Wealth & Finance International | March 2016
The Next Generation
Andy Khawaja speaks exclusively and lifts the lid on the wonder of the Next Gen Payment Gateway and how he is changing the way the world transacts.
Leading Fraud Investigator 2015 We spoke to Empire Investigation LLC to find out more about their practice, and got their insight into how they deal with the ongoing threat of corporate espionage.
Economic Resurgence in Vietnam We spoke to Bastien Trelcat, Managing Partner of HLG-Thailand and SE Asia, to get his unique insight into the currently thriving region of Vietnam.
CEO of the Month UK We speak to Birtenshaw CEO David Reid, who talks us through the firm’s vast service offering and the trends in public funding for special needs children’s services currently.
CEO of the Month USA We profile Ocean Pacific Seafood Group CEO, John Cai, and explore the role he plays in the success of this dynamic and growing firm.
International
Real Estate Fund Manager of the Month
We spoke to Paul Daneshrad, CEO of StarPoint Properties, LLC a real estate investment and operating company focusing on the acquisition and development of income producing properties, regionally, throughout the United States.
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Welcome to the March 2016 edition of Wealth & Finance magazine Leading online estate agent, eMoov.co.uk, recently released research into the Waitrose effect on house prices surrounding each of the supermarket’s 300+ UK stores. This firm’s research found that property surrounding Waitrose stores costs £456,000 on average, more than double that of the UK overall (£221,254), having increased 7% over the last year. With only a few months to go before the June referendum on whether the UK should leave the European Union, new research from Seedrs finds that the Brexit jury is still out for entrepreneurs and early stage investors. In other news, Intelligent Partnership on 22nd March announced that it is teaming up with the UK Business Angels Association (UKBAA) to launch the Angel Investing Accreditation - the new official qualification to promote effective investments in Britain’s small businesses. Hedge Fund Manager of the Year is Fidelis Capital Management. Their mission is to consistently achieve superior, risk-adjusted returns for investors. We got in touch with Andrew Sandoe, Chief Investment Officer at Fidelis, to find out how they achieve this, and learn about how his military background has helped him cope with the high demands of the hedge fund industry Other features in this informative edition include Investment Solutions for Asset Managers, a special focus on hedge funds and an in-depth look at Cyber Security Risks to Fund Managers. I trust that you will enjoy reading the news and features in this edition.
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Contents 4. News 10. Allied Wallet, Next Gen Payment Gateway with Flexible, New API Platform 14. Infrastructure Fund Manager of the Year 2015 - USA - I Squared Capital 16. Leading Fraud Investigator 2015 - Empire Investigation 18. Hedge Fund Manager of the Year - Citrine Capital Management 20. StarPoint Properties, LLC 22. Private Equity Fund Manager of the Year - USA - 2015 - Second Alpha Partners 24. Mediator of the Month - H A Miedzinski Lawyers 26. CFO of the Month - Bel Brands USA 30. Economic Resurgence in Vietnam 32. Hedge Fund Manager of the Year - Fidelis Capital Management 34. Best for Global Multi-Asset Class Investment Strategies - Singapore - Woodsford Capital Management Pte Ltd 36. Investment Solutions for Asset Managers - FA Solutions 38. Cyber Security Risks to Fund Managers 42. 2016 Asia Pacific Legal Guide 44. CEO of the Month USA - Ocean Pacific Seafood Group (OPSG) 46. Ones to Watch in Hedge Funds 2016 - VFS 48. Real Estate Fund Manager of the Year - Thailand - 2015 - GCP Hospitality 50. Private Equity Fund Manager of the Year - UK - Privet Capital LLP 52. CEO of the Month - Birtenshaw
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Wealth & Finance International | March 2016 | News
The Waitrose Effect:
A Waitrose Supermarket Can Double Your Property Price Leading online estate agent, eMoov.co.uk, recently released research into the Waitrose effect on house prices surrounding each of the supermarket’s 300+ UK stores. eMoov’s research found property surrounding Waitrose stores costs £456,000 on average, more than double that of the UK overall (£221,254), having increased 7% over the last year.
It’s well known that the close proximity of a house to sought-after amenities can help increase a property’s price potential. Previous research by eMoov found that a mainstream supermarket, such as Waitrose, was the second most important amenity to UK buyers (30%) - beaten only by the British corner shop.
store in Scotland has seen surrounding property outperform the local market by 1% in the last year, as has Waitrose Lincoln. Founder and CEO of eMoov.co.uk, Russell Quirk, commented: “In a market as competitive as the UK’s, savvy home sellers will use any bargaining chip they can to justify a higher asking price and, close proximity to a desirable amenity, will always act as such a chip.
Waitrose opened its first supermarket in Streatham back in 1955. Since then the average house price has increased by over 11,000% and now tops £461,000 in Streatham and £220,000 nationwide.
Although Waitrose positions their stores in more affluent areas, it is clear that the presence of a Waitrose supermarket can influence surrounding property values in a positive manner and in many cases, can see homeowners double the price potential of their property.
The allure of a Waitrose is clearly more appealing to Britain’s upper class than a discount store such as Aldi, with one resident of Poynton in Cheshire quoted last week saying “I thought we were making real progress as a community with the opening of Waitrose in 2012, however with the opening of Aldi I feel as though we are taking a step back into the lower class.”
Waitrose is a bi-word for ‘well to do’ and therefore for those that place a high importance on such an image, a walk to the local Waitrose justifies a higher asking price to similar nearby properties.”
But how beneficial is the presence of a Waitrose store to the surrounding areas and does its middle to upper-class image rub off on property prices? eMoov’s research found property surrounding Waitrose stores costs £456,000 on average, more than double the UK average of £221,254. The most expensive? Where else but Kensington in Chelsea, where the average property around the Waitrose store will set you back nearly £2.6m. But it isn’t just London’s prestigious areas that are benefiting from the Waitrose effect. The property surrounding the Waitrose supermarket in Wolverhampton has the lowest average house price across all UK stores at £118,000. However, over the last year prices in the area have increased by 9% in value, compared to just 6% in Wolverhampton as a whole. Waitrose Southsea in Portsmouth has also enjoyed an increase in surrounding property values of 5% in the last year, despite the area as a whole only increasing by 3% in the same timeframe. Waitrose’s Stirling mikecphoto / Shutterstock.com
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Wealth & Finance International | March 2016 | News
UK investors and entrepreneurs ‘split on Brexit’, says Seedrs • • • •
Online poll of UK investors and entrepreneurs finds even split between in and out vote on Brexit Around half of investors (51%) and entrepreneurs (48%) would vote to stay in the EU Two thirds believe that leaving the EU would have a negative impact on the startup environment Seedrs backs Brexit ‘in’ campaign
London, 21 March 2016: With just over three months to go before the June referendum on whether the UK should leave the European Union, new research¹ from Seedrs, the UK’s No.1 equity crowdfunding platform, finds that the Brexit jury is still out for entrepreneurs and early stage investors.
Jeff Lynn, CEO of Seedrs, said: “The very even split between the in and out vote shows what a complicated issue this is. It’s clear that this has become a debate lacking real information and that we are instead hearing soundbites from both sides. There is a need to present people with real information to help them make an informed decision in June.”
While half of investors (51%) and entrepreneurs (48%) would vote to stay in the EU, 47% of investors and 43% of entrepreneurs would vote to leave. Nearly one in 10 entrepreneurs (9%) said that they had no preference either way, compared to just 2% of investors.
Along with the CEOs of a substantial number of other UK tech businesses, Jeff has put his name behind the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign. He explains: “As a business Seedrs is in favour of Britain remaining in the European Union. We are a pan-European platform with London at our core, and we believe that we and our users stand to benefit from the open market that comes with Britain’s continued EU membership; in contrast, leaving the EU creates a number of very real risks for the British business community.”
In a separate poll, Seedrs asked respondents what impact Britain leaving the EU would have on the UK startup environment. Almost two thirds (63%) said it would have a negative effect, while 16% said it would be positive. More than one in five (21%) said they were unsure what impact it would have.
Last month, Seedrs announced that it has had more than £100 million invested on its platform since launching in July 2012 and, according to research firm Beauhurst, is the most active seed-stage equity investor in the UK.
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Boost launches Volatility and Emerging Markets ETPs on Borsa Italiana • Boost further strengthens its market leading position in short & leveraged ETPs in the Italian market with new equity and volatility offerings • Boost’s new volatility ETPs provide exposure to the S&P 500 VIX futures, which represent the world’s leading volatility indicator • Boost’s new Emerging Markets ETPs provide exposure to MSCI Emerging Markets Index futures
Milan, 17 March 2016: WisdomTree Europe, an exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) and exchange-traded product (“ETP”) sponsor is proud to announce that it has listed three new ETPs on Borsa Italiana.
rolling a leveraged position in the futures, plus interest revenue earned on the collateralised amount. Boost’s S&L ETP platform now covers the world’s major asset classes, which include equities, volatility, fixed income, currencies, and commodities. This brings BOOST ETP’s product range to a total of 128 listings on Borsa Italiana, the London Stock Exchange, and Germany’s Xetra.
The new ETPs come on the back of increasing demand for Boost’s Short & Leveraged ETPs. As of 10 March 2016, ETPs issued by Boost reached almost $500 million in AUM and these new ETPs add more breadth and depth to Boost ETP’s already comprehensive product list. At the beginning of March 2016, Boost ETPs had some 55% market share with respect to all ETC contracts traded on the Borsa Italiana. Boost has the most actively traded product and four products in the top ten most actively traded products on the Borsa Italiana’s ETFPlus segment.
Viktor Nossek, Director of Research at WisdomTree Europe, commented: “This years’ volatility underpinned by China’s slowdown and slumping commodities has soured sentiment in risk assets, forcing global growth expectations down and creating opportunities to position bearishly in equities. US equity markets’ relative high exposure to tech stocks suffering from recent disappointing financial results and downgraded growth expectations has added to the rise volatility in the US equity markets. With a leveraged S&P 500 VIX futures ETP, investors can short term efficiently position around rising risks in equity markets by using less capital to obtain the same (unlevered) exposure or amplify their exposure with the same capital.
Boost is listing the first product offering leveraged exposure to the benchmark VIX volatility index in Italy. The Index measures the return from a daily rolling long position in the first and second month VIX futures contract. The S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Index ER is considered a useful tool for hedging against potential large and sudden drops in the US equity market and, historically, has had a negative correlation to the S&P 500. The Boost S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures 2.25x Leverage Daily ETP provides 2.25 times the daily performance of the Index, adjusted to reflect fees and costs inherent to maintaining and rolling a leveraged position in the futures, plus interest revenue earned on the collateralised amount.
“The geared long and short ETPs tracking Emerging Markets are a way to position tactically around the uncertainty in the region, as 2016 begins with a stark divergence in the outlook on growth within the region: Russia and Brazil are in recession, China’s politically orchestrated rebalancing is enforcing an economic slowdown, even while India still sustains a boom. However, much of these expectations remain driven by volatile commodity prices, and the recent rebound of crude oil is giving EM commodity exporter stocks another boost. Until the dust settles and the economic picture for the region stabilises, investors may look for short-term opportunities to trade in and out, or hedge their EM exposure which, using leverage, requires less capital to achieve. These new products provide investors with a new set of momentum and hedging opportunities within the Boost S&L ETP range”.
The Boost Emerging Markets ETPs provide 3x long and 3x short exposure to the Emerging Equities Rolling Futures Index, which tracks Front Quarter and Second Quarter MSCI Emerging Markets Index futures. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index futures provide exposure to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, a free float-adjusted market capitalisation index designed to measure the equity market performance of the following 23 emerging markets countries: Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Qatar, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and United Arab Emirates. With 835 constituents, this index covers approximately 85% of the free float-adjusted market capitalisation in each country covered.
Nik Bienkowski, Co-CEO of WisdomTree Europe commented: “Boost, as an issuer, is delighted to be at the forefront of meeting demand from clients to extend our already market leading range of ETPs in the Italian market. These new products provide additional diversification opportunities and solutions to allow our clients to manage their portfolio exposures. These exciting new listings help build out our coverage across all the key asset classes including a unique exposure to equity volatility.”
The Boost Emerging Markets 3x Leverage Daily ETP and the Boost Emerging Markets 3x Short Daily ETP provide three (3) times long and (3) times short (respectively) the daily performance of the Index, in both cases adjusted to reflect fees and costs inherent to maintaining and
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Wealth & Finance International | March 2016 | News
Fear Factors: What do homeowners fear the most when selling? The latest research by leading online estate agent, eMoov.co.uk, has highlighted that money, stress and time constraints are still the biggest fears for UK homeowners when selling their home.
eMoov surveyed over 1,000 UK homeowners and asked them ‘when selling a property, what are the top three things you fear the most?’
understandable that it be the biggest fear during the selling process, as that couple of extra thousand gained or lost, can make a big difference in the grand scheme of things.
Despite UK homeowners currently enjoying a very buoyant UK property market, securing the right price still tops the list of fear factors.
Our previous research found that selling your home is more stressful than your wedding day and so it doesn’t surprise me that this also ranks highly amongst UK sellers. When you add time constraints to an already laborious process, you can see why selling a home in the UK can seem a daunting task and evoke such feelings of fear.
55% of those asked said not getting the price they wanted or needed was their primary fear when selling, with the stress of the selling process the second biggest fear factor for 46% of homeowners. Time constraints completed the top three fear factors, with 43% of homeowners afraid they wouldn’t be able to sell their home in the time they needed to.
I have to say I am a little surprised that paying too much in estate agent fees didn’t make the top three. High street estate agent fees have rocketed in line with house prices over the years despite no additional service being offered, some may argue the service has even declined, and so the dated commission fee structure is one of the biggest obstacles to moving home.”
Other fear factors stated by UK homeowners included paying too much in estate agent fees (36%), finding a new property to live in upon selling (22%), dealing with the buyer (14%), picking the wrong estate agent in the first place (12%), getting a mortgage for their next home (10%) and that their new property might drop in value in the future (4%).
Rank 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th
Founder and CEO of eMoov.co.uk, Russell Quirk, commented: “Price is always going to be the primary concern for UK homeowners and it is only natural that securing the best price will weigh heavy on a seller’s mind. Generally speaking, our home is the most expensive asset we are ever likely to own and for the majority of us, our home is our nest egg, setting us up for retirement when we do finally sell and downsize. So it’s
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Fear Factors Not getting the price wanted or needed The stress of it all Not being able to sell in the time needed Paying too much in estate agents fees Finding a new property to live in Dealing with the buyer Picking the wrong estate agent Getting a mortgage for the next property The next property dropping in value in the future
% of Sellers 55% 46% 43% 36% 22% 14% 12% 10% 4%
Domingos Ukwahali Bar Association of Angola
ucuahalidc@hotmail.com
Wealth & Finance International | March 2016
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Allied Wallet announced earlier this year that it has recently released their new “Next Gen Payment Gateway” for online payment processing. This new payment gateway offers a flexible, new API platform. With over 70 APIs, the Next Gen Payment Gateway allows for simpler integrations for merchants and payment processors. Additionally, any internet-connected applications and devices can access the functionalities of Next Gen Payment Gateway. Merchants can now use Allied Wallet’s Tokenization API to build their own self-hosted payment pages without worrying about the scope of PCI. They will be protected by Allied Wallet’s PCI Level 1 security. In an interview with the firm’s Andy Khawaja, he lifts the lid on the wonder of the Next Gen Payment Gateway and how he is changing the way the world transacts.
Allied Wallet Next Gen Payment Gateway with Flexible, New API Platform
Can you tell us about the background and the lead up to the announcement of the new payment gateway called Next Gen Payment Gateway? The new payment gateway Next Gen Payment Gateway is state-of-theart 4.5 dot.net code and is a platform of API’s, and it is the simplest and unique way to connect hardware, software, a third party gateway, bank and merchant, a shopping card and it is therefore very easy to connect to. Other gateways however can take up to two months to integrate, but with the Next Gen Payment Gateway it the API can integrate and download within five or six minutes. Image you are running a business, and you need to integrate into a platform to process credit cards where you can do foreign exchange or use a shopping card and so on. If you have Next Gen Payment Gateway as your primary gateway service provider, any platform you want to add to it will take minutes instead of 1 or 2 months. Giving an example, if you have a conference running and you have 6 or 7 developers that cost between £6-7million per year in salaries, as dot. net developers today are in very high demand and are also expensive. The reason you need them is maintain your system and to integrate it, because when you integrate into a different platform in this business, integration is very much part of our life and it happens 2-3 times per month. If you a platform that doesn’t have the functionality of the Next Gen Payment Gateway which took me years to build, then it doesn’t have a unique API which is extendable to other API’s. We spent about £1million per year on the developers, and you have to maintain the product and you need a coder to ensure the code is correct and no issues occur. You need a data warehouse also, to make sure the data is correct and not interrupted.
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Wealth & Finance International | March 2016
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However, if you have all of that electronically done in the Next Gen Payment Gateway you don’t need any of these staff. That’s why we call it the Next Gen Payment Gateway because it is replacing everything that we have paid over the last 20 years. The STRIPE 4 years ago was every web developer’s dream to have, but not with the Next Gen Payment Gateway it makes STRIPE look like it is from the 1970’s!
and they can choose which currency they would like to be billed in, so all the features Allied Wallet have are for the future. How does The Next Gen Payment Gateway allow for universal integrations with any shopping cart solutions, analytics, booking, fundraising, and mobile payment platforms? We have a simple dedicated API that can be downloaded into the system being used, and you can click on it and it analyses the system being and syncs itself in a way that will ensure primary use. Anything can then be added to the Next Gen Payment Gateway, which makes it much easier than what your current system can live up to. Basically, you have a cloning a server with much more advanced technology and with just a few minutes of download time.
What implications do you feel this has on online payment processing? Everything related to online payment processing, the back-end of it of credit card processing is the gateway. The base is the core and the core is the gateway. If you have a state-of-the-art gateway that functions in a way that can eliminate a lot of the down-time and hiccups, and by way of example in Germany their gateway was once down for 16 hours. Imagine a bank being down for that period of time. They can’t even process credit cards. Imagine the restaurant in Knightsbridge that is linked to the bank, and customers are lined up with their credit cards but credit cards cannot be accepted because the gateway of that bank is down. This happens because the gateway system here is weak, so that is why Allied Wallet have created a Next Gen Payment Gateway which has zero downtime, and it can run a million transactions per second with no hiccups.
How is this exciting initiative leading the payment services industry in a direction of inter-connected services and a simpler set up? It is improving it, making it more advanced and think better with the new technology and it promotes the consumer to spend more money online, and it will make it more secure as well as eliminate fraud. It will be a safe haven for credit card users online, including mobile phone payments, and any device you use will make the experience more secure. This is what everybody is looking for, security.
We are also concerned with multi-currency and identification of IP address here and the system locates the bank issuer in terms of which region, bank, country and currency and it is diverted back to the exact same jurisdiction bank in that country so you can get the lowest fees on it, the highest approval on it. For example, if you are outside the UK it is likely your card will be blocked after the second transaction and you would have to call the bank and identify.
The security is very important because the encryption that links to the bank the Next Gen Payment Gateway is mass of tokenisation which memorises 20 different cards by the last four digits of each one. You can also register with the virtual card execution which means that any time you go on a website and execute a transaction, it will ask you to identify yourself by your finger print and it gives you the option of which card you want to use. Then you don’t have to take your wallet out and everything is encrypted, so it is literally impossible for anybody to steal the card from you or rip you off. Even if a hacker accesses the server, there is nothing related to cards there because everything there is related to digits and alphabets, so that is what the Next Gen Payment Gateway is all about.
The Next Gen Payment Gateway identifies where the card has been issued by the first six numbers on the card and identifies from which region it is from. Even if you are in the US using a UK, German or Japanese credit card for example it identifies the issuer and immediately it diverts and settles it into the bank where it has been issues from in that juristriction, regardless of the merchant and gets the higher approval required.
We have the largest negative database in the world which has more than 10 million websites registered, so we give you the heads-up once you execute a transaction based on the reporting we get from consumers all around the world. Before you make the transaction a pop up will come up giving you advice from consumers about merchants and it will ask you do you want to proceed, a feature that nobody else has today except Allied Wallet.
It gives you the higher approval, and the issuing bank doesn’t think twice about suspicious transactions because the consumer may be travelling in the USA for example, and perhaps the wallet is snatched. For many customers, it is a nightmare when you go to a shop and your card is swiped and you try to call the bank but they are closed the next day because you can’t use your card anymore because it is blocked. How does this fit in with Allied Wallet’s proud status as a “one-stop shop” payment solution? This is going to improve the business of Allied Wallet because it will add more shopping cards as we have already integrated around 37 of them into the back end of the Next Gen Payment Gateway. By themselves, they have at least six or seven million merchants and more than 300 million customers use those shopping cards. All of this will be the Next Gen Payment Gateway platform, which is automatically going to generate traffic for Allied Wallet.
Is there anything else about the Gateway you would like to mention in closing? I am changing the way the world transacts, so I am literally making a way for entrepreneurs to build businesses, become somebody and build wealth for themselves, because the platform Allied Wallet are building is not only just for businesses that exist but the purpose is to get start-ups going. This motivates me as I will get the system and product for them. I know the cost is heavy and the banks will not believe in you, so I believe the problem with the world’s economy is that nobody is giving start-ups a chance but I am doing it on a platform in a unique way. It’s like I am giving out free land and giving people the opportunity to build on it, so I am doing my part in this world.
Can you outline how the Next Gen Payment Gateway allows for simpler integrations for merchants and payment processors? It has the most sophisticated mobile payment system, so you have the parent ship and swiper all in one, some cards don’t have the chip (such as the US, Australia and Canada) but some do (in Europe) and both can be used in one device. Drop down currency processing is when the customer is for example from London where you have a lot of Saudi shoppers
Company: Allied Wallet, Ltd. Web Address: www.alliedwallet.com
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Wealth & Finance International | March 2016
Infrastructure Fund Manager of the Year 2015 - USA
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I Squared Capital is an independent global infrastructure investment manager focusing on energy, utilities, and transport in North America, Europe, and select high growth economies.
Founded in 2012, I Squared Capital has offices in New York, Houston, London, New Delhi, Hong Kong and Singapore, offering a truly global reach and a wealth of investing experience. The firm invests in energy, utilities and transportation sectors, and seeks to invest in India, China, North America and Europe. It seeks to invest between $125 million and $400 million. Many of the firm’s executives have strong experience in investing with major corporations previously, ensuring that investors receive strong, risk averse returns. Recent developments include, its through its ISQ Global Infrastructure Fund, the acquisition of Lincoln Clean Energy (Lincoln), a developer, owner, and operator of wind and solar projects in North America. The transaction includes an operating solar facility in southern New Jersey and Lincoln’s development and asset management platforms, including a robust development pipeline. Lincoln plans to deploy $250 million in equity investments through 2018. Founded in 2009, Lincoln has developed more than $1.5 billion of clean energy projects totaling 1,000 megawatts across North America. The company has assembled a team of veterans from the power industry. Declan Flanagan, Founder and CEO, is the former CEO of Airtricity North America. He went on to become CEO of E.ON Climate & Renewables following the 2007 acquisition of Airtricity North America. Declan has led the deployment of over $5 billion in capital in wind and solar projects in the U.S. and Europe and is a former board member of both the American Wind Energy Association and the Solar Energy Industry Association. The Lincoln team includes 18 professionals with over 150 combined years of experience in the renewable energy industry. The wind and solar industries have received a regulatory boost in the United States following the recent extension of the 30 percent investment tax credit for solar energy and the 2.3-cent-per-kilowatt-hour production tax credit for wind power. “This is an opportune time to invest in the renewable energy sector and we are delighted to partner with Lincoln’s high caliber management team, with its proven track record in the development and management of clean energy projects.” said Adil Rahmathulla, Partner at I Squared Capital. “Lincoln’s operational experience and track record, combined with I Squared Capital funding and expertise, positions Lincoln to become a premier renewables generation company in the U.S.” Commenting on the transaction, Declan Flanagan, CEO of Lincoln Clean Energy said “The Lincoln team is extremely excited to work with I Squared Capital. This partnership allows us to enhance both execution and value creation while we capitalize on the tremendous market opportunity before us.” Company: I Squared Capital Address: 410 Park Avenue, Suite 830, New York, NY 10022 Email: info@isquaredcapital.com
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Wealth & Finance International | March 2016
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Leading Fraud Investigator 2015 Established in 1982, Empire Investigation provides a comprehensive array of investigative services including TSCM, surveillance, and electronic forensics. We spoke to them to find out more about their practice, and got their insight into how they deal with the ongoing threat of corporate espionage.
Corporate espionage is something that has had staggering effects in competitive economies across the globe. By ‘corporate espionage’ we mean employees, partners, or competition stealing money, materials, or secrets from a business. What our firm does is detect, and eliminate hidden threats to trade and personal secrets in order to prevent this from occurring. However, due to the continuous advance in technology, businesses have never been at more risk.
tom-made hidden cameras and video surveillance, forensic computer recovery, technical surveillance countermeasure (debugging) as well as security threat assessment. Over the years, Empire Investigations LLC has provided an overwhelming amount of support and evidence to various top-level cases, ranging from threat analysis to TSCM, both in and out of the workplace, to investigative surveillance pertaining to international tracing and asset recovery. Furthermore, we are members of the World Association of Detectives, the Council of International Investigators Intellnet, as well as the International Narcotic Officers Association. Through our advanced network, Empire Investigations LLC has the ability to collaborate with some the industry’s finest around the globe.
Since our inception over three decades ago, our company has grown to becoming one of the industry’s global leaders, specialising in providing sophisticated, responsive, discreet risk consulting and intelligence services to clientele. From larceny, skimming, and fraudulent disbursements to embezzlement, Empire thrives on countering the moves and potential moves of our clients’ adversaries. Our company’s Founder and CEO Robert Kresson takes great pride in the fact that his agency always has the most up to date and advanced equipment available, and gather the level of evidence and service necessary to maximise their clients’ leverage.
Additionally, having been trained alongside the most predominate figures in the art of espionage and counter espionage, Mr. Kresson has developed strategic alliances with key figures in the industry such as James Ross, Marty Kaiser and G. Gordon Liddy. Particularly, Empire Investigations has been recognised for their work in international publications including the USA Today, the Saudi Gazette, and the Ritz Carlton. As a result, Empire Investigations operatives are the go-to expert for both local and national media resources.
One of our key areas of focus is on state-of-the-art surveillance equipment. Our team designs, produces and sells state-of-the-art technical equipment for investigations, corporate threat analysis and detection, and surveillance. This innovative expertise has been utilised by individuals, TV shows, government agencies, police departments, and corporations ranging from fortune 500 to small businesses. Our expert teams complete on site-consultations and installations for clients nationally and worldwide.
Our investigations have resulted in the arrest and conviction of employees and others for crimes such as industrial espionage, fraud, theft, and embezzlement. We have saved corporations millions of dollars in lost revenues and stolen secrets and have helped clients win favourable judgments in domestic disputes such as alimony, hidden assets, and custody.Another unique aspect of Empire Investigation LLC is that when clients receive the proof they are looking for, Empire helps them decide what to do next. Expert behavioural and legal consultants are available.
In terms of private investigators, Empire Investigation and their affiliates have worked on over 10,000 assignments in over 20 countries providing high quality, sophisticated, responsive and discreet risk consulting and intelligence services. Under the direction of founder and CEO Robert Kresson, specialised teams are assembled to achieve the objectives of the client. However, due to the sensitive nature of the work involved, our investigators are not individually identified but their credentials are available upon request.
When the top global companies, celebrities, and world’s leading executives need to ensure that their assets and businesses are secure from prying eyes and ears, Empire Investigations LLC has been at the top of a very short list for over 30 years in conducting Technical Surveillance Countermeasures (TSCM) and Counter-Espionage tactics.
We firmly believe that the hallmark of a quality investigation agency is professional and confidential execution of our clients’ needs. We offer comprehensive investigation services in order to meet our clients’ needs, including: electronic eavesdropping detection, cus-
For more information visit us online at www.areyoususpicious.com or contact the CEO Robert M. Kresson directly via email at bk@empireinv.com
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Wealth & Finance International | March 2016
Hedge Fund Manager of the Year Citrine Capital Management is a commodity hedge fund that trades global metals markets with a focus on industrial base metals and precious metals. We spoke to Paul Crone, the founder and CIO of Citrine, to find out more about his company, as well get his insight into the many challenges and opportunities facing him in his industry.
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At our company, we provide our clients with a wealth of experience, with a strategy that is the refinement of the team’s 60+ years of experience in metals trading. We have a strong emphasis on fundamental research and analysis which is complemented by strong global relationships, and it is our objective to exploit exceptional trading opportunities across the base and precious metal derivatives markets. As for my experience, I have 25 years of trading experience successfully trading metals at leading financial institutions and hedge funds including AIG international trading and Touradji Capital. In the hedge fund industry, expansion and evolution has only really been seen from the HFT High Frequency Trading sector. Many traditional HF Hedge Funds have shrunk in AUM along with many that have actually closed down and left commodities completely, along with many banks as well. In order to prevent this from happening to us, we have a strong regulatory and compliance focus that keeps us up to speed with industry rule changes that may be necessary to make. More than ever before, managers are under greater pressure to deliver the best possible results for both their clients and firms. This has primarily been the result of returns in the commodity space returns being generally been being poor for the past three or four years. Commodity prices have been and remain under incredible pressure as China, the leading consumer for metals, continues to see contracting growth. The macro picture in general also remains bleak, but many of the base metals continue to trade close to cost of production. In many cases, particularly in china, producers are producing at a loss, and at the same time damaging the industry as a whole. This is obviously something that cannot continue forever and we face the possibility of supply being cut and at some point shifting the supply demand dynamic. Despite the challenges facing us in our industry, there are also opportunities that we are looking to exploit. With less participants and very nervous markets we see enormous volatility, and for us herein lies the opportunity. Likewise, with the macro space looking so poor yet downside for the base metals particularly in some cases somewhat limited and particularly some of the metals so close to the cost curve or below, when the tide turns there will be some significant longer term investment opportunities. As an industry that is constantly evolving, hedge funds remain an exciting and fun place to work. We believe that we are in a fortunate position given that there are now very few metals focused funds (I believe we are one of only three) coupled with a diluted space in general to invest in. Our aim is to continue AUM growth to a capacity level that would not be restricted by market liquidity. As for the award, it is obviously a nice compliment given how challenging the space has been over the last three to four years. During this time, we have managed to survive what has been some of the hardest years in the commodity space. Hopefully, we are now approaching a cyclical bottom in many of the commodity markets and as the space attracts attention again we will be in a unique position. Company: Citrine Capital Management Name: Paul Crone (Founder) Address: 405 Lexington Ave, 34th Floor, NY 10174
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Real Estate Fund Manager of the Month StarPoint Properties is a real estate investment and operating company focusing on the acquisition and development of income producing properties, regionally, throughout the United States.
The firm’s strategy is acquiring under-valued, mismanaged assets and dramatically increasing the value of these properties through repositioning, strategic leasing, rehabilitation and professional management.
After speaking with Mr. Daneshrad, it is clear why they have been able to soundly beat all major market indexes and most other investment vehicles.
As a vertically integrated company, they find success by excelling and focusing on a few core competencies: property operations, strategic acquisitions, in house rehabilitation/construction and an experienced and driven management team that executes at the highest levels.
Company values and culture Mr. Daneshrad had this to say about the company’s values, culture and core beliefs, “the firm has a set of core values that we publish and is posted throughout our offices. These values focus around the belief that our investor’s capital is more important than our own, integrity is critical to what we do and who we are, and investment performance and delivering returns that beat the market and our peers has to be achieved, not through speculation, but through sound operations, investment acumen and daily execution at all levels. Speculation leads to undue risk and eventually lower returns or complete loss. Too many investors today have become speculators vs trained and experienced operators who have a mastery of their business, deep understanding of their markets and a well thought out strategy.”
Through this strategy and its core competencies, over their 25 year history, StarPoint has acquired in excess of $1 billion dollars of real estate and has delivered returns that rank it in the 90th percentile, in the industry, delivering returns in excess of 30% annually. Paul Daneshrad is the founder and CEO of StarPoint and started his real estate career 30 years ago working for a multi-billion dollar developer in Los Angeles. After several years with Glen-Fed Development, he left to form StarPoint, out of his sister’s garage, and turned it into one of the most successful boutique real estate firms in the United States. When asked about the firm’s success, he says “our investment strategy is the key to our decades of recurring and sustained success. It is a strategy that has several facets: discipline, a broad pipeline where we evaluate 1000’s of investments before buying one, adherence to cycle theory, deep value creation and a commitment to execution.”
Looking Ahead When asked about what tomorrow looks like and where he sees opportunities in the future, Daneshrad responded by saying “we are approaching the end of this current cycle and expansion. I’m very excited for the next cycle, where I expect it is going to provide great opportunities. Our approach to, what we call, cycle theory is that we will find the greatest value, returns and yields when times are bad and we are at the bottom of a cycle, not the top! That’s why our investment strategy and cycle theory has always been to acquire 80% of our investments at the bottom of a cycle and the other 20% throughout the cycle. I expect the economy to falter but for StarPoint to take advantage of it and thrive by providing great investments and returns for the firm and its investors.” Company: StarPoint Properties, LLC CEO: Paul Daneshrad Email: Paul@starpointproperties.com Web address: www.starpointproperties.com Telephone: 310 247 0550 Address: 450 N. Roxbury Dr, Suite 1050 Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Starpoint Starpoint Investors’ Average Annual Return on Investment Investors' Average Annual Return on Investment vs. Market Indexes vs. Market Indexes 35.00% 30.00% 25.00% 20.00% 15.00% 10.00% 5.00% 0.00%
1/1/95 through 12/31/15
Starpoint (1)
32.67%
Dow Jones
8.57%
S&P 500
8.44%
10 Year Treasury
6.58%
Morgan Stanley REIT
12.97%
(1) Returns are for multi‐family investments only.
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Wealth & Finance International | March 2016
Private Equity Fund Manager of the Year - USA - 2015
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Second Alpha Partners is an innovative private equity firm focusing not just on returns but also on the companies they invest in, supporting them in their growth and closure to ensure everyone involved with the transaction receives the best possible solution.
Building private companies now takes more effort, dedication and capital than ever before, and achieving company exits by trade sale or IPO takes more than double the time that it did a decade ago. As a result, founders, executives and investors face tremendous challenges maintaining a collective focus on corporate aspirations while also pursuing their own individual return objectives. As such, Second Alpha Partners are dedicated to helping firms and executives, crafting innovative capital solutions that allow founders, managers and investors in private companies to achieve liquidity prior to company sales or IPOs. Second Alpha buys shares and convertible securities on a secondary basis and also invests capital directly into growth companies. Second Alpha thinks in terms of relationships not transactions. So Second Alpha is willing to do more than just write a check. The firm is able to leverage its team’s extensive experience in the venture industry to better position the companies in which it invests for long-term success. Second Alpha’s team has structured numerous types of secondary-linked, special situations and traditional equity investments in private companies, from the simplest to the most complex and exotic. Regardless of the specifics of a given situation, those who approach Second Alpha can expect a response that is knowledgeable, constructive, friendly and discrete. Ultimately the firm is different than most private equity firms, as Second Alpha makes secondary investments in private companies, purchasing shares from existing shareholders – founders, executives, angels, VCs or corporate investors. In addition, the firm invests capital directly in private companies that meet its investment criteria, usually in tandem with making secondary purchases of shares from existing investors, but also in situations involving debt conversions, restructurings, recapitalizations or pay-to-play financings. Second Alpha was founded on the conviction that ten years is a long time for any shareholder to wait to receive some liquidity for an investment. Beyond their direct effects on investor returns, the long holding periods that have developed since the Dotcom Era have also threatened to disincentivize entrepreneurial risk taking and limit innovation. Second Alpha sees itself as a pioneer in the type of value-added secondary investing that is a natural and highly complementary component of the evolving venture cycle. Behind the scenes, Second Alpha relies on a great deal of careful data analysis to identify the types of companies in which it invests. The work that the Second Alpha team puts into its research helps to create more efficient due diligence processes, facilitate faster investment decisions and drive better results. Overall Second Alpha serves a vital new function in the innovation community. The firm enables entrepreneurs, VCs and other investors to achieve partial or full liquidity within a reasonable time frame without having to force a company into an exit process before it is ready. Second Alpha takes on a supportive role in investor syndicates, providing capital, advice and energy to companies at key moments in their life cycle, and its team members leverage extensive industry experience when active board participation is required. Company: Second Alpha Partners Address: 276 Fifth Avenue, Suite 901 New York, NY 10001 Phone: +1 (212) 446-1600 Website: http://secondalpha.com
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Wealth & Finance International | March 2016
Mediator of the Month H A Miedzinski Lawyers are dedicated to providing clients with personalised, professional services which are designed to fit their unique circumstances.
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The lawyers at H A Miedzinski Lawyers have proudly served the Sutherland Shire for over 15 years, offering prompt, personal attention, and customising all services to meet the needs of individual clients. The firm’s lawyers assist clients with family law, wills, estates, probate, conveyancing, business and commercial law, insurance law, and mediation matters. No job is too big or too small for the firm to handle and they pride themselves on competitive pricing strategies to ensure their services are accessible. In addition the firm strive to provide the highest quality legal advice to their clients. The firm review the circumstances of every client’s legal matter, listen to their concerns, address their questions, and explain all their legal options in plain terms. This is because the firm believe that this commitment and compassionate service sets them apart from other firms. Lawyers for the firm recognise that clients may be struggling with difficult issues when they come to them, and they often serve not only as a client’s lawyer, but also as a confidant, guiding them through the process and toward a solution. The firm pride themselves on their considerate, professional service, and believe that their clients appreciate this approach as well. The firm’s lawyers have helped numerous local residents and businesses successfully resolve their legal matters, and the firm has flourished as satisfied customers have recommended them to others. The firm was Founded by Helen Miedzinski in 1998, and she is the Principal Lawyer for the firm. Through her nearly 20 years of experience, Helen has become a skilled mediator and an expert in family law, wills, estates, and Succession Act matters. After working as an office manager and paralegal at a city law firm, Helen was admitted as a Legal Practitioner to the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 1994 and as a Legal Practitioner to the High Court of Australia in 2000. She has also attained two additional accreditations since then: an Attorney General Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner in 2008 and a nationally accredited Mediator, through the National Mediator Accreditation System (NMAS), in 2012. Despite working in a variety of markets, the firm specialises in providing mediation services. Mediation is a way to resolve legal disputes outside of court between two or more parties with the assistance of a trained mediator, who is a neutral third party. The mediator facilitates negotiations between the parties and works to find a mutually acceptable agreement to the dispute. Mediation is an efficient, effective, and confidential method of resolving legal issues, and it offers all the parties involved greater control over how the dispute is settled. In addition, mediation can be appropriate in almost any type of legal dispute, and it is more affordable than arbitration or litigation. The lawyers at H A Miedzinski Lawyers have resolved a number of legal cases through mediation with positive outcomes. As such the firm are able to help clients prepare for mediation or serve as a mediator to resolve their dispute. The firm are able to handle cases that span many fields including family law, estate law, workplace law and commercial law. Company: H A Miedzinski Lawyers Address: 7/266 Princes Highway Sylvania NSW 2224 Phone: 02 9522 2200 Fax: 02 9522 2211 Email: helen@thelaw.com.au Website: http://www.thelaw.com.au/
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Wealth & Finance International | March 2016
CFO of the Month
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Bel Brands USA is the U.S. subsidiary of Bel Group, a family owned company (based in Paris, France) and the world’s third largest manufacturer of branded cheese with a portfolio of 30 international and local brands distributed in 130 countries worldwide. We got in touch with their Didier Aziza, Chief Financial Officer of Bel Brands USA, to find out more about their company and his financial initiatives reaped tremendous rewards for the company.
First of all, could you give us a brief background about Bel Brands USA? How has your subsidiary contributed to the phenomenal success of the Bel Group? Bel Brands USA were formed in 1970 and are headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Perhaps the most impressive facts about us is we have doubled growth in the past four years, making the U.S a significant contributor to Bel’s overall $2.8 billion in global sales in 2014. This growth is fuelled by the success of Bel Brands USA’s most popular brands, which are Mini Babybel and The Laughing Cow. As a global leader with over 150 years of industry experience and products ‘Bringing Smiles’ to 400 million consumers annually, Bel has 28 manufacturing sites worldwide, and three of these are in in the United States. These are located in Leitchfield, Kentucky, Little Chute, Wisconsin, as well as our newest plant in Brookings, South Dakota, which opened its doors for production in July, 2014. As a company that is continually focused on innovation and growth, Bel has big plans to expand its portfolio over the coming years to meet the ever changing needs of consumers and continue its mission of “Sharing Smiles” around the world.
Since your began at Bel Brands USA in 2008, you have been a key contributor in growing Bel Brands from $150 MM in net sales to $400MM. Can you tell us about this, and how your role has evolved throughout this period? Generally speaking, my key role as the CFO has been building the finance team capabilities. When I joined, finance was accounting only and resources were mainly spread out between our different locations. My initiative was to centralise all finance functions into Chicago, where I revamped the accounting department with strong talents and created an FP&A department (financial planning and analysis) in order to manage budgeting process, partner with our business leaders and provide financial support to all our key business decisions. We have now an efficient and scalable team, with only a limited head count increase since 2008, despite the company doubling in size. Furthermore, we have also put in place a category finance role to help marketing with innovation, new products and new customer decisions. This partnership has been a tremendous success, and FP&A has been valued as a critical asset to the organisation.
As CFO, are there are specific financial undertakings that have been instrumental to your success? Specifically speaking, I firmly believe that our use of SAP software has been key to our success over the past number of years. We have implemented SAP very successfully since 2010 and this has grown to become the back bone of our company from an ERP standpoint. As a result, we now have a very good level of integration from all functions. We are now at a phase where we are implementing a lot of additional applications that complement SAP, and will achieve more automation and state of the art reporting for our business partners. As such, this will allow them to the best decision possible for the company from a value creation standpoint
As the US subsidiary of a French listed group, we are not subject to The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which protects investors from the possibility of fraudulent accounting activities by corporation. Nonetheless, we still have to strengthen our internal control resources and process as it was somehow very limited. In that respect, we have created a dedicated department to build internal control culture within the organisation and also roll out key initiatives, with the right level of balance to controls in order to keep the entrepreneurial spirit and agility we have within our team while putting processes in place. On the whole, we found that this has been working fine and we have great momentum from our company employees working on those initiatives.
Are there any major deals or operations which you believe have helped your company grow and succeed even further? In terms of deals, we acquired the Boursin brand from Unilever back in 2008 and it’s been a fantastic add to our existing brand portfolio. Since then, we have grown the brand a lot through focusing on our Boursin puck business and also through couple innovations.
Alongside these implementations, we have also put in place a hedging strategy in order to provide cash flow visibility to our shareholders, which is critical given the high volatility we have seen on the commodity markets those past few years (record highs then record lows, etc.). This took a great deal of education as this was first time ever the company was implementing that initiative, but we had strong support from our Paris team.
At the moment, Bel brands is very excited to announce also the launch of The Laughing Cow—Cheese Dippers, which is currently happening now. We worked really hard to get the dippers cheese snack — soft cheese packages with tiny breadsticks — from Europe to the United States, and this took two years as the company needed to consider what changes would be needed to appeal to consumers in the US.
As a core member of Bel Brands leadership team, what have you done to define and implement company vision, mission and values? Looking back on my time here, I can honestly say that I very much enjoy being a core member of the Bel Brands leadership team, primarily because it is defined and implemented by a strong vision, mission and set of values that we live by every day.
Furthermore, the company is also interested in making another acquisition in the US at some point if the target is relevant to our brand portfolio
As a member of the U.S. Leadership Team, I am also an ambassador of the Bel Values. Our employer values are “Dare, Commit and Care”, and
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Wealth & Finance International | March 2016
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as a leader, we must be the examples of these values and live by those values. You can display and train your people on the company values but nothing is better than when you walk to talk. How has the firm grown and developed over the years? Companies across all industries have had it difficult since the financial crisis, and it hasn’t been a stellar ride for our company either over the past eight years. As in any start-up company, we experienced hyper growth during the first couple years when the priority was to serve customer at any price. Unfortunately growth is hiding a lot of sins and some important topics are put on the side of the road as priority is toward growth. From my experience, start-ups definitely need to take a step back, build all the key pillars of their organisation, culture, tools and processes and avoid becoming “too big too fast”. This is particularly important as you have to be ready when growth slows to mitigate turmoil and need the flexibility to put the company back to growth in the smoothest and quickest way possible. This involves taking the time to put in place a long term strategy and sticking to it is critical in the company success. In 2013 and 2014, we had a slowdown with one of our business and also some major projects going on with the opening of our new Brookings mega Mini Babybel plant. We are now back to high and sustainable growth, well prepared for the future with strong teams and have delivered a very solid 2015. And the good thing is, we still have a lot of growth potential and very exciting projects on the agenda. I can tell you that ‘routine’ is definitely not a word in Bel Brands dictionary! Can you tell us a bit about the launch of new products and what this entails? What has been your experience of launching the various new flavours of the Laughing Cow launched over the years? This year we are proud to have two new launches within our one of our most popular brands—The Laughing Cow. One is a new flavour and one is a completely new product offering within the brands. We introduced the new Asiago cheese flavour and it has been working quite successfully with our consumers. As a company, we make a strategic effort to be aware of new flavour trends and products, so we can provide our consumers with what they want. In our consumer research, we learned that Asiago flavour was very popular, so we are happy that we could develop this flavour within our Laughing Cow brand. As mentioned earlier, we are very excited about this launch of The Laughing Cow—Cheese Dippers, as it meets the needs of our consumers who love The Laughing Cow, but desired to have the product in a portable format that meets their on-the-go lifestyle. Finally, what does the future hold for your firm? Bel is a consistently growing company, driven primarily by the strong momentum of its core brands and international sales. This continuous growth reflects the relevance of the company’s sales and marketing strategy, as well as the strength of its distribution network. Our ambition is to double in size by 2025, and to meet this challenge, Bel relies on the power of its brands. We are continually focused on R&D and new product innovation to continue to bring our consumers new products, flavours and cheese formats that will continue to make Bel one of the top three branded cheese makers in the world. We also recognise as a company, that having a presence in new, emerging global markets is key to growing our business internationally.
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Wealth & Finance International | March 2016
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Economic Resurgence in Vietnam Harvey Law Group (HLG) is an International law firm founded in 1992 in Montreal. For over twenty-four years, HLG has built a solid reputation in both investment immigration and business law, becoming a leading multi-national law firm with a worldwide presence. We spoke to Bastien Trelcat, Managing Partner of HLG-Thailand and South East Asia, to get his unique insight into the currently thriving region of Vietnam.
As Managing Partner of HLG-Thailand and South East Asia, I am currently focusing on three countries, namely, Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar. What I have found is that Vietnam has become one of the main, if not the main focus, of the South-East Asia region. The country has developed an open-up climate for foreign direct investment (FDI), having access to the status of full member of the World Trade Organization in 2007, and becoming a key actor of the ASEAN Declaration.
When dealing with clients, our process is quite simple. We understand that clients want solutions and options, which is why we always aim towards one direction: setting clients’ minds at ease. Understanding clients, their needs, and advising them with a ‘to the point’ perspective is at the heart of everything we do. As a company working in an industry that is always evolving, we are constantly on the lookout for any emerging trends and developments. We firmly believe that change is necessary in a competitive environment, and we constantly react and adapt to any changes that come along the way.
More than ever before, the Vietnamese economy has turned toward an attractive climate, boosting FDI through the elimination and reduction of tariff barriers and import and export duties. Last December, the government finalised an agreement with the EU which will implement a free trade area and break down a lot of barriers for the trade of goods between these two economies. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is also seen as a business facilitator, although the agreement is not yet in force.
In order to remain at the forefront of our industry, we stick to the principles that underpin our company. HLG stands for efficiency, flexibility, integrity and imagination. Furthermore, being integrated into the cultures of the countries we operate in constitutes one of our core strengths, and we do not see borders, but only possibilities.
Moreover, the cities’ landscapes have changed over the past two decades, and keep on changing, with industrial zones and modern infrastructures continuing to expand the investment territory. For instance, in the year 2016, the FDI forecasts that the numbers shall not be less than the two previous years. This means an expected total amount of investment of at least USD 20.2 billion.
Another important aspect of our ethos is that we are a very people-orientated business. We find that there is no better reward than clients choosing our firm for a specific service, and them coming back to us with other projects. Governments also play a decisive role through endorsing and recognizing HLG on cross-border investment issues.
For the corporate side, setting-up a business has been facilitated by the Vietnamese Licensing Authorities. The incorporation procedures for foreign invested companies now enjoy a shorter timeframe, with more transparency and less paperwork. As a result, the system has become much more efficient.
Lastly, but certainly not least, our success is largely due to a team you can trust and rely upon. HLG team is composed of reputable lawyers with solid experiences in the fields we operate in, and who are from different horizons. We firmly believe that to adapt and find the best path to realize any project you must be accompanied by a partner you can fully trust. One of HLG’s notable successes has been receiving the Investment Immigration Law Firm in 2014 from the Asian Legal Business (ALB) and the IAIR Award in 2016 in Hong Kong.
As a company practicing in a foreign environment, we are required to understand both global and local issues. As such, HLG is the only foreign law firm which has an office in Da Nang City (on top of our Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City branches). This gives us the leverage to advise with a practical point of view on the seizing of business for both local and international clients, spanning from the creation of a company to cross border transactions, including strategic partnerships.
Company: Harvey Law Group Vietnam Name: Bastien Trelcat Web: www.harveylawcorporation.com
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Wealth & Finance International | March 2016
Hedge Fund Manager of the Year
Name: Andrew Sandoe Company: Fidelis Capital Management Web: www.fidelis-capital.com Phone: 781-990-1861
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Fidelis Capital Management’s mission is to consistently achieve superior, risk-adjusted returns for investors. We got in touch with Andrew Sandoe, Chief Investment Officer at Fidelis, to find out how they achieve this, and learn about how his military background has helped him thrive in the hedge fund industry.
The world of investment management has never been more competitive, and so it was refreshing to speak with Andrew Sandoe, Chief Investment Officer for Fidelis Capital. Andrew said unabashedly, that Fidelis (from the Marine Corps motto Semper Fidelis) is an extension of the service orientation espoused in the US military. “At Fidelis, our mission is to offer our investors greater economic opportunity and lower stress by delivering consistently high risk adjusted returns.” Fidelis uses a quantitative value strategy that historically has offered 15 – 20 percent annualized returns with about 18 percent of the risk of the S&P 500. Andrew describes Fidelis’ stock-picking differently, by quoting Mohnish Pabrai: “Heads - we win, tails – we don’t lose much.” This confidence led Fidelis to offer an almost unheard of zero management fee structure, where Fidelis only thrives by delivering profits, above a hurdle rate, to investors.
• Systemic risk: Is systemic risk supportive of equity gains? • Momentum: Is the market momentum supportive of equity investment? • Asymmetric upside: Is there at least 5:1 upside opportunity vs. downside risk? The result of this process has been consistent outperformance of the indices and happy investors. In any competitive occupation, whether professional sports, investment management or the military, being able to deliver consistently is paramount. The ability to delay gratification in order to achieve a larger reward at a later time is crucial to long-term success. Many investors undermine their investment performance with a short-term orientation, recency bias, and loss aversion (to name a few). Fidelis uses its rulebased approach to avoid these common traps.
To achieve these results, Mr. Sandoe focuses on two primary jobs within Fidelis: rigorous portfolio analysis and assembling the top talent in the field. He notes, “My first and primary job is managing the portfolio in a way that maximizes long-term, risk-adjusted returns. As for the team, he adds that he is truly inspired by those on Fidelis’ close-knit team. The founding team came together while pursuing graduate work at MIT. Concurrently with their founding, they began working with three top faculty members, two of whom authored some of the seminal research in the quantitative value space. To this strong academic core, he added team and Board members who had each spent 30+ year careers in applied investment management.
In a world where central banks have put a floor under asset prices (via the artificial stimulus of Quantitative Easing “QE”), there has been no need for hedge funds. Since early 2009, markets have moved almost entirely in one direction. However, since QE ended, volatility has returned to the market and hedge funds are once again showing their value. As Seth Klarman (Baupost Group) loves to reference, an investor who earns 16 percent annualized returns over a decade will retire at the end of it with more than a similar investor who earns 20 percent for nine years and then loses 15 percent in a market correction. If markets continue to revalue to reflect a post-QE, rising interest rate, high valuation environment, we can expect that hedge funds will continue to grow as they protect investors from heightened equity risk.
As for the thinking behind Fidelis’ strategy, Mr. Sandoe relies on hard lessons learned during his career as a pilot in the Marines. Through several combat deployments, Mr. Sandoe saw how people functioned under significant stress. He noted that “most people make terrible decisions while under the influence of emotion or duress. This is equally true in the stock market.” This experience was empirically validated in the research of Daniel Kahneman. Recognizing the inherent risk of emotion based decision -making, Fidelis developed a systematic process which strips out human bias and emotion.
Within this industry, competition will remain fierce. However, when you look at risk-adjusted returns (Sharpe ratios) across hedge fund strategies, one can identify the good stewards of client assets. This industry attracts more than its fair share of snake oil salesman, but a knowledgeable consumer should look at the amount of risk managers are taking in pursuit of compelling gains. The vast majority of managers are simply trying to achieve gains through leverage, and these strategies are ultimately doomed to fail.
Mr. Sandoe and his team began their research in 2012 by proving that value investing was the single best performing investment strategy across US market history. The Achilles’ heel to this method is human bias and emotion, particularly our need for immediate gratification. With this in mind, Fidelis developed a systematic process that corrected for the unhelpful tendencies inherent in human nature. Fidelis’ process allows them to filter the entire investable universe down to an extremely high potential portfolio of stocks. The filters include eight core tests: • Value – Cheap stocks relative to the potential returns they could generate. • High and improving financial quality – Well capitalized, low debt, improving fundamentals. • Conservative accounting – no earnings or accounting manipulation. • Value Traps: Is the company cheap for a good reason? • Insiders: Are the insiders buying back shares in their personal accounts?
A consumer is better served by identifying managers with two or three verifiable edges, who can consistently buy high quality companies at cheap prices, and has the patience to wait while market prices shift to reflect the portfolio’s fundamental health. Investors that stick to these timeless (and empirically proven) methods are likely to be very satisfied. Fidelis employs timeless value investing principles, but applies them using cutting edge quantitative tools, in order to identify high potential companies that may have been dismissed by the market. Essentially they are front-running market expectations. They acquire companies when markets are convinced that they will languish forever, but only do so after the company’s fundamentals indicate robust health. This has worked well in 2015, a year many said was the most challenging of their careers. We expect that since humans do not change much value investing will continue to deliver strong risk adjusted returns, and will remain as unpopular as ever.
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Wealth & Finance International | March 2016
Best for Global Multi-Asset Class Investment Strategies - Singapore
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Woodsford Capital Management Pte Ltd belongs to the big family of Woodsford Group. For the past five years, Woodsford Capital Management has specialised in providing high quality systematic asset allocation strategies for high net worth individuals.
Our asset allocation strategies, which vary from tactical to strategic, are all based on quantitative methodologies. It means that there is no human interference whatsoever. We invest our client’s capital across global markets, primarily using multi-factor models to allocate to DM and EM equity indices, bond indices, REITS and commodities. We believe that investors benefit most from asset allocation models that are systematic, low cost and focused on long term drivers of return.
In terms of the people we work with our client base typical include high net worth individuals from UK, Continental Europe and Asia. Our evidence based approach means that we design our investment strategies based on quality and reliable research published on reputable journals. We have a research approach called Woodsford Meta Analysis, in which we examine the relevant research available to give a full picture of what the research says about a typical subject.
In terms of the company’s philosophy, Dan Ariely a leading expert in the field of human behaviour, once famously said that “human beings are consistently irrational”. Thanks to the research in the past 40 years plenty of evidence showed the irrational and inconsistent side of human decision making. A proven systematic methodology is critical to help the investors defend against such heuristic traps and make optimal investment decisions.
For example, there is now sufficient empirical evidence to support the conclusion that humans are prone to common heuristics and biases. Notable examples include mental accounting, asymmetrical loss aversion, herding, and narrative fallacies. These and many more are the watchwords of behavioural finance, which has grown tremendously in importance over the past 20 years. At Woodsford, we are wholly aware of the frailty of the human decision-making. To protection against our heuristic biases we apply a systematic framework of rules from which our human emotions are absent.
We endeavour to put unemotional rationality at the heart of our decision-making. If a claim cannot be independently verified and replicated, we treat it with extreme caution. Years of observation, study and experience of financial markets have led us to the inescapable conclusion that an evidentialist approach is best-suited to defend investors against the two predominant threats to long-term returns: the predatory nature of the financial services industry; and an investor’s hard-wired behavioural biases.
A second example is that the majority of the research we have gone through suggests that fund cost is one of the most significant dragging factors in harming the long term return to the investors. Our response was to offer low cost strategy at a worldly competitive rate for the best interest of our investors.
By following an “evidentialist” approach, we define our jobs to tell the investors what they “NEED” instead of providing the investors with what they “WANT”. It means that sometimes we need to tell the inconvenient truth to our investors and remind them the potential mistakes that they are about to make without any compromise. Over the long run, however, wise investors would understand the value that we are providing, as goes a famous Chinese saying: Good medicines taste bitter.
We feel honoured to have been recognised for our efforts and winning this award will only spur us on to greater success. The three cardinal rules (Extremely low cost, Proven systematic approach, and Truly long term) all have their own foundations on the extensive research that we have reviewed (and in some cases conducted) from which we conclude that they are the most important principles that investors should follow to maximize risk-adjusted expected returns. Niels Bohr once said that “An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field“. Our hope is that the mistakes that we have made and the journeys that we have gone through benefit the investors through the sharing of our investment philosophies.
We have two strategies that complement one another. The first one, the Woodsford Foundation Strategy, is a long term, strategic asset allocation model based on the results of robust academic research, low cost implementation and diversification. The strategy invests only in ETF’s selected by our proprietary screening tool; it is designed to form the core of an investor’s long term portfolio and is offered only as a managed account.
Company: Woodsford Capital Management Pte Ltd Name: Zhijian Wu LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wuzhijian?trk=hp-identity-name Web Address: www.woodsfordcapital.com Address: 101 Cecil Street, #09-05, Singapore 069533 Telephone: +65-6224-2448
The second strategy, the Woodsford Asset Allocator Fund, is a multi-factor tactical allocation model, designed to exploit mispricing in global markets. The model primarily looks at valuation, liquidity, cyclical and momentum indicators to rank over 30 different equity, bond and commodity indices. Allocations are completely unconstrained and the portfolio is rebalanced on a monthly basis.
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FA Solutions offers investment & asset management software for capital markets. The FA platform includes modules like portfolio management, bookkeeping, investment analysis, reporting, model portfolio management and rebalancing, fee and cost calculations, CRM and online module for end users. FA platform can be used easily for example in Robo Advisory business. Nowadays in asset management the winner is the one who has the best technologies. Technology continues to play an important role in the investment process. We have a long and successful experience of deployment solutions for the financial industry as a service and on premises. With us our clients have ready-made components for integrations, connections and technical support. We are a market leader in private cloud solutions and we see a growing need for flexible, cloud based solutions, as it is becoming a standard for the financial industry. Basically we offer a modern investment management platform where our clients can manage their entire asset management business in one software, and reach better efficiency by automating processes and reports that take a lot of time when done manually. Portfolio management and investment accounting is the core of FA platform. Whether you’re an equity-based local advisor or a full-scale enterprise with global, multiasset-class portfolios with complex PE-instruments, we offer a solution that fully adapts your needs and processes. Moreover, we have experienced a strong competitive edge for our solution because of the flexibility and high capability to configure the platform for various needs in the capital markets. We have clients from buy and sell side of the market, from single family offices to banks. We are growing especially in segments where the financial regulation takes effect, not only in banks but also for example in pension funds. We at FA Solutions help our clients to concentrate on their core business and we release them from worrying the functionality and maintenance of the software. The latest release of the platform is always included in the monthly fee which means that the client has always the latest and best technologies in use. This makes our clients very agile in the capital markets. Furthermore, they can introduce new businesses or products without the complexity of software projects. Looking ahead to the future, we have product development ongoing all the time, and we just released FA AppStore to our platform. Currently, clients are familiar with all kinds of app stores from their personal life: mobile phones, computers and gaming. Now for the first time this app store functionality is brought to business softwares and to the financial industry. With FA AppStore users can easily install the kind of reports, processes and components they need for their use. With a click of a button, and with a familiar user experience from their everyday life. We are simplifying the complex world of investment management for our growing number of clients. Company: FA Solutions Name: Hannes Helenius Email: hannes.helenius@fasolutions.com Web Address: www.fasolutions.com Telephone: +358 20 7118 514
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Cyber Security Risks to Fund Managers Corix Partners is a UK based boutique management consultancy firm focused on assisting CIOs and other C-level executives in resolving cyber security strategy, organisation & governance challenges.
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As Transformation experts with over 20 years of experience in the field, we help our clients develop strong company-wide Information security practices that deliver real and lasting value. We believe that many organisations struggle with maturity problems around cyber security and that creating an effective practice stems from driving cultural and governance changes across the firm and requires long-term actions across numerous levels within the enterprise and relentless drive to succeed. Corix Partners was established 2011 and we have since worked with a number of clients across industry sectors, mainly in finance but also in the logistics and leisure sectors. We are execution and transformation experts by trade and we pride ourselves in listening to our clients and helping them succeed at protecting their business better. Cyber security threats are getting more and more sophisticated and the frequency of cyber-attacks has increased tremendously over the past decade. But the factor that has changed most recently is the amount of media, political and regulatory scrutiny on the matter. A poorly handled relatively minor data breach can now have a massive reputational impact and result in significant loss of business. The UK TalkTalk incident in October 2015 is to some extent a good example of that. It is also key to realise that the traditional “bricks and mortar” perimeter of the enterprise has been long gone. Over the past decade, massive chunks of the IT estate have moved to the cloud and many aspects of business processes have been outsourced. A data breach affecting one of those service providers could also affect your clients and regulators are likely to take the view that it remains your responsibility as fund managers to ensure that your clients’ data is well protected wherever it may be. Cyber threats have a global reach and target all industry sectors. But the wealth management industry makes a particularly attractive target because it handles large amounts of capital associated with high profile wealthy clients, and is also home of a large number of relatively-small firms that maybe have not had information security at the top of their agenda for quite some time, and as a result many might have fallen behind in terms of maturity. In regards to what kind of advice we can give fund managers and investors on cyber security in a digital world, multi factor authentication on specific transactions is a key good practice to limit the risk around online transactions. Today, most people carry a number of digital devices with them all the time, and those can be used for extra authentication to make the customer experience feel more natural. For example, some credit card issuers use a one-time code sent by SMS text message to a registered mobile phone number to validate transactions that are deemed unusual. This is a direction the wealth management industry could look into. The perception of customers is changing around those types of measures and it should not be assumed that they just wouldn’t tolerate them. This shift is driven by high profile data breaches and also by changes across society at large, which is becoming more and more digitally-savvy. The key thing to bear in mind around cyber security is that cyber threats have not appeared overnight. In fact, they have been evolving for the best part of the last fifteen years and therefore there is a vast body of good practice that will go a long way to protect your business. But those good practices have to be in place, both within your environment and within the environment of your service providers.
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Key examples of such good practices – in addition to the one mentioned before around multi factor authentication – involve the timely deployment of security patches, the regular security testing of key systems, limiting the usage of generic accounts or ensuring that production data is anonymised before being used in development environments. Cutting corners around those on grounds of costs or convenience simply creates opportunities that cyber threats can target. This is increasingly becoming a matter of mindset, culture and governance. Sadly, we live in a world where prioritising convenience ahead of security can cost you more than you think. And cyber insurance should not be seen as a silver bullet, as insurers are likely to reject claims where basic controls are not demonstrably in place. Supporting victims of cyber-attacks is an area we thrive in. We work with our clients to help them understand the real level of cyber security maturity at which they are at. When it is not driven by an incident or a near-miss, it is often driven by the arrival of a new senior executive at CIO level or above. Cyber security problems are frequently rooted in decades of under investment or adverse prioritisation. It is key to work with all players within IT and elsewhere in the business and across the firm to understand exactly what needs to be done to protect the company at all levels. We do not go into this with a fixed checklist or an IT agenda. We follow our own cyber security assessment framework and focus on listening to the specifics of each client and to their history with Information Security. We look at the specifics of their business and its true geographical and Internet footprint to assess the real cyber threats they face. We focus the assessment around the reality of each client to engineer acceptance of the assessment results and a true call for action. Having established their real cyber security maturity posture, we generally help our clients build a transformation roadmap to address any shortcomings. For us, this is always about engineering lasting change, not just putting “ticks in boxes”. Very often, this will go a long way beyond mere IT matters and will require a true cyber security operating model across the firm. It is also key to look at transformation with the right timeframes in mind. Changing mind-sets around cyber security takes time and it is almost always a mid to long-term journey. Finally, once the transformation roadmap is articulated into work streams and projects, we have often been retained by clients to either take in charge some specific aspects of the work, or coordinate delivery across all activities of the cyber roadmap. In our opinion, 2016 will see the continuation of the trends we have seen over the past few years around cyber security. Data breaches will continue to happen and attract wider media coverage. This will continue to push the topic up the list on board’s agenda. The key is for boards to stop treating the problem as a mere technical problem, stop looking for tactical silver bullets that simply don’t exist and face the reality in terms of necessary cultural and governance changes around security and across the firm. Company: Corix Partners Name: JC Gaillard Email: jcgaillard@corixpartners.com Web Address: www.corixpartners.com Telephone: 07733 001 530
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2016 Asia Pacific Legal Guide YOU ME Patent & Law Firm was established in 1981 and is now currently one of the largest IP firms in Korea with over 34 partners, 54 associates, and 170 engineers and administrative staff. We spoke to David Hunjoon Kim, Partner at YOU ME, to find out more about their firm, and how they have grown to become leaders in their industry.
At our firm, we cover the broad areas of patents, trademarks, licensing, and litigation. Within these fields, we provide ancillary specialist expertise, such as advanced IP searches, evaluations of technology, and portfolio management. All of these services combined allow us to meet our clients’ demands with respect to protecting their IP both domestically and abroad. As such, our IP protection capabilities cover over 50 patent jurisdictions and 160 for trademarks.
protect their IP. Due to this nurturing environment, our retention rates are consistently high. In terms of our clients, our domestic and international clients range from corporations, research and development institutions, academics, and individuals. As the vast majority of our professionals are multilingual, we are able to communicate with our clients in Korean, English, Japanese, and Chinese, which makes it easier for our clients to reach out to us. We have found that we have been able to expand our clientele through referrals, legal service bids, government contracts, advertisements, etc.
Since the inception of our firm 34 years ago, we have grown to become one of the leading IP firms in Korea. We take pride in this achievement and continue to reflect the high standards demanded by our clients into our work. By establishing innovative partnerships internally and externally, we are able to provide efficient and effective IP services, and more importantly, we continue to push our boundaries so that we can adjust our expertise and services with the changing times.
As for my personal background, I am an attorney-at-law with a background in telecommunications and electrical engineering. I represent clients by providing them with legal advice on infringement and enforcement matters, as well as undertaking legal work regarding licensing and litigation. Due to the growing IP needs of our clients, YOU ME’s legal services have increased over the past few years, and to meet this increasing demand, we have a range of attorneys-at-law with technical backgrounds from the US and Korea who work closely alongside our IP attorneys. This unique aspect of our services reassures our clients and means we can provide them with a vast spectrum of one-stop services.
We believe that there are a number reasons behind our position as leaders in our industry. Our main strengths currently lie in patent and trademark prosecution work, and we are repeatedly recognised as one of the leading firms for prosecution in Korea by reputable IP publishing companies. In total, we file and prosecute more than 4,000 patent and 2,000 trademark applications annually before the Korean Intellectual Property Office for both domestic and international clients. Moreover, we also manage more than 3,000 corresponding patent and 1,000 trademark applications entrusted to overseas associates.
Looking back on 2015, YOU ME Patent & Law Firm had a tremendous year. During this time, our firm grew steadily from 7 to 10%, and for 2016, we plan to further diversify our services to cater for the international and domestic markets. In addition, we plan to increase our involvement and representation with respect to the Chinese market and Chinese companies.
Furthermore, we have one of the largest groupings of IP professionals in the country, all of whom provide services in IP filing, prosecution, litigation, due diligence, licensing, IP search and valuation, alternate dispute resolution, etc. Not only are they highly educated, but they also have diverse backgrounds, both in terms of technical expertise and international experience. As we believe our professionals are our greatest assets, we try to encourage their development by providing them with new educational experiences (i.e., sending attorneys to the US and China) and organising IP seminars for them on a regular basis. As such, we are confident that when approached by new clients or working with existing ones, our professionals can always provide them with friendly up-to-date legal information and the most cost-effective strategies to
Company: YOU ME Patent & Law Firm Name: David Hunjoon Kim, Attorney-at-Law Email: email@youme.com Web Address: www.youme.com Address: Seolim Building, 115 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul 06134, Korea Telephone: +82-2-3458-0101
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CEO of the Month USA
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Ocean Pacific Seafood Group (OPSG) develops and produces a range of seafood products for use in Japanese cookery, which are distributed throughout the United States. We profile the firm’s CEO, John Cai, and explore the role he plays in the success of this dynamic and growing firm.
OPSG imports, exports, distributes and manufactures the top brands for both retailer and foodservice customers. The firm’s dedicated team is focused on providing their customers with the best quality aquatic foods. As such the firm’s culture revolves around quality, and this is incorporated into the firm’s everyday work in the seafood distribution industry. CEO John Cai explains the firm’s overall goals and visions, and the techniques it employs in order to reach these. “Since established, our company has played an important role in processing and selling of roasted eel products that are necessary for Japanese restaurants. We have strongly committed ourselves towards this end. “As Japanese culinary business grows in popularity in the USA, the carting culture has witnessed notable changes to increasingly diversified customer demands. In line with these new characteristics, our company has actively engaged the market, importing from Japan, China and many parts of the Southeast Asia. Our well-established supply chain earning us strong reputation in the global Japanese cuisine community. Indeed, it is our privilege to receive this recognition. “Meanwhile, we also realize it is essential for us to pursue greater social responsibility. Regarding our quality assurance system, our company has always focused on guaranteeing the exceptional quality, safety and secure of our products. All our products have passed the FDA’s examination. We will continue to actively devote ourselves toward creating a new generation of carting culture. We sincerely hope that we can receive constant support and guidance from our customers. “In addition, Ocean Pacific Seafood Group works harder than any other retailer to source seafood from responsibly managed fish farms and abundant, well-managed wild-capture fisheries. This means that we seek fisheries that keep fish populations abundant, rather allowing overfishing to occur. It also means that in the process of fishing or farming, impacts on the ecosystem are minimized. We’re committed to working towards sourcing all of our seafood from well-managed farms and fisheries.” The firm operates a range of brands including Primo, Ocean Crown and Evergreen, all of which are dedicated to providing quality, sustainable seafood to retailers and wholesale suppliers throughout America. Company: Ocean Pacific Seafood Group Address: 3325 Prince Street, Flushing, NY 11354 Email: info@opsg.us Website: http://www.opsg.us/ Tel: 718-272-1168 Fax: 718-762-2800
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Ones to Watch in Hedge Funds 2016 VFS is the fund administration arm of the Bank of Valletta Group. The company’s core activity is the provision of a full suite of fund administration services to collective investment schemes, spanning across all fund typologies, following very diverse investment strategies.
We handle redomiciliations of investment schemes from offshore domiciles to Malta, passporting of UCITS funds to various EU markets, as well as cross border mergers for UCITS funds merging into Malta based funds.
including regulatory reporting for AIFMD, CRS and FATCA, support to fund managers by way of fact sheets, monthly management accounts and on-going regulatory reporting, as well as support from the parent company, Bank of Valletta, in terms of custodyship, brokerage and banking services including opening of bank accounts, as well as hedging arrangements.
Malta’s fund industry was largely created on the strength of the hedge funds already established locally; with this alternative domicile being recognised to host an ideal regulatory infrastructure that can cater for the requirements of the sector.
Adopting such a holistic approach ensures that our client base is assured of all forms of administrative and related support, thereby facilitating fund managers to focus their attention on their own internal core competences.
Being the local market leader in fund administration, in terms of market share has been key in providing its services to this market segment. VFS’ commitment has in fact been by way of its ongoing business promotion initiatives in the company’s core markets, targeting the hedge fund and alternative space.
The company’s mantra is to deliver a comprehensive suite of services to asset managers in a professional, timely and accurate manner that addresses their diverse and growing demands. The philosophy permeating the psyche of the company is based on building long-lasting relationships with clients, underpinned by reciprocal trust, commitment and engagement.
Our commitment is further evidenced by the diverse hedge fund strategies serviced by the company, the provision of additional services required as well as assisting fund promoters choose the best suited hedge fund framework.
VFS has over the years been awarded by multiple specialist magazines as the Best Administrator in Malta, no doubt an endorsement by our client base who contributed to this. It must also be stated that business generated through word-of-mouth recommendations by existing clients is another major contributor to the company’s business growth.
In effect, Malta’s regulatory framework for hedge funds is not a onesize-fits-all model, but is multi-layered catering for the diverse risk profiles of investors, as well as addressing the needs arising from the investment managers’ diverse strategies.
VFS recognises its employee’s as the company’s main asset. VFS therefore invests heavily and continually in its staff development, with a view to improve their skill-sets, knowledge and competencies, considered fundamental to offer a qualitative service that meets clients’ expectionations.
Apart from the provision of mainstream fund adminitration services, VFS as Malta’s largest fund administrator strives to be ahead of the curve in terms of the dynamic nature of the market, growing sophistication of investors, evolving regulatory frameworks, challenges faced by fund managers and their ensuing demand.
Name: Joseph Camilleri Email: jcamilleri.vfs@bov.com Web Address: www.vfs.com.mt Address: TG Complex, Suite 2, Level 3, Triq il-Birrerija, l-Imriehel Birkirkara BKR 3000 - Malta. Telephone: (356) 2275 5599
The company’s one-stop solution approach for structuring funds, redomiciliations, cross-border mergers and passporting, alongside the full suite of traditional fund administration services ensures the ease of setting up and running a fund in Malta. VFS’ commitment to further support new start-ups and the existing client base is also manifested through the provision of ancillary services,
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Real Estate Fund Manager of the Year - Thailand - 2015
GCP Hospitality establishes risk-management strategies based on global and local risk intelligence data and offer tailor made solutions that take into consideration our investors objectives. The firm extends its expertise worldwide through its regional offices in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Yangon, Beijing and San Francisco. In addition, the firm manages its own brand, Hotels G with properties in San Francisco, Bangkok, Pattaya, Hong Kong and opening in the next 14 months in Macau, Singapore, Shenzhen, Beijing, Yangon, and Suzhou. Our vast hotel portfolio comprises the iconic Strand Hotel in Yangon and a luxury cruise liner, The Strand Cruise in Myanmar. With regards to Asset Management, its properties include well-known hotels such as InterContinental Hong Kong, Hyatt Regency Da Nang, and Hyatt Regency Osaka. This vast global reach helps the company to offer competitive returns to investors. The main focus is to challenge daily the performance of each asset in order for it to perform at its optimum while keeping a constant and transparent dialogue with investors. Keeping tight relations with brokers and partners in the industry is essential to entice off market deals. We have a very pragmatic and professional approach for which we buy according to some principles including a thorough understanding of the market, where we would purchase the right product at the right price. This is the reason why GCPH has 40 associates among which a great number of senior executive and experts in various fields.
GCP Hospitality is the operating hospitality platform of Gaw Capital Partners providing hotel management, asset management, business development and senior asset management of the highest standard. Christophe Vielle, CEO, talks us through the firm and its vast global reach.
This approach has produced strong returns and meant that, for the 7th consecutive year, GCP Hospitality has increased considerably its bottom line. This is also partially due to the right management of expenses and hiring the right amount of associates as per the expansion. Moving forward, the challenges GCP Hospitality needs to face include maintaining the current strong records. Being more recognized in the region, the group has now access to more deals leading to an increase in opportunities; however these offers need to be studied as much in depth as in the early days of the company. However, the firm also has a number of exciting plans for the future which will provide us with a wealth of opportunities. We will strive at developing a portfolio with double digit IRR assets by being creative in its acquisitions, business turnarounds and re-positioning. Ultimately GCP Hospitality strives to deliver the best in a fast pace. We are pro-active and reactive, our knowledge and experience in the industry, our aptitude to adapt and change our strategy quickly when necessary are our main force, and it is this that has helped our firm to achieve our current level of success. In the future we hope to build upon this and achieve greater returns. There are already several hotels in the pipeline for later in 2016 and we are definitely aiming at continuing on our successful path while creating strong relations with owners and investors alike. GCP Hospitality is an affiliate and asset management arm of Gaw Capital Partners, an uniquely positioned real estate private equity fund management company with more than USD $12 billion asset under management globally Company: GCP Hospitality Name: Christophe Vielle Email: mkg@gcphospitality.com Web Address: www.gcphospitality.com 49
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Private Equity Fund Manager of the Year - UK At Privet Capital we look to do special situations investing which involves unusual deals where there are issues within the business or the transaction which makes it more challenging for strategic investors or mainstream private equity firms.
Before Privet I was at Deloitte for nine years doing insolvency and restructuring, then 10 years at 3i. This combination of investing and operational experience lead me to set up Privet in 2008.
In terms of technological developments they seem to be occurring faster and faster. I’ve been fascinated by the recent headlines around robots taking people’s jobs. I think it is over-played, but there is a real change we will need to adapt to, albeit gradually. It is our hope this will continue to evolve in a positive way and provide an opportunity to create something new or a new way of looking at something.
Last year was a really positive one for us with two very interesting investments, both in the manufacturing sector which we know well. Both were strong businesses but with challenges in strategic focus and management. Both also had historic pension problems.
Within the businesses we’ve invested in, Aeromet for example as a small UK manufacturing business has developed a fantastic new alloy technology which will effectively pave the way for our growth over the next few years. Similarly with the defence optical products business we have, new product development is key to keeping our customers engaged. Technology can be quite risky, not everything will work, risks and opportunities need to be carefully considered. If you don’t keep track of technology you will, though, be left behind.
These are just the sorts of things we look for. We like to get stuck in to the operational detail of businesses – our style is very hands on. That’s a bit of a cliché these days but, as one investor said to me the other day, there aren’t many PE firms that really do it – we do, with the Privet team spending 2-3 days per week with our businesses in the early days. Breaking down a business into its core components and assessing what they do well and what they could improve on is key. Bringing the team and the overall business together to identify solutions to any problems is vital. Although our management style is quite challenging it’s also very transparent. In order to understand how to make businesses better we can ask hard questions but in a sense there are no right answers as such, which seems to be quite a refreshing approach for many management teams!
We were please to get this award - it is always nice to get some recognition for some of the good stuff we do. At present this is a very good place to be. Going forward, we are looking to identify similarly interesting businesses which will enable us to be very much ‘hands on’. Taking a business to a completely different level where we can make a difference is what we are all about. Buying a business which already has steady growth isn’t for us, we are looking to apply our skills and experience to more challenging situations.
It has been interesting watching the private equity market continue to evolve over the last few years as the players move around in a fairly Darwinian way. Investors are now looking for more clear value propositions rather than just buying a business and making money through financial engineering. In a very competitive market you need to be seen doing something different, in a sense going back to private equity roots can help you stand out from the crowd as you look to make good money by genuinely improving businesses.
Company: Privet Capital LLP Name: Stephen Keating Email: sk@privetcapital.co.uk Web Address: www.privetcapital.co.uk Address: 4 Duke Street Mansions, 70 Duke Street, London, W1K 6JX Telephone: +44 20 719 33382
The credit market has also been interesting, with a real polarisation in availability. Really good businesses can get great gearing, and the bottom end has a broader range of specialists now. But the mediocre businesses struggle.
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CEO of the Month Birtenshaw is a non-profit company and registered charity which offers a wide variety of services to support children and young people with various types of physical and learning disability. We speak to the firm’s CEO David Reid, who talks us through the firm’s vast service offering and the trends in public funding for special needs children’s services currently. Company: Birtenshaw Address: Darwen Road, Bolton, BL7 9AB Phone: 01204 304 230 Website: www.birtenshaw.org.uk
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Birtenshaw was established in the 1950s by a group of parents as a special school for young children with cerebral palsy. Today our firm provides a unique range of services for children and adults, with learning disability including Autism Spectrum Conditions and/or significant physical disability, including complex health needs. The firm run a wide range of facilities as well as providing a range of therapeutic health and wellbeing services. Although Birtenshaw is positioned within the not for profit sector, I take the view that we should operate as a social business, but with a clear view to generate ‘profit for purpose’ so that we can re-invest and continue to expand the range and diversity of our services. We have been very successful at that over the last few years, seeing a 45% growth in the year to 31 March 2015 and a predicated further growth of 20% to 31 March 2016. Birtenshaw’s vision is “brightening lives, building futures” for people with a physical or learning disability and is based on the notion of ‘ordinary life principles’. In order to achieve this the firm ensures that the children and young people it supports have the same learning and social opportunities as other children. My own personal background is in the public sector, and overall I have over 28 years’ experience working in social care. From a young age I have always wanted to work with disabled children, as several of the younger members of my own family are disabled, and therefore I knew from early on that I wanted to work helping and supporting children with special education needs and disability and their families. I joined Birtenshaw in 2006 after making the decision to move from the public sector to the so called ‘not for profit’ sector. At the time I noticed a growing trend for local authorities and councils to have their funding restricted, and I wanted to move into a sector where I could have more control over the allocation of resources and funding. Since my arrival at Birtenshaw I have worked hard to grow the firm and expand our service offering so that we can meet the ever increasing needs of young people and children in the Greater Manchester area with special needs. Recent developments include a special school which was established three years ago with the aim to provide quality education services which are cost effective and cater to children and young people at every level of disability. The school provides the ideal physical environment for the specialist learning needs of its pupils. With a specially designed new building which was opened in 2012, which features purpose-built facilities, the school is able to provide a spacious, calm and safe environment in which young people can thrive. Our facilities fully support the creative learning curriculum and “Total Communication” approach to this specialised area of education. Each of the classrooms are equipped with all of the state-of-the-art education technology such as touch screens and iPads which you would expect to find in any modern school. In addition, the school has a range of specialist facilities which underpin its special education needs functions by working with sensory experiences (sight, sound, touch, smell and so on) to develop senses, co-ordination and communication for each pupil, promoting interaction, concentration, calmness and confidence. These facilities include a sensory integration room; a multisensory dark room; on-site hydrotherapy pool with multisensory sound and light system as well as a soft play area. The school’s multisensory input is supported by its fulltime occupational therapist who completes a detailed sensory profile for individual pupils, producing a ‘sensory diet’ for the school’s professionally trained staff to follow.
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Outside of the classroom, the school has also provided safe enclosed outdoor play spaces and a horticultural garden, and the school is currently developing a sensory garden, to allow pupils the chance to learn in their own way outside of the classroom. These facilities are designed to fully support our holistic approach to providing the best education opportunities for pupils’ complex learning needs, helping them to fulfil their true potential. We feel this aim is being achieved, as although we are currently awaiting an inspection by Ofsted, we have commissioned ‘mock’ inspections by a number of independent firms who have all recommended that our school should be rated Outstanding. In addition, many of our care facilities, which make up the majority of our service offering, have been rated Outstanding by inspectors. Although there is nothing unique in offering education or care services to disabled children and young adults, Birtenshaw is differentiated from its competitors because of the high quality of care, cost effective approach and versatile service offering. Over recent years we have noticed that local councils and authorities are purchasing our services more often, because as I predicted efficiency targets are a prevailing trend in the special needs and disability sector, and many public sector organisations have seen their funding significantly reduced over the past few years and their capacity to provide services themselves has decreased accordingly, leading councils to outsource to firms such as ours. Another key trend which is putting a strain on public sector resources is the increasing number of people being diagnosed with autistic spectrum conditions. Advancement in medical services and knowledge has helped medical professionals to diagnose the condition more easily. Whilst I believe that medical advancement has a part to play in this, I also believe that there are other, as yet unproven, reasons for this significant increase. Moving forward I have a number of growth strategies to help the firm build upon its current level of success and expand into new sectors, allowing us to help more people with special education needs and disability. When we built our school three years ago we drastically underestimated the demand for our services, and we are now looking into a number of expansion plans, including redeveloping our previous site into new classrooms, as well as applying to increase the number of spaces at our current site. We are also looking to open a number of new children’s homes, and have recently opened short break (formally called respite) homes for young children and young adults with special needs, which are designed to provide an enjoyable experience for the child and a break for their carers. Although the school is an exciting new venture for Birtenshaw, education services (including a special Further Education college) make up approximately 40% of Birtenshaw’s business: the majority is care and allied heath professional support. In the longer term we are keen to expand geographically. Our services are currently based exclusively in the Greater Manchester area, but we are looking to expand into Merseyside in the near future, with a view to eventually operating on a national scale. Ultimately we anticipate that the number, diversity and age range of the people we support will continue to grow over the coming years, and we are keen to ensure that we meet this need and can provide quality, cost effective education and care services that meets the needs of even those who require the highest level of support.
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Copperstone Capital is an investment management firm founded in 2009 with offices in Moscow, Russia and London, United Kingdom. We manage wealth for high net worth individuals and institutions through various hedge fund strategies. 16 Sadovnicheskaya Street, Moscow, 115035, Russia T +7 495 988 0010 F +7 495 951 1410 www.copperstonecapital.com
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