal ill may be traced and attributed to racial injustice.

As such, Mills is little different from the likes of Michael X, an unapologetic racist who preached black power and violent revolution but turned out to be an ordinary drug pusher and murderer. In 1975, he was hanged in a Port of Spain gaol.

More consequential, French philosopher Michel Foucault gets blasted by Prof Fukuyama for undermining trust in science. He was, in a sense, the first to validate alt-truth and discard verifiable fact as merely another opinion. Foucault, who died in 1984, would likely be most shocked to see his thought appropriated by the populist and nationalist right.

The philosopher suspected that the ‘language of science’ had been appropriated by ‘shadowy elites’ to mask and justify the oppression of marginalised people. As such, Foucault and his structuralism aided and abetted – albeit ‘avant la lettre’ – today’s conspiracy-obsessed contrarians.

Prof Fukuyama goes on to explain that liberalism emerged in the seventeenth century and represented an admission that people are unlikely to agree on most of life’s important topics such as, say, religion.

To avoid natural tension boiling over into violence, liberalism introduced effective antidotes such as tolerance and equality under law. Government was to ensure the rule of law and proportional representation under a constitution that respected the rights of all – most importantly, the right to disagree, but pointedly not the right to disobey.

Today’s protesters should, perhaps, be reminded of the unsolicited advice dispensed by the French-Russian philosopher Alexandre Kojève (1902-1968) to the generation of ’68 as it stood on the cusp of upsetting the establishment: “Learn Greek.”

It was Kojève who first suggested history was at its end. In fact, he argued that the French Revolution had buried history because the advent of the self-evident ‘rational supremacy’ of a regime of ‘rights and equal recognition’ did away with the need for violent struggle. Regrettably, humans mostly run on emotion, not rationality.

Finding the Lost Commons

On the far right, the diversity that thrives in liberal societies is seen as an attack on, and the undermining of, the hegemonic culture and ethnicity. To them, liberalism is its own worst enemy and contains within a similar contradiction as the one identified by Karl Marx in capitalism: the seed of its own destruction.

Populists and nationalists reject the rule of law when this law is used to guarantee the freedom of ‘other people’. Meanwhile, the far left buries diversity under identity politics and pigeonholes people according to their individual beef with wider society.

Whilst interesting and an excellent summary of the issues assailing contemporary politics, Prof Fukuyama’s latest book is perhaps not as captivating or insightful as some of his earlier work. It reads like an extended lament on the demise of the political centre and, in parallel, the shrinking of the societal commons.

The author proposes to address the issues he raised with a compact to-do list that includes, amongst others, a return to ‘impersonal government’, a reappraisal of the principle of subsidiarity, and a toning down of group demands. All good ideas, no doubt, but somewhat unlikely to be implemented anytime soon.

The political centre, the glue that keeps stratified societies together, thrives on the existence of a solid commons. However, that commons has been privatized and deregulated. It is now owned by profit-seeking businesses and exploited for the benefit of their shareholders.

In other words, the citizens’ stake in society has gradually decreased with a corresponding increase in the rather narrow-minded individualism that lurks behind the identity politics of victimology. We are no longer stakeholders in society but have been reduced to a commodity to be exploited by both business and politics. We may be the 99% but also have 99 reasons to disagree and diverge. The one-percenters grow rich out of that.

An impersonal government based on subsidiarity is all good and well but probably not enough to restore the sense of belonging that both the right and left seem to clamour for. There is common ground; it only needs to be rediscovered, remapped, and reclaimed.

[1] The End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama. Free Press 1992. 418pp, out of print, ISBN 978-0-2419-9103-9

[2] Liberalism and Its Discontents by Francis Fukuyama. Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2022. 192pp, hardcover, $22.99, ISBN 987-0-3746-0671-8

[3] The Century of Self by Adam Curtis.


Lars Grinde, Norvestor Advisory Managing Partner: ‘A Pleasure and a Privilege’ — Leading from the Centre

[caption id="attachment_21851" align="alignright" width="300"] Norvestor Advisory Managing Partner: Lars Grinde[/caption]

Norvestor Advisory managing partner Lars Grinde leads a firm with 80 Nordic mid-cap private equity investments.

He has witnessed the growth of his industry from its early days, and shaped its role in supporting entrepreneurs and founders.

The private equity firm’s funds invest in medium-sized Nordic companies, typically with revenues of €25m-€250m. Norvestor funds have current investments in 27 companies that together employ more than 18,000 people across a range of industries and sectors.

“We are passionate about supporting these companies, helping them to develop and grow,” says Grinde. “The businesses we invest in have ambitious and experienced management teams at the helm, aiming to become leaders in their markets. The companies are very different with respect to the products and services they offer, and the kind of people and cultures that comprise them.

“Between them they share some qualities and challenges that make them ‘a typical Norvestor investee’,” he explains. “Key to our approach is forging a partnership with the managers and co-owners of the businesses we invest in. The partnerships are an extremely rewarding aspect of our business.

“It can be challenging to find the best ways to work together to support a successful company, but it is gratifying when we get it right. A business with a transformative growth agenda is a typical Norvestor investment. Companies appreciate an experienced and active partner which supports them in cross-country expansion, in their efforts to digitalise services and operations, and in seizing the full potential from sustainability-related strategies.”

Norvestor aims for portfolio companies to grow substantially during the fund’s holding period, usually three to six years. The firm often supports companies in new geographies, acquires complementary businesses, and creates digital strategies to establish best practice ESG.

A team of 40 professionals takes care of investments and portfolio management. Members of the Norvestor family of portfolio companies exchange experiences and ideas through formal and informal networks, supported by workshops, seminars and webinars.

A do-or-die approach to learning, growing, and transformation can be seen in the private equity industry. Lars Grinde has more than 30 years of investment experience in PE. He has overseen investments across all sectors and today heads the Norvestor Investment Advisory Committee.

He is also active in business development and strategy processes that have made Norvestor a trusted partner to founders and entrepreneurs. “Many of the challenges and opportunities our portfolio companies face are similar to the ones we in Norvestor need to respond to,” he says. “It is a privilege and pleasure to work alongside the dedicated management teams and experts in our portfolio companies.”


Norvestor: Seeing — and Seizing — the Full Potential of ESG

Private equity firm Norvestor has partnered with Nordic businesses for more than three decades.

It has offices in Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen, and Luxembourg, and is one of the most active investors in the Nordic mid-cap private equity market.

Sustainability is a key aspect of the investment philosophy, the firm, and the family of Norvestor portfolio companies. All are committed to shareholders, clients, employees, and the communities in which they operate.

In 2020 and 2021, ESG considerations, already widely recognised as important, became vital to the asset management industry. It is one of the most important shifts in the investment sector in a generation. ESG and sustainability disclosures are no longer strictly voluntary, and asset managers are increasingly facing scrutiny on how sustainability is integrated into strategies and business practices.

The number of ESG regulations and standards globally has nearly doubled in the past five years, according to Ernst & Young, to provide structure to the market and prevent greenwashing. In March 2018, the EU released its Sustainable Finance Action Plan. Among the green finance regulations central to the plan are rules mandating greater transparency for ESG funds and the introduction of the EU Taxonomy Regulation, a flagship classification system for the definition of environmentally sustainable economic activities.

Sustainability is more than a key fiduciary responsibility or a criterion for assessing an investment’s risk–return profile — it is where some of the most dynamic investment opportunities are to be found.

[caption id="attachment_21855" align="aligncenter" width="595"]<img class="wp-image-21855 size-full" title="Note: Case-by-case evaluation of the alignment of the target’s products and services with one or more of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Source: Nordic Knowledge Partners, Norvestor (September 2021). " src="https://cfi.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Figure-1a-Figure-1b.jpg" alt="Note: Case-by-case evaluation of the alignment of the target’s products and services with one or more of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Source: Nordic Knowledge Partners, Norvestor (September 2021). " width="595" height="286" /> Note: Case-by-case evaluation of the alignment of the target’s products and services with one or more of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Source: Nordic Knowledge Partners, Norvestor (September 2021).[/caption]

“Companies with innovative solutions to global ESG-related challenges is a dynamic investment space,” says managing partner Lars Grinde. The Nordics, early adopters of socially responsible investing, have seen a step change over recent years. Norvestor believes that this has been driven by a burgeoning number of sustainability start-ups and fast-growing innovative companies. Analysis by Norvestor and Nordic Knowledge Partners shows that 19 percent of Nordic PE deals from January to mid-September 2021 involved companies with a strong ESG profile.

Those deals have been in a wide range of sectors, from waste-to-energy technology and workforce development to electric transport. All share a common purpose: addressing global challenges, predominantly those related to climate change (see Figure 1a).

Examples include a Norvestor fund’s investments in Smartvatten, a technology pioneer for the sustainable use of freshwater resources, SmartRetur, a Nordic market leader within reverse logistics of reusable packaging, and Growers Group, a leading horticulture and agritech company.

The wholesome fundamentals resonate with the Nordic corporate culture, characterised by flat hierarchical structures, an emphasis on inclusivity and equality, and a high degree of transparency. Many promising Nordic companies in the ESG space are rooted in the technology and renewable energy industries. The adoption of renewable energy in the Nordics is among the highest in the world, at around 55 percent. When it comes to cleantech, the region is a world leader.

As a result, the region has a multitude of companies that pioneer advanced solutions and services to reduce emissions, promote circular practices and the sustainable use of resources, and enable the green energy transition.

Analysing Nordic PE transactions in 2020 and 2021, Norvestor found that platform investments with a strong ESG profile commanded a premium over other deals — 14.5x EV/EBITDA, compared to 12.7x and 10.7x for those with neutral or weaker ESG performance.

There is good reason to expect widening differentiation in such valuation premiums, as well as underlying commercial performance. “It is no coincidence that a growing share of a company’s market value is attributable to intangible assets,” says Grinde. “Brand and reputation are now tightly intertwined with a company’s sustainability credentials. Companies whose sustainability credentials can withstand scrutiny will become ever more important for asset managers.”

At Norvestor, ESG considerations are integrated into every stage of the investment process, from the initial deal-sourcing and due diligence, through the ownership period, all the way to exit. Significant time has been devoted to ensuring that the right yardsticks are used to measure carbon footprints and gauge progress, which results in more comprehensive and accurate disclosures and engaged communities.

Norvestor conducts comprehensive ESG due diligence on target businesses, taking into consideration the entire value chain, climate risks, environmental footprint, and value creation. This identifies how the company’s industry is aligned with a sustainable future, what its key ESG themes are, and how it performs. By assessing the material ESG risks and opportunities, Norvestor gains a sense of growth prospects and financial performance.

“Seeing and seizing the full potential requires that ESG is fully integrated into the company’s business model,” says Grinde. “We believe an increased focus on ESG throughout the investment process, will generate value on multiple fronts accelerated, sustainable long-term growth; higher brand valuations, improved competitive positioning, better pricing, attracting and retaining talent, efficiency and productivity — and an ESG premium at exit.”

Private equity firm Norvestor has partnered with Nordic businesses for more than three decades.

It has offices in Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, Copenhagen, and Luxembourg, and is one of the most active investors in the Nordic mid-cap private equity market.

Sustainability is a key aspect of the investment philosophy, the firm, and the family of Norvestor portfolio companies. All are committed to shareholders, clients, employees, and the communities in which they operate.

In 2020 and 2021, ESG considerations, already widely recognised as important, became vital to the asset management industry. It is one of the most important shifts in the investment sector in a generation. ESG and sustainability disclosures are no longer strictly voluntary, and asset managers are increasingly facing scrutiny on how sustainability is integrated into strategies and business practices.

The number of ESG regulations and standards globally has nearly doubled in the past five years, according to Ernst & Young, to provide structure to the market and prevent greenwashing. In March 2018, the EU released its Sustainable Finance Action Plan. Among the green finance regulations central to the plan are rules mandating greater transparency for ESG funds and the introduction of the EU Taxonomy Regulation, a flagship classification system for the definition of environmentally sustainable economic activities.

Sustainability is more than a key fiduciary responsibility or a criterion for assessing an investment’s risk–return profile — it is where some of the most dynamic investment opportunities are to be found.

[caption id="attachment_21855" align="aligncenter" width="595"] Note: Case-by-case evaluation of the alignment of the target’s products and services with one or more of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Source: Nordic Knowledge Partners, Norvestor (September 2021).[/caption]
“Companies with innovative solutions to global ESG-related challenges is a dynamic investment space,” says managing partner Lars Grinde. The Nordics, early adopters of socially responsible investing, have seen a step change over recent years. Norvestor believes that this has been driven by a burgeoning number of sustainability start-ups and fast-growing innovative companies. Analysis by Norvestor and Nordic Knowledge Partners shows that 19 percent of Nordic PE deals from January to mid-September 2021 involved companies with a strong ESG profile.

Those deals have been in a wide range of sectors, from waste-to-energy technology and workforce development to electric transport. All share a common purpose: addressing global challenges, predominantly those related to climate change (see Figure 1a).

Examples include a Norvestor fund’s investments in Smartvatten, a technology pioneer for the sustainable use of freshwater resources, SmartRetur, a Nordic market leader within reverse logistics of reusable packaging, and Growers Group, a leading horticulture and agritech company.

The wholesome fundamentals resonate with the Nordic corporate culture, characterised by flat hierarchical structures, an emphasis on inclusivity and equality, and a high degree of transparency. Many promising Nordic companies in the ESG space are rooted in the technology and renewable energy industries. The adoption of renewable energy in the Nordics is among the highest in the world, at around 55 percent. When it comes to cleantech, the region is a world leader.

As a result, the region has a multitude of companies that pioneer advanced solutions and services to reduce emissions, promote circular practices and the sustainable use of resources, and enable the green energy transition.

Analysing Nordic PE transactions in 2020 and 2021, Norvestor found that platform investments with a strong ESG profile commanded a premium over other deals — 14.5x EV/EBITDA, compared to 12.7x and 10.7x for those with neutral or weaker ESG performance.

There is good reason to expect widening differentiation in such valuation premiums, as well as underlying commercial performance. “It is no coincidence that a growing share of a company’s market value is attributable to intangible assets,” says Grinde. “Brand and reputation are now tightly intertwined with a company’s sustainability credentials. Companies whose sustainability credentials can withstand scrutiny will become ever more important for asset managers.”

At Norvestor, ESG considerations are integrated into every stage of the investment process, from the initial deal-sourcing and due diligence, through the ownership period, all the way to exit. Significant time has been devoted to ensuring that the right yardsticks are used to measure carbon footprints and gauge progress, which results in more comprehensive and accurate disclosures and engaged communities.

Norvestor conducts comprehensive ESG due diligence on target businesses, taking into consideration the entire value chain, climate risks, environmental footprint, and value creation. This identifies how the company’s industry is aligned with a sustainable future, what its key ESG themes are, and how it performs. By assessing the material ESG risks and opportunities, Norvestor gains a sense of growth prospects and financial performance.

“Seeing and seizing the full potential requires that ESG is fully integrated into the company’s business model,” says Grinde. “We believe an increased focus on ESG throughout the investment process, will generate value on multiple fronts accelerated, sustainable long-term growth; higher brand valuations, improved competitive positioning, better pricing, attracting and retaining talent, efficiency and productivity — and an ESG premium at exit.”


Isomer Capital: Dedicated to European Tech and Unlocking Potential for Investors

Truly independent and focused on the European technology sector, Isomer has an effective investment approach to a dynamic market.

During the first part of the 2010s, the intention to invest in European tech usually garnered the same response: “There is no tech in Europe.”

While advising investors on their private asset allocations for Cambridge Associates, Isomer founder and managing partner Joe Schorge saw that the European tech sector was on the verge of taking off. All the ingredients were there: large addressable market, high number of developers, and elevated levels of education.

Following the 2008 financial crisis, there was an explosion of company creation: entrepreneurship had become a respectable career path in Europe, development tools became freely available, co-ordinated public policies and the large deployment of capital into the venture sector ignited the European tech flywheel.

It was the start of the “virtuous tech circle”, leading to an exponential growth of unicorn companies (those valued at over €1bn).

[caption id="attachment_21861" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Graph: Number of European unicorns per year. Source: State of European Tech 2021.[/caption]

But a challenge remained for investors: How to invest in these companies, on a continent composed of 44 countries, each with its own tech ecosystem, language, and distinct cities developing their own tech clusters? How could an investor identify and access the “next big thing” in Europe, when opportunities arise across countries and sectors? Think of Spotify (Stockholm), UiPath (Bucharest), Avast (Prague), BlaBlaCar (Paris), Glovo (Madrid), Deliveroo (London).

Even more challenging, how could one identify and access high potential startups in the early stages of their development, before they are worth billions of euros? For Schorge and his co-founders the answer to those questions lay in the creation of Isomer Capital.

The firm was founded in 2015 to overcome such challenges, and provide investors with access to high potential investments. By studying how Europe’s tech companies were funded, the Isomer team noticed that the first professional investors — after friends, family and angels — were local early-stage venture capital managers who have the best knowledge of the ecosystem. They are the first people to know and back these entrepreneurs. These “local digital champions” have skills to help entrepreneurs during the critical first stages of development.
The same VCs lacked something of paramount importance: value-added investors to help them in their mission, and to support portfolio growth.

By creating a team with complementary skills to balance investment acumen with company building and operating experience, Isomer provides the capital these VCs are looking for - entrepreneurial and collaborative efforts help unlock and build portfolio value.

Today, investors don’t ask themselves whether there is any tech in Europe; rather the thoughtleaders are rushing to secure their place in the ecosystem. In 2021, more than half the capital invested in European startups came from international investors. Renowned VC investors such as Sequoia have opened offices in London and elsewhere; Europe now generates more unicorns than China. As an early mover, Isomer and its investors benefit from this growth.

Researching over 950 venture capital firms in Europe — having backed 60 funds and coinvested in many of their portfolio companies - Isomer has become a leading player. Their early stage portfolio has 20 unicorns to date, including Deliveroo, Darktrace, ManoMano, Sorare, Clark, and Tier. It has controlled risk through diversification and creating co-investment opportunities.

What differentiates Isomer from its competitors is that it is a rigorous institutional investor — but also an insider in the European tech ecosystem. Isomer has invested and partnered with European VCs including Hoxton Ventures, Seedcamp and Kibo Ventures. Its partnership approach is appreciated by a highly valued group of investors, from family offices to sovereigns, foundations, pensions, and corporations.

For this last group, Isomer has designed a specific programme to enable corporations to unlock strategic value from their investment — and to enable technology startups to engage larger corporates, from product development and new market entry to investment and M&A. Isomer acts as a “market sensor” for its corporate partners, helping them monitor exciting businesses emerging across Europe, testing technologies, exploring new business relationships, and identifying early potential targets.

“This is a true partnership where — in addition to capital flows — Isomer’s partners on both sides can leverage each other’s networks and knowledge, from tech companies to VC funds to limited partners" says Schorge.

Having created an institution to back the future, Isomer remains confident. “The European tech ecosystem will thrive over coming years, creating more unicorns, decacorns and even €100bn+ global champions,” Schorge predicts. “We have positioned Isomer to partner and access this opportunity in the most effective way, combining trusted partnerships and strong execution.”

Isomer is conscious of increasing competition, with the venture market taking a similar direction to that of the US. Access to the best early-stage funds is increasingly difficult, with VC managers choosing their investors.

Most of the rounds in the best companies are insider events reserved for specific investors. By positioning itself as a value-added investor, a pioneer in the development of the European tech ecosystem, and an early backer of funds starved of capital, Isomer has secured its access to the best funds in Europe.

It has access to the most competitive insider co-investment deals, and Isomer is well positioned to deliver returns to investors.


Alimentation Couche-Tard: ACT Demonstrates How to Create a Diverse and Inclusive Organisation

From one store to one world: Canadian group ensuring fairness and equitable conditions for all employees.

Alimentation Couche-Tard (ACT) is a Canadian multinational operator of convenience stores — and it all began with a single store in Canada some 40 years ago.

In 2022, the company is a world leader in convenience and mobility. It now has 14,200 stores and 124,000 team members from 26 countries and territories, representing many cultures, races, genders, and minority groups. ACT’s diverse workforce reflects the communities of its team members — and the company works to advance equitable representation, opportunities, and pay as that workforce grows.

Over recent years, ACT has been on a mission to increase diversity and inclusion across the organisation — a journey that is embraced at all levels, from store employees to top management. The company strives to be an inclusive and attractive employer, providing a work environment where people feel safe, respected, and able to develop their full potential.

ACT’s diversity and inclusion efforts began in earnest in 2018 with its first business resource group, the Women’s Council. It was formed to create “winning conditions” for female employees.

In March 2020, chief executive Brian Hannasch signed the CEO Action pledge, a coalition of leaders working to advance fairness and inclusion in the workplace. By signing-up for this commitment, Hannasch positioned Alimentation Couche-Tard to become the first convenience store retailer to join the movement, and demonstrate the company’s commitment.

From there, the company began bold conversations across the organisation to listen, learn, and take meaningful action. This included training across the business on unconscious bias, and sharing experiences throughout the network with town halls, internal communications, surveys, and personal conversations with top leadership, including ACT’s chief people officer, Ina Strand.

“We are turning courageous conversations into action to drive change and build a more inclusive workplace that reflects the diversity of our team members and customers,” she says. “As an ally of our under-represented groups, I am proud of our recent progress to better understand diverse populations and develop opportunities and pathways to a more equitable workplace.”

Over the past two years, the framework for meaningful action expanded to include several employee-led business resource groups (BRGs) highlighting the benefits of diverse perspectives. The BRGs represent racial and cultural groups, the LGBTQ+ community, and team members with disabilities.

Alimentation Couche-Tard has committed to creating pipelines to bring more diverse groups higher into its management structure. This has included internal training programmes for managers, directors, and emerging leaders, as well as industry and minority training programmes exploring ways that under-represented groups can gain crucial tools and education to advance their careers and grow together with the company.


How Do We Measure Social Impact? UniCredit’s SIB Unit Has an Answer

The social impact finance sector has grown globally in recent years — and it’s expected to accelerate further still, driven by the effects of the Covid-19 crisis.

[caption id="attachment_21868" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Head of Group Social Impact Banking (SIB): Laura Penna[/caption]

But how can companies and beneficiaries best understand and measure the success of projects and initiatives, and what is the goal of impact financing?

Laura Penna, Head of Group Social Impact Banking (SIB) at UniCredit, says the overall aim is to create tangible positive social benefits by financing projects and initiatives with beneficial outcomes.

“UniCredit’s SIB has worked with the Human Foundation think-tank to develop a new measurement and evaluation system,” she says. “It focuses on international social impact finance standards to maximise the related direct and indirect social outcomes.”

The system allows UniCredit SIB to consistently monitor and evaluate activities across group markets in which the programme is active: Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia.

Social Taxonomy at Unicredit

The EU’s social taxonomy — currently under development — will play an important role in setting common standards of measurement. In the meantime, companies can start moving in the right direction.

The aim is to track performance and the impact generated by comparing expected and achieved results on an ongoing basis using a tailored framework that accounts for varying characteristics of the different beneficiaries of specific projects.

Penna says ESG is “part of how we do business at UniCredit”, with a strong social commitment in all its markets. “Our SIB programme helps us drive tangible positive social change in our communities,” she says. “To ensure that we are always growing our impact and making a real difference, we need to be able to track and measure social impact finance outcomes in a concrete and uniform way.”

“Our measurement and evaluation system has been designed to help us do this — and make an important contribution to increased transparency and common standards in the wider social-impact ecosystem.”

A Common Framework

Given the expected growth across the sector, the need for measurement methodology is increasing. The credibility of impact finance activities must be ensured to avoid “impact-washing”. It is important for the beneficiaries of programmes to guarantee a level playing field, agreement on specific KPIs for each project, and increased transparency in the selection process, says Penna.

“This is crucial to demonstrate how social impact financing activities are creating intentional and positive results in our communities,” she notes. “They help ensure a truly sustainable and impactful business approach that engages all relevant actors in the community through a common framework.”

Finance Offer

A “pay-for-success” mechanism is integral to the finance offer to allow for additional economic benefits based on the achievement of agreed social impact goals. The UniCredit offer supports social innovation as a driver of change through loans at favourable conditions. It also provides financial training and access to relevant partnerships and networks. “SIB is also committed to inclusive finance, supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses through microcredit,” says Penna, “and to financial education to encourage greater financial knowledge and social inclusion that can empower active citizenship.”

At the time of writing, the programme has provided more than 5,500 loans in support of social entrepreneurs and initiatives with measurable positive social impact — more than €348m in total. It has also supported some 100,000 students with financial education programmes since its launch four years ago, — and a further 20,000 beneficiaries through additional educational initiatives.


Kommunalkredit CEO Bernd Fislage: ‘Don’t Just Talk About Sustainability — Live It!’

[caption id="attachment_21871" align="aligncenter" width="900"] CEO: Bernd Fislage. Photo: Petra Spiola[/caption]

If recent challenging months have shown us anything, it’s that infrastructure is integral to the efficient functioning of society.

Access to stable energy and water supplies, communication and health systems is essential to meet society’s needs and create future opportunities. And those needs intensify — for local, regional, national and global economies — during trying times.

Investment in infrastructure is, by definition, forward-looking — and it’s the subject of intense focus by Austria’s Kommunalkredit, says chief executive Bernd Fislage.

“In times when a global health crisis dominates our everyday life, issues like the modernisation and realisation of agendas such as digitalisation, healthcare and infrastructure are vital,” he says. “Industrialised countries need to maintain and improve their supply, transport and social infrastructures to respond to demographic change, provide adequate living conditions for an ageing population, and prevent any new crises.”

Equally important, he says, is the need to develop and invest in innovative and sustainable projects that will have tangible community benefits

Promoting Investment

There is a renewed value placed on areas such as renewable energy, with a focus on the Green Deal and national climate and Sustainable Development Goals.

The financing of infrastructure projects has changed in recent years. Financial leeway is limited in the public sector by national debt and budget ceilings. “Co-operation between the public and private sectors must be intensified,” says Fislage, “and significantly more private capital mobilised. In the current low-interest environment, classic investments without high volatility deliver hardly any returns.”

Infrastructure investments are largely crisis-proof as an asset class, he points out, with stable returns and low volatility and default rates. “Ecological and ethical criteria are becoming increasingly important in the investment strategies of institutional investors, as well as private investors.”

Energy Transition

No issue will shape the coming decades as much as energy transition. “The switch to a sustainable energy supply is a global goal, and a commitment to our shared future,” Fislage believes. “Europe will have to move even closer together to align the Green Deal with future requirements, whether in decarbonisation or the production of clean hydrogen.”

Climate protection also means making sustainable investments in local jobs and regional economic cycles. “We take our socio-political role seriously, and we have played a pioneering role in the development and implementation of sustainable infrastructure and energy solutions.

“In this context, I’m pleased to mention two relatively young projects in our home market. Together with OMV, we are investing in the construction of Austria's largest electrolysis plant to produce 1,500 tonnes of green hydrogen per year, and cut around 15,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
“This way, we are helping to advance innovative technologies in Austria and make an environmental contribution.

Kommunalkredit has entered into a joint venture with with eww, an energy provider from Wels in Upper Austria for the development for the development, construction and operation of rooftop photovoltaic systems in Austria. The new company offers its customers a "contracting model". No initial investment is necessary, as the company will finance and build the rooftop systems and lease them to the customers on a long-term basis.

Customers will receive all the electricity generated by the system — to use in the building or feed back into the public power grid. “With projects like these, we’re trying to make sustainable energy affordable and accessible to industry, commerce and individuals. We all need to pull together to achieve these ambitious climate goals.”

Setting a Course for the Future

One of the greatest global challenges is climate change. It requires considerable investment, especially in the infrastructure and energy sectors. The UN climate agreement in Paris in 2015 set the course for the future, and the recent COP26 summit underlined the importance of swift and decisive action. “The financial sector in particular is called upon to get involved,” says Fislage. “The goal is to direct capital flows towards sustainable investments.

“If we want to ensure that future generations can grow and prosper in a safe and healthy environment, we need to set the right course now. Let’s not just talk about ESG, the SDGs, and sustainability — let’s live them.”


BLKB is Switzerland's Future-oriented Bank: A Profound Commitment to Communities in the Region

For more than 150 years, BLKB has assumed responsibility for its host region and is committed to sustainable development. What distinguishes BLKB's approach is a holistic and comprehensive understanding of sustainability. With a focus on "people", "society" and "environment", the mission statement focuses on where the bank wants to have a positive effect and assume responsibility. With its commitments, it makes an important contribution to social and cultural life in northwestern Switzerland.

In spring 2021, BLKB entered into partnership with Caritas beider Basel and is thus committed to helping people who have been materially affected because of the corona crisis. After a large internal fundraising campaign among employees, the bank set up a Caritas advice centre in the canton of Basel-Landschaft. In addition, it provides Caritas with premises for these consulting services. Alexandra Lau, Head of Strategy & Market Services and Member of the Executive Board of BLKB, goes into more detail in this interview.

Ms Lau, please explain the background of the initiative with Caritas.

In our mission statement, we say that we are the future-oriented bank of Switzerland, that we are committed to sustainable development and that we take responsibility for the region. With the Caritas fundraising campaign, we have translated our words into deeds and shown that we are serious about our promise and keep it. Unfortunately, life at the subsistence level is also a reality for us. And this has been exacerbated by the pandemic. We were fortunate not to have to worry about our jobs during the pandemic. That is why we now want to support people who have not been so fortunate.

Can you give a concrete example of this support?

The money from the fundraising campaign will be used in full for direct aid, consulting services and infrastructure of Caritas beider Basel. The consultations deal with topics such as preparation of a household budget, support in submitting applications and dealing with the authorities, and the submission of vouchers for discounted basic care or bridging payments. For example, a man, who was divorcing, turned to Caritas counseling because he could no longer pay his daycare costs. Because his wife became ill, she could no longer carry out her share of custody. As a result, he had to assume all duties for their child. Taking this on in addition to his work was not possible, and so the child had to go into daycare. The man did not get any support for the daycare costs, because the community still assumed joint custody. Although he lodged an objection to the decision of the municipality, he still had to bear the costs himself during this time. With the donations of BLKB, the Caritas consultation was able to take over two monthly invoices of the daycare centre.

Was this a one-time action for you or is there a plan behind it?

This was not a one-off action and is not a charity project. We pursue a clear strategy in which sustainability is addressed holistically and we have set ourselves the goal of integrating sustainability into all our activities. As a cantonal bank, we assume a special social responsibility with our performance mandate. It goes without saying that we are socially committed. We are therefore always looking for possible cooperations that offer added value to our society. This includes supporting social institutions in a targeted manner. Authenticity, long-term, as well as a direct effect are central to our choice of commitments.

Can you give us another example of such a social institution?

We have had a partnership with Jobfactory Basel for several years and are thus helping to make it easier for young people to enter the world of work. The Jobfactory offers training and coaching to young people without employment and suitable education. For example, before her apprenticeship, a young woman had the opportunity to gain valuable experience as part of a professional internship at the Jobfactory and develop further at school. At the same time, she received valuable support through coaching in regard to her desired apprenticeship. Today she is completing an apprenticeship as a details specialist at Jobfactory. BLKB supports the coaching offers financially.

How is your involvement continuing?

Since the start of 2021, we have been a sponsor of Pro Senectute of Both Basel and thus promote targeted services for older people and their relatives. We also offer added value to our society through our commitments in the fields of sport and culture. We have been supporting athletics in the region for many years, traditional sports such as gymnastics and, on the cultural side, the Theater Basel, the Kunstmuseum Basel and, as of this year, the Kunsthaus Baselland and the Fondation Beyeler. We are convinced that giving is the best return. I am pleased that we can create such a great impact with our initiatives and commitments.


Swiss Precision, African Spirit with CEO Daouda Fall: Brahms Group has Found the Perfect Balance

Switzerland-based and Africa-led, the Brahms Group was born as a consultancy in 2009 — and has grown into an established player in project development and impact investment.

[caption id="attachment_21879" align="aligncenter" width="900"] CEO: Daouda Fall[/caption]

In the firm’s consultancy days, founder and CEO Daouda Fall raised some $50m for projects in biotechnology and renewable energy. Still at the helm in 2021, his focus now is mostly on developing impact investment projects in Sub-saharan Africa, where the population is expected to grow to 2 billion by 2050.

The group’s main business interests are in sustainable energy resources projects, agricultural industry, and civil works — including real estate and construction. The Company creates eco-systems around its projects and is looking at setting up its first project development fund of USD 100 Million in 2022. Its interest in energy, agriculture and finance stems from Daouda Fall’s conviction that these sectors and economic development are coupled.

Brahms Group leads the origination and development of various major projects in West Africa. It is a diversified group in terms of its business lines, with a strong industrial and international finance network — and deep understanding and experience of Sub-Saharan Africa.

The company is currently developing Guinea’s largest industrial project in downstream oil and gas: a refinery, a storage terminal and port related infrastructure. It is structuring over $350m to finance the project via the Brahms Group financial network.

Brahms Group is also developing a 12,000-hectare agricultural project in Senegal in partnership with the Senegalese Sovereign Fund.

With his international background, born in Paris with parents from Senegal & Guinea, Daouda Fall has lived in numerous countries which gives him an international eye in the Company’s local activities. Daouda Fall, currently based in Geneva, began his career with Citigroup and JP Morgan. At Citigroup, he managed ultra-high-net-worth clients and created a solid professional network in the Middle East and Africa. At JP Morgan, he worked as a hedge-fund specialist.

Daouda is a board member and managing partner of Ascon Group, an international trading company. Besides its trading activities, Ascon Group is currently developing a Biomass Project in Namibia and promoting water treatment systems for local communities. He is a former board member of mining and logistic company the Mesa Group, where he developed business opportunities.

Daouda Fall was also a consultant for the China Mining United Fund.

Daouda Fall is a laureate of the Choiseul Institute think-tank that elects the 100 most influential young economic leaders in Africa, and holds a Master’s in Global Political Economy from the University of Sussex. He is a regular speaker at conferences.


Economic Foresight and Proximity to People: SaarLB Walks this Walk Every Day — and Across Borders

SaarLB is a Franco-German regional bank headquartered in Saarbrücken, the capital of Saarland, close to France.

[caption id="attachment_21882" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Frank Eloy CSO & Thomas Bretzger CEO[/caption]

From the beginning of its 80-year existence, SaarLB has defined the Franco-German and south-west German markets as an integrated core region from a business strategy perspective.

To best serve these markets and their customers, the strategic headquarters in Saarbrücken has been supplemented over the years with locations in Koblenz, Mannheim, Trier, Strasbourg, Paris and, as of this year, Lyon. “This geographic network represents an important success factor for the bank, guaranteeing that vital proximity to customers, and the economy,” says Thomas Bretzger, CEO.

The bank focuses on SME businesses with customers and investors in corporate and real estate sectors, project financing with a focus on renewable energies, institutional customers, the public sector, high-net-worth individuals, municipalities, and private-public partnerships.

“SaarLB stands for focused financial services with an emphasis on financing products,” says Frank Eloy, CSO. “It pursues an integrated Franco-German business approach with corresponding expertise in both countries. For cross-border customers in particular, this is reflected in the ‘Pôle Franco-Allemand’ network forum, which provides customers with a wide range of the bank’s partners, and their networks.”

As a public bank, SaarLB has two strong shareholders in Saarland and the Savings Banks Association, which continue to provide unparalleled security. SaarLB is a member of the Savings Banks Finance Group (Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe) and is the largest credit and Pfandbrief institution in Saarland, as well as a member of the Association of German Pfandbrief Banks (vdp).

Economic foresight and proximity to people are more than just claims SaarLB makes. This message is lived out in daily interactions, and across borders. The bank’s strong approach, in addition to the corporate values, creates the necessary foundation for the appropriate framework.

“SaarLB was an early adopter in the area of sustainability,” says Eloy, “and has been systematically pursuing its strategy since 2014.” The presentable results and successes are documented in an annual SaarLB report. The award of coveted Prime Status (ISS ESG) and the successful placement of a Green Bond programme (€150m) underscore the success of this strategic orientation.

SaarLB had a balance sheet total of €15.15bn at mid-year 2021, when half-yearly figures were published; it employs 516 people. The Franco-German regional bank has earned recognition, including Family-Friendly Company (IHK) and Fair Company (Handelsblatt) seals, several times.


Karl Fredrik-Staubo - Youth, Energy, Agility, & the Courage of Conviction: Meet the Golar Go-Getters

As the youngest CEO of a NASDAQ-listed company, Karl Fredrik Staubo brings energy and verve to his role at Norway’s Golar LNG Ltd.

[caption id="attachment_21887" align="aligncenter" width="900"] CEO: Karl Fredrik-Staubo[/caption]

With energy industry experience — and the insights of chairman Tor Olav Troim to guide him — Staubo has also benefitted from what he calls “some supportive industry tailwinds”. He and Troim are focused on delivering some exciting developments at Golar.

Troim, a naval architect and a significant Golar shareholder, could be described as “a hands-on resident activist investor”. He has the courage of his convictions and believes in taking bold action. He will back a good idea for the long-term — but remains nimble and flexible enough to pivot when new opportunities present themselves, or circumstances change.

This creates a dynamic and fast-paced business environment — which is where Staubo comes in. An active man such as Troim needs a CEO who can keep up…

Staubo, who has held other executive roles within the Golar group and previously headed shipping on the investment-banking side of Clarksons Platou, quips: “If you dip your hand in, Golar takes your whole arm.”

What differentiates Golar from its peers is unique technical, engineering, and operations capabilities. This has frequently turned Troim’s outside-the-box solutions to industry problems into reliable operating reality.

Troim and Staubo are Norwegian. Inspired by Scandinavian roots and leadership, Golar has a flat organisational structure and an execution model that facilitates agile decision-making. With typical Scandinavian pragmatism — but unlike the LNG industry in general — Golar’s default position is to “keep it simple”. Up- and downstream competitors who take a more complex stance often take years to recreate a comparable offering.

Since Staubo took the helm a year ago, he has overseen Golar’s $5bn sell-off of its gas to power business Hygo Energy Transition, and its Master Limited Partnership to New Fortress Energy. He has reorganised the London office, overseen the publication of Golar’s first ESG report, agreed terms with a cornerstone investor to form Cool Company Ltd — which will own Golar’s shipping assets — and hired top talent to support and grow the upstream FLNG business.

With an equally youthful CFO, Eduardo Maranhao, the pair have refinanced all the company’s short-term debt to create a balance sheet sturdy enough to finance increasing FLNG opportunities.


Golar: Industry Innovator Democratising Access to LNG

For the past 20 years, Golar has focused exclusively on its liquid natural gas (LNG) assets.

Back in 2001, carbon and air pollution were not the mainstream issues they are today; the renewables business was tiny. Transporting energy from one part of the world to another to close yawning gaps in energy and gas prices inspired the firm’s focus on LNG.

Poor countries with growing populations were historically paying over the odds for power, typically from carbon-intensive sources. LNG has the potential to link inexpensive gas reserves with those markets. At the time, the LNG industry was dominated by a handful of players who showed little interest in making this happen.

Golar’s initial efforts at bridge-building began with LNG carrier “new builds” to service the fledgling spot market. The firm moved up the value chain in 2007, with the pioneering conversion of one of its older carriers into a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU). FSRUs are now mainstream and have been key to the opening of most new LNG markets. But to really close the price-gap, Golar needed to move up- and downstream.

In 2014, the next pioneering step was taken: the conversion of an LNG carrier into a floating liquefaction vessel (FLNG). Two years later, Golar set up a joint venture to build Latin America’s largest thermal power station and establish a downstream LNG distribution business.

“In 2018 we successfully delivered the world’s first FLNG conversion, with a carbon footprint per unit of production that matches shore-based mega projects — despite having a flexible platform and operating at smaller scale,” says CEO Karl Fredrik Staubo.

The power station, then Brazil’s most efficient thermal plant, fired-up in 2020. The value of that downstream business was realised in April 2021, when it was sold to New Fortress Energy.

Over the past 20 years, the need to reduce CO2 emissions and air pollution has become recognised as a global priority. Renewables have become the fastest-growing source of energy; China’s energy consumption, meanwhile, has trebled. But still some 800 million people do not have access to electricity — and 61 percent of the world’s energy remains coal- and oil-based. The need to decarbonise is urgent to ensure the availability of clean, modern energy — at an affordable rate for all.

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, the transition to renewable sources requires balance to overcome challenges related to variable output. Gas is ideally suited for this. It is cleaner than other fossil fuels, with abundant proven reserves — and it’s flexible. “That is why LNG is now the second-fastest growing source of energy,” Staubo points out. “Switching from coal to gas for electricity production saves on average 50 percent of carbon and methane emissions, along with dramatic reductions in air pollution.

“We understand that lowering emissions isn’t the same as eliminating them. Repurposing our ships, a unique hydro-turbine that increases the energy efficiency of FSRUs, and use of waste heat to provide 80 percent of the power to operate our FLNGs are examples of in-house initiatives taken to reduce emissions.”

Golar is also working on even cleaner solutions, including floating blue ammonia and carbon-capture for FLNG.

“Through our pioneering, low-cost innovations and investments, we’ve built a flexible floating LNG pipeline that can liquefy, ship, and re-gas LNG. That commodifies and democratises access to cleaner LNG-based energy,” says Staubo.

“Our FLNG offering can now produce the world’s lowest-cost LNG from gas that would otherwise be flared or re-injected. And we can do this profitably in a $30/bbl oil environment.

“This is in operation now. This is not some future promise.”

Looking ahead, with the support of the board, nimble management, and a helpful commodity price environment, Golar intends to maximise the value of this strategic position, and its $3.5bn share of Earnings Backlog4 to strong counterparts including BP and Perenco.

“Our focus will be on liquefying gas from stranded and associated gas reserves using our multiple oil major type-approved infrastructure solutions, diverse workforce, 50 years of LNG operational experience and strong industry partnerships.

“We will also continue to look at further optimisations of production and monitor the development of marine infrastructure that supports the growth of hydrogen and ammonia as viable alternatives. This, we believe, is sustainable value-creation.”

4 Earnings Backlog represents Golar’s share of contracted fees/income for executed contracts less forecasted operating expenses for these contracts as of September 30, 2021.


The Global Leader in Consumer Growth Investing: L Catterton Has Created a Niche of its Own

L Catterton Europe is the European fund of L Catterton, the largest global consumer-focused private equity firm.

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With more than 20 years of experience in the sector, L Catterton Europe is focused on making investments of €30-80m in Western Europe middle-market growth companies.

L Catterton's approach is driven by a combination of consumer focus, global reach, and extensive operating resources. L Catterton's longstanding, sector-specific expertise has helped to cultivate a strategic global network, which positions the firm as a partner-of-choice to help growing consumer businesses realise their potential.

At the core of L Catterton's strategy is the firm's strong (and frequently proprietary) deal-flow and differentiated operating capabilities that are deployed to support its portfolio companies. Many of the partners at L Catterton have had direct responsibility for the management of consumer companies, and the combination of private equity investment knowledge and operating expertise add value to portfolio companies and assist in sourcing investment opportunities.

Supported by L Catterton Global co-CEOs, J Michael Chu and Scott Dahnke, L Catterton Europe is managed by six experienced partners in London, Paris, and Milan offices.

The fund is led by managing partner Luigi Feola, with more than 25 years of experience in the global luxury and consumer retail sector. Prior to joining L Catterton in 2019, he served as senior managing director Europe and joint-head of consumer with Temasek, the Singapore-headquartered investment company with a portfolio of $235bn.

L Catterton Europe also benefits from the expertise of five partners, including Jean-Philippe Barade, who brings with him more than 15 years of experience in private equity, focusing on consumer and retail. He previously served as co-founder of B&B Investment Partners, a London-based fund sponsored by Walgreens Boots Alliance.

Arabella Caporello joined L Catterton after 20 years in private equity. She has served at Advent International and Investindustrial.

Eduardo Velasco has been with L Catterton since 2004. Prior to joining the firm, he worked as senior consultant in transaction services at Deloitte Corporate Finance.

Nicolas Desbois serves as partner and group CFO for L Catterton Europe and L Catterton Real Estate. He was previously the CFO of the media and press group at LVMH.

Jeremy Sanders serves as Operating Partner and has extensive operating experience, having led PE-backed businesses in the hospitality, pet, and travel sectors.

The partners of L Catterton Europe are supported by dedicated and seasoned investment professionals, an operating team, and senior advisors. The fund also benefits from the broader resources of a deep team of nearly 200 investment and operating professionals around the world.

L Catterton believes the breadth and reach of its resources are unmatched in the consumer private equity industry, and provide the firm with capabilities that benefit prospective portfolio companies — and, ultimately, investors.

In the past year, L Catterton Europe announced several major transactions, including investments in Butternut Box, Etro, JOTT, and IAFStore. This exemplifies L Catterton's strategy of identifying and investing in growing consumer categories. In 2021, the firm acquired a majority stake in the storied global footwear brand Birkenstock, positioning the company for continued global expansion.

With its unique investment platform, global resources and reach, and recent new hires, L Catterton Europe is set to continue implementing strategic plans to foster growth in the region.


Fondo Pensione Nazionale BCC/CRA: Pioneering Pension Fund Provides Balance and Choice for Members

When Sergio Carfizzi joined Italy’s Fondo Pensione Nazionale BCC/CRA (FPN) as general manager in 2008, the fund had around €900m in assets and a handful of employees.

[caption id="attachment_21904" align="aligncenter" width="900"] General Manager: Sergio Carfizzi[/caption]

The investment strategy was rudimentary — essentially a portfolio dominated by domestic government bonds. FPN is now a multinational with €2.6bn in assets and 23 staff members. It has built what Carfizzi calls “a gem of a portfolio” including uncorrelated alternative strategies.

One of Carfizzi’s first steps as GM was to diversify options for fund members. Initially, they had no say; now they can choose between three main sub-funds, according to risk preferences and age.

The development of a strong FPN portfolio relied on investment in internal resources, a process complicated by increasing regulation. Lacking regulatory guidance, Carfizzi had to create internal structures from scratch — often as a pioneer. “Pension funds in Italy were born with feet of clay,” he observes. “They needed to be strengthened on many fronts.”

Backed by the board of directors, Carfizzi implemented layered risk-management and a compliance system. In the early history of Italian second-pillar pension funds, outsourcing was the prevalent strategy. “For a fund to grow and become independent, internalisation is the correct strategy,” says Carfizzi.

He had to strike a balance, and he succeeded. The fund has reached an optimal mid-point between internal and external management capabilities.

Fondo Pensione Nazionale is a defined contribution pension scheme founded in 1987 and it’s the complementary pension fund for Italian co-operative and agricultural banks. Benefits depend on the profitability of the portfolio, among other factors. The fund is structured in three investment lines that vary allocation and risk according to time horizons.

There are several OICR Funds in diversified and uncorrelated asset classes — real estate, infrastructure, solar energy, private equity, private debt, venture capital, and crowdfunding.

The FPN financial team puts its focus into two macro-areas, one controlling direct investments, the other controlling mandates. Since 2021 each macro-area has been involved in ESG-monitoring.

FPN was one of the first pension funds in Italy to create a risk management structure independent of the finance department. “This comprises two people,” explains Carfizzi. “One monitors financial risk, the other operational risks.” FPN has structured a new compliance department that oversees the application of rules and regulations.

Sergio Carfizzi works with the head of the finance department on processes and controls. Despite the upheavals of the Covid pandemic, FPN saw good results for every investment line in 2020 — positive returns between three and six percent — while maintaining a lower-than-benchmark risk-level.

The fund has up to 90 counterparties, depending on tactical positioning, representing private equity, private debt, infrastructure, traditional liquid asset classes, and domestic and foreign real estate. Fondo BCC/CRA was one of the first pension institutions in Europe to explore venture capital and crowdfunding asset classes.

“Those niche investments form the latest milestone in a long journey,” says Carfizzi. The investment philosophy focuses on diversification. “FPN never loses sight of that.”

Carfizzi has appointed managers with differing approaches, but balanced and complementary strategies. The portfolio is geographically diverse, allowing FPN to minimise drawdowns and take advantage of emerging opportunities. The same principle applies to FPN’s alternative investments portfolio — worth over €470mn at the end of 2020: 18 percent of the overall portfolio.

It was split between private equity (37 percent), real estate (29 percent), private debt (20 percent), infrastructure (13 percent) and insurance-linked securities (one percent). Within that, 62 percent of the portfolio is invested in Italian assets. In the private debt space, in 2020 Fondo Pensione Nazionale added non-performing loans (NPLs) to the portfolio, invested across nine funds.

In the alternative space, Carfizzi’s management selection is guided by his experience in the credit sector. His objective there was always to evaluate creditworthiness; he takes a similar approach for alternative investments and opportunities.

“The investment strategies must take ESG factors into account,” Carfizzi says. “Back in 2009, before ESG became a trend — and while the Italian and European jurisdictions were considering more regulations — we took our first steps towards sustainability. As of 2021, permanent ESG staff have monitored the criteria over the entire investment process.”

The portfolio diversification and subsequent investments in “uncorrelated” assets allowed the fund to make its voice heard on ESG. It raised awareness of issues which have become the cornerstone of every sound investment choice.


Location, Attitude, Aptitude and Forward Thinking: Tanger Med Zones at an Enviable International Position

The combination of cutting-edge technology, Grid-Connected Renewable Energy System, geographical proximity to Europe, strategic vision, and a skilled talent pool, led to the creation of a global logistics hub, ranked amongst the best globally. A competitive offer that anchors SMEs and multinationals positions’ with both existing and future customers.

[caption id="attachment_21910" align="aligncenter" width="900"] MD: Jaafar Mrhardy[/caption]

Tanger Med Zones, a subsidiary of the Tanger Med Group, develops and manages 2000 hectares of economic zones, dedicated to industrial, logistics, and service activities in the North of Morocco. It acts as a strong manufacturing platform for operators originating from 40+ countries, which produce specialized items and materials for their clients all over the world. Developed over a total area of 20 million square meters, consists of 6 activity zones that host more than 1100 multinationals in diverse sectors of activities, which include: Automotive, Aeronautics, Textile, Electronics, Renewable energy, and IT.

Only 14kms away from Europe, the platform capitalized on its skilled talent and advanced technical experience to work towards building a strong, open, and market-oriented environment.

Tanger Med Zones is backed by the Tanger Med Port, with 9 million TEU of container capacity, and is connected to 180+ ports worldwide across 70+ countries in five continents. The following strong fundamentals have enabled Tanger Med Zones to meet the expectations of global players and successfully attract first-class international players from Germany, Japan, Korea, France, China, India, the UK, and the USA among others. These strong fundamentals have enabled the Tanger Med Zones to meet global players' expectations, and become home and a hub for companies such as Continental, Siemens, Sumitomo, Coca Cola, Nippon express, NTT DATA among others.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Tanger Med Zones implemented a multidimensional strategy on corporate social responsibility in line with the United Nations sustainable development goals. Managing operations and infrastructure sustainability, as well as adopting vigorous governance, the Tanger Med Zones strives to strengthen even further the human capital to impact positively on the social and economic poles.

Tanger Med Foundation

The Tanger Med Foundation for human development consolidates the Tanger Med Group’s strategy in terms of social responsibility and sustainable development. Created in May 2007, the Foundation supports community-based associative initiatives in the Tangier-Tetouan region. Tanger Med Foundation supports different association-related initiatives in the North region of Morocco in partnership with local authorities and government institutions focusing on four main pillars: Education, Healthcare, Professional Training and Social.

Tanger Med Zones Infrastructure Incentives

A one-stop-shop for registration and incorporation process

25 Km from Tanger Med Port

24/7 customs services

Build to suit option

Plug and play industrial plots for sale

Plug and play modular warehouse units for lease

Dedicated import-export access inside Tanger Med Port

Fully digitalised services

Tanger Med Zones Financial Incentives

Today, Tanger Med Zones is a base for many international companies who enjoy both a stable, efficient, and robust economic environment, and a competitive combination of incentives, and benefits. This includes total exemption from the VAT, patent and urban taxes, dividend and profit shares, registration fees, and stamp duty on capital operations; plus 5 years’ exemption from corporate tax 0% (with a rate of only 15% after that).