Author: Ashton Wenborn

Emre Hatem on sustainability | Garanti Bank | Video

Posted on by Ashton Wenborn

Established in 1946, Garanti Bank is Turkey’s second largest private bank with consolidated assets exceeding $104bn as of March 2013. Discussing their commitment to sustainability is Emre Hatem, Senior Vice President of Project and Acquisition Finance and the Sustainability Team.

World Finance: Garanti Bank’s approach to sustainability is quite unique, what have you outlined as the key areas of focus and how are you managing these areas?

Emre Hatem: Well under our sustainability strategy, we focus on a variety of key points. We can group them at five headlines, which are; customers, human resources, corporate social responsibility, corporate governance, and environment. Just to give some examples regarding customers, we have provided a significant support to women entrepreneurs we have provided $250mn of financing to them, and also regarding the SMEs we are doing periodical meetings with them, which we call Garanti Anatolian meetings, we reached 25,000 up to now. Regarding the environment, we have established a very detailed environmental management system, which is aiming to decrease our energy usage and to reduce our carbon footprint, and we have been awarded as the carbon performance leader in Turkey.

World Finance: Tell us about your training and engagement programs

We are working hard to increase our engagement programs with respect to our external stakeholders

Emre Hatem: Last year we have started a training program, an online training program, that has been delivered to 17,000 people in the bank. We also started a tailor-made training program with respect to environmental and social risk assessment, carbon markets, climate change, that training program has been delivered to various departments of the bank. On the other hand, we are working hard to increase our engagement programs with respect to our external stakeholders. Being a member to UNEP-FI, UN Global Compact, WWF, and Business Counsel for Sustainable Development, we are actively supporting their seminars, conferences and events in Turkey. For example, last year we sponsored a very important training program, an environmental and social risk assessment program in Turkey, and also we have sponsored the first sustainable finance forum in Turkey. We think that those engagement and training programs will play a key role in increasing awareness of our stakeholders.

World Finance: And how are the sustainability drives that you mentioned integrated into the bank’s day-to-day operations?

Our employees have a very positive approach towards sustainability

Emre Hatem: Most importantly, our senior management provides a solid ground in implementation and successful realisation of sustainability related activities. On the other hand, our efficient organisational structure enables an alignment within the bank. Certainly I can say that our employees have a very positive approach towards sustainability. Not only are they very sensitive about those issues, but also they contribute to the projects that they are working in. If you just have the organisational structure, employee commitment, and also senior management support, I think that at the end of the day we will achieve greater results.

World Finance: Garanti also has close links with renewable energy projects in Turkey, tell us about your involvement.

Emre Hatem: As part of our sustainability development policies, we support renewable projects to a great extent. Up to now, we have provided $3bn of financing to renewable energy projects. Once all of them are operational, the annual CO2 emission reduction will be 6mn tonnes, it’s a huge amount of reduction. We especially support wind projects; wind projects not only reduce the CO2 emissions, but also they reduce our country’s current account deficit, that is why they are also contributing from an economic sustainability perspective. Up to now we have financed 35 wind projects, we have provided $1.5bn of financing to them, and our market share in the local market amount to Turkish banks is 50 percent. Our aim is to continue our support to renewable energy projects, with a view of contributing to climate change.

World Finance: Tell us about the environmental and social risk assessments that you undertake in your lending activities

Emre Hatem: Well we established our own environmental and social risk assessment procedures, with the help of an internationally recognised company in 2011. Environmental and social policies in the bank consist of several steps; firstly we start with an exclusion list, this list consists of the projects or the activities that we don’t finance at all.

Secondly what we do is we check whether the project is in line with the ENS policies, and the sectoral principles, these are technical criteria. Then according to the investment amount and the scope of the project, then we make a rating analysis, we need to make sure that all the impacts are properly analysed, all the impacts are reduced to acceptable levels with certain precautions and actions, all the precautions and actions are written in an ESMP, in an action plan, and also we need to make sure that they are monitored closely during the construction and production period by our advisors. With the implementation of this system, we achieved significant progress towards compliance with the principles.

World Finance: Finally, what challenges has Garanti faced in the banking industry and what opportunities have you been able to take advantage of?

Emre Hatem: I will touch on two challenges and two benefits. The first challenge we faced was to increase the awareness of the employees and of the customers, because it’s a long term and a dynamic process. Secondly, convincing the borrowers, the project owners, to apply more stringent environmental standards was a challenge in front of us in a very competitive environment. Coming to the opportunities, by decreasing our energy usage we have benefitted from lower energy bills, that was an economic benefit. And the second opportunity in front of us is the reputational benefit of the bank, by applying such very detailed sustainability policies.

World Finance: Emre, thank you

Emre Hatem: Thank you very much

Edgardo Cantu Delgado | Vector Casa de Bolsa | Video

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Vector Casa de Bolsa is the largest independent securities broker-dealer in Mexico. The business has a huge network of advisors, assisting more than 32,000 clients, and has established operations around the world. President and CEO Edgardo Cantu Delgado talks more about the company, and the wider economic conditions in Mexico.

World Finance: First tell us more about Vector, how would you define your operation?

Edgardo Cantu Delgado: Vector is a Mexican securities broker dealer, specialised in customer relationships. Our main focus is on providing investment alternatives for high net-worth individuals, also to provide investment process services to institutional investors as well as corporations. Vector also, because of the relationship we have with high net-worth individuals, we are very active in merger and acquisition business. We also provide advisory services for clients for finance and equity activities.

“The client relationship is our main differentiation element”

World Finance: And what makes you different from your competitors?

Edgardo Cantu Delgado:I would say that the client relationship and this specialisation are our main differentiation elements. In the kind of business we are, as you know the market moves very fast and in a very unpredictable way, then you need an organisation that is close enough to give you advice and to take advantage of the opportunities, that’s exactly what Vector offers. There’s a basic principle in our operations, that is, to be small enough to keep our real personal relationship with the client, and to be big enough to offer a wide spectrum of investment alternatives to our clients. That’s exactly what Vector offers.

World Finance: I mentioned that you’ve expanded round the world, how wide is your reach today?

Edgardo Cantu Delgado: The original idea of going international started when we established a new company, a broker-dealer company in the United States, with the idea to offer our clients in Mexico the alternative of investing internationally, opening accounts in the US. Later on in 2008, in a very difficult year, you remember this was the year that the financial crisis started, but we always believe that during a crisis there are opportunities and this is a good example of it, we decided to continue this expansion to some other countries in Latin America. The first step was to open some offices in the United States in cities like Miami, New York, or Houston, and later we started opening offices in different countries, today we have offices in Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. More recently, we opened an office in Singapore, because we believe we can establish a link between the institutional investors in the South East Asia region and Latin America. We also opened an office in Geneva in Switzerland, because again, what we want to offer our clients is different platforms to invest, one locally, one in the United States, and another in Europe or, why not, in Asia. In this way now Vector is the only Latin American financial company that has clients in more than 20 countries.

“Mexico is in very good shape financially speaking”

World Finance: Despite this expansion you’re still very much a Mexican company, tell us what you think of the country’s economy right now

Edgardo Cantu Delgado: Mexico is in very good shape financially speaking, Mexico has a very solid and sound condition. This is a combination of correct fiscal and monetary policies. Mexico has some other very attractive characteristics, like at the end, Mexico is still a very young country, we have a young and growing population. Mexico is growing if you compare what is happening with some other countries in Europe or the US, Mexico among the emerging markets is one of the countries that is growing better and we expect that in the next year we can improve the way Mexico is growing. But on the other hand, we also have some challenges, and we believe that there are some reforms needed in order that the favourable conditions that we have in the macro-economics could be transferred to the micro part of the economy.

“This is a very good time to invest in Mexico”

World Finance: Now some economic analysts are saying that Mexico is in fashion now to invest in, what’s your view on this?

Edgardo Cantu Delgado: That’s true. The combination of some elements like public and private financial conditions, the deficit in Mexico is very low, we also have a very diversified and open economy, Mexico has established trade agreements with many countries since maybe 20 years ago, and Mexico also establishes new ways to grow. With the new administration, with President Pena Nieto, they achieved an agreement, a very important political agreement among the three main parties, through this agreement they will be looking to establish new reforms in strategic sectors, like education, energy etcetera. With these reforms, we expect that the positive effect on the economy could be very attractive, with potential growth, with better education, with less informal employment, and more competitiveness. In summary I could say Nick that this is a very good time to invest in Mexico, as well as in some other countries in Latin America, and I could say that Vector is the best option for global investors to look for investment opportunities in this attractive region of the world.

World Finance: Edgardo, thank you.

Edgardo Cantu Delgado: Nick, thank you very much for this opportunity.

Orlando Cabrales Segovia | Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos | Video

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Colombia’s Agencia Nacional de Hidrocarburos was formed in 2003 in response to the need for a separate regulatory and administrative body. Talking to World Finance about Colombia’s hydrocarbons Industry is Vice Minister of Mines and Energy, Orlando Cabrales Segovia.

World Finance: Colombia’s hydrocarbon sector has seen some impressive changes over the last decade, tell us more about these developments

Orlando Cabrales Segovia: Yes, I mean really the Colombian energy sector has experienced a huge transformation over the last 10 years. We have almost doubled our crude production over the last seven years, we are producing over 1million barrels of oil per day. In terms of exploration, we have been increasing our exploration indicators, last year we achieved a record figure in the country 131 exploratory wells were drilled last year. It is a significant transformation that we have experienced over the last ten years.

“One of the key challenges for Colombia is increasing our R/P ratio”

World Finance: So what is the importance of the reserves/production factor in the development of the sector?

Orlando Cabrales Segovia: Well one of the key challenges for Colombia going forward is increasing our R/P ratio, reserves/production ratio, today our ratio is 7 years which is not much. We have also been increasing our reserve numbers, last year we ended up with almost 2.4 billion barrels of crude oil, which is not much, so our main challenge remains to increase the incorporation of our reserves, and to increase that r/p ratio.

World Finance: Tell us more about the reserves that you currently have, and the technology you are using to track these reserves

Orlando Cabrales Segovia: Well the incorporation of reserves that we have been having over the last years comes mainly from increasing the reoccurring factor of our existing fields. Today on average the reoccurring factor in Colombia is about 18-19 percent, so we have planned to increase that number by 10 percent over the following 20 years. By doing that we can increase, we can add up 3 billion barrels of oil reserves. That is number one. Number two is to open up new frontiers, new exploration frontiers. I’m talking about unconventionals, CBM, coal bed methane, shale gas, tight oil, as well as the off-shore, the caribbean off-shore. And I would say the third one is by continuing doing what we have done over the last years. We have very good potential in the Llanos Basin on the Caguán- Putumayo basin, so we are expecting to see more results over the following years in this area.

“We are expecting an investment of about $5bn to increase our transportation capacity”

World Finance: Now production has grown faster than your transportation capabilities, so what are you doing to address this?

Orlando Cabrales Segovia: That is correct. Our production grew, as I said, much faster than our transportation capacity. We are expecting an investment of about $5bn over the following years to increase our transportation capacity. There is one project which is going to add up 120,000 barrels per day, which is phase number one of the bicentenario pipeline. We have a project which is in the early stages, very early stages, which is to build a facility pipeline to the Pacific. The vast majority of our transportation capability goes to the Caribbean, to the Atlantic, and we believe it makes all sense to have a transportation capacity to the Pacific. In principal, that would be a project of 250, 000 barrels per day, but as I said, it is in the early stages.

World Finance: Aside from conventional extraction, how are you turning towards newer reservoirs such as shale oil and gas?

Orlando Cabrales Segovia: Well last year we set up a new fiscal and contractual framework to attract investment into the unconventionals. We took several measures; the first one our Colombian congress approved a 40 percent discount of the existing royalty rates, so that’s number one. Number two, we extended the development period for companies to develop these resources, from 24 years up to 30 years. We also increased the trigger in our windfall profit provision to 50 dollars per barrel, up to 81 dollars per barrel, so overall we believe and we have seen that the measures have been well received by the investors community, and we are expecting to have a significant investment in the unconventionals in the following years.

“The measures have been well received by the investors community”

World Finance: And finally, what are some of the challenges that Colombia’s hydrocarbons may face in the future?

Orlando Cabrales Segovia: As we mentioned, the increasing the r/p ratio is one of the challenges, to keep the good momentum we have achieved by having more exploration activity, by keeping at least the production levels we are having, to further incentivise exploration in gas, in gas reservoirs. We also have a challenge of improving the time we are taking to grant environmental licenses to the activities, to the exploration and production activities in the country, so those I would say are the main challenges that we are having in Colombia.

World Finance: Orlando, thank you.

Orlando Cabrales Segovia: Thank you Nick, thank you for having me.

Mohammad Attiya on his ‘app store model’ | TradeNet

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We’re all familiar with buying apps for mobile devices- simple, cheap bolt-ons that make our lives easier. But Mohammad Attiya, President of TradeNet, has a vision of an app store model for online retail brokers

World Finance: First introduce us to TradeNet, what do you do?

Mohammad Attiya: At TradeNet we make software for retail brokers, and we are a full-fledged equity platform for emerging markets.

“It’s about extending the functionality of whatever product you’re offering”

World Finance: Fill us in on this ‘app store model’ for online retail brokers

Mohammad Attiya: The app store model is something that we did not invent, we actually copied from other industries. It’s basically about extending the functionality of whatever product you’re offering, without necessarily extending the cost, as well as increasing the stickiness of customers to the product you’re offering.

World Finance: So what kind of widgets does the TradeNet store offer?

Mohammad Attiya: It started with the typical widgets that are acquired for an investor and that includes fundamental analysis tools, technical analysis tools, market data, research from independent sources, ratings, that kind of thing. There’s no limit to what these widgets can offer.

“They offer you related products…think about that in terms of stocks”

World Finance: And you say there are lessons to be learned from Amazon?

Mohammad Attiya: Amazon is a very interesting company, they’re one of the companies that truly shifted their focus from what they are selling to who they are selling to. And you go to Amazon and they offer you stuff that you get surprised at times that they know that much about you. They also offer you related products, so when you go to buy a certain product, they say ‘customers who bought this product have also bought that product, are you interested?’ Think about that in terms of stocks, if you are buying a stock in London and there is a stock that is similarly performing in Kazakhstan, you wouldn’t know about it but if your broker is able to pull it together in front of you and tell you that this stock is similar or somebody who has bought this has also bought that, you might be assimilated to buy it. Another thing about Amazon is that they moved from selling books, to selling anything, and I’m starting to think ‘can they at one point in time sell stocks in companies for example, and how would that affect brokerage firms with the kind of customer intimacy that Amazon has with millions of customers?’

“It’s got to be seamless to the customer”

World Finance: So how can online retail brokers implement that strategy?

Mohammad Attiya: It’s got to be seamless to the customer, when Apple introduced the phone, the iPhone, it’s essentially five percent phone and 95 percent something else, but they called it a phone and the positioning was a phone. So people are accustomed to this kind of product, and they introduce it from the angle that the customer is used to, so that the customer doesn’t fear there is a big change coming that people have to be prepared for because people don’t like change. So this is the same for a brokerage firm, the customer goes to the website to do the usual things like executing an order or looking at their history or portfolio, they should also be presented with that plus, seamlessly, the other widgets that can be offered to them.

World Finance: So familiarity with the products, I guess, is key?

Mohammad Attiya: Familiarity with the concept, yes.

World Finance: Finally, what does the next 12 months- 2 years hold for TradeNet?

Very vivid focus on the TradeNet store as an enabler for our brokerage firms to get out of the commodity price wars that they are suffering from now, trying to sell execution only, increasing the stickiness of their platform or their e-trip platform to their customer.

World Finance: Mohammad, thank you.

Mohammad Attiya: Thanks

Andrew Bascand and Christian Hawkesby on investment | Harbour Asset Management | Video

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Last week we heard from Andrew and Christian on how New Zealand has not just survived since the global financial crisis – thanks to learning the lessons set by its own mini-crisis decades earlier, it’s thrived. This week they explain how Harbour Asset Management‘s expertise, transparency and innovation have won it great success: both in financial returns, and client relations.

World Finance: We’ve already heard about New Zealand and it’s ongoing success story, how does Harbour help investors access New Zealand’s opportunities?

Andrew Bascand: Harbour Asset Management is a leading funds manager in the New Zealand market. We’ve got around forty large institutional clients who have trusted their money with us. The reason they’ve done that is because of our expertise, our experience, and more importantly the transparency with respect to our investments processes. We’ve been doing this for a long time now, so people, when they’re giving us their money, understand quite clearly how we’re going to invest those funds, and they know that we really understand our investment markets.

World Finance: You mentioned expertise there, Christian, you both have impressive resumes, tell us about the experience of your team.

Portfolio managers at Harbour have had around 20 years of experience

Christian Hawkesby: That’s right, Andrew and I both have central banking and markets backgrounds, and more generally within the team our portfolio managers at Harbour have had around 20 years of experience, and the analysts have had in excess of 15 years of experience. We’ve all had international experience through time, both here in London and elsewhere, and really at Harbour what we’re about is taking global best practice and applying it in the local market, the market we know best.

World Finance: And what else makes your offering unique?

Christian Hawkesby: Well I think there’s an element of the experience of the team, not only individually but collectively, in the way that we work together. Secondly, that long track record as a team has enabled us to enhance and build our investment processes, and really that comes through in the performance and the way that’s translated through time. I guess finally, the feedback that we get from our clients, is that they love our research, they love the research that we put out, they love the way that we share our ideas about what the key themes are in the market and what we are doing about that in terms of managing portfolios.

World Finance: And Andrew, how are you innovating, how are you finding profit in a low growth world?

Transparency, together with a dialogue with clients, is what I call innovative

Andrew Bascand: We know that investors are really struggling with this as well, so three years ago we sat down and talked to a whole lot of our clients, and asked them a number of questions about how they’d like their money invested in this world. So we didn’t just dream up something, it was a process of discussion. And the answers were quite simple; we’d like lower volatility, we’d like yield, and we’re appropriate- we want diversified growth.

More importantly in fixed income portfolios, we just don’t want any defaults, we want high investment grade. So we set about thinking about these ideas, and we built two new key products; an Australasian equity income product, which has lower volatility and strong yields, and we built a core fixed interest product, which ensures significant diversification across a number of strategies, providing investors with a real understanding of what’s going on beneath the bonnet.

And that transparency, together with the dialogue with clients, is what I call innovative. Innovative to me is not strapping on a whole lot of derivative contracts and using a smart computer and black scholes model, I think we now know that real investing beyond that.

World Finance: And all of this adds up to some impressive returns for your clients

Andrew Bascand: I think clients know that markets go up and down. The last year has been great, we’ve got returns in our equity products well above 30 percent for the year and in our fixed interest products, ALFAs, or added value of well over 1.5 percent, which is really great in those sorts of products. But our clients know that to get those sort of returns you have to take risks, so they’re more focussed on the long term nature of what we’re doing, and over more than 13.5 years now we’ve delivered strong results in our core products, and there have been ups and downs, but people want to build real wealth over the long term, and that is the sort of dialogue we can have with our clients.

Andrew, Christian, thank you.

Thank you.

Ahmed Khizer Khan on banking in Pakistan | Burj Bank | Video

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Pakistan‘s central bank is pursuing strategies to promote Islamic banking, including establishing fully-fledged Islamic banks in the private sector. Ahmed Khizer Khan from Burj Bank discusses the advantages of Islamic finance.

World Finance: Briefly introduce us to Burj Bank and your market position

Ahmed Khizer Khan: Burj Bank is the newest bank in Pakistan. I think the best way to look at it is that the Islamic market in Pakistan is divided into two categories, the first one is the fully-fledged Islamic banks, there are five of those, and then there are thirteen windows. When I say ‘windows’ for an Islamic bank I mean the parent is probably a conventional bank, and their window operation, as we call it, for Islamic banking.

Burj Bank is a fully-fledged Islamic bank

Burj Bank is a fully-fledged Islamic bank, and it’s the newest Islamic bank. It used to be called Dawood Islamic Bank and it got rebranded to become Burj Bank, and we are positioning ourselves based on service delivery, the quality of service we provide, and, Alhamdulillah, that’s allowed us to become one of the fastest growing Islamic banks in Pakistan.

World Finance: You talk about the importance of service quality, what are your key products and services?

Ahmed Khizer Khan: The main products are our deposit accounts and in the asset book we grow on various mudarabah, musharakah, the Islamic financing products. The other place that we have also started in the consumer banking arena is our autos product, and we are becoming pioneers in terms of launching new products and facilities. I think the key element in Islamic banking right now is a mix of various products that the customer requires and as far as our delivery channels are concerned, the main channels besides branches, we have the branchless banking we’re focussing on, we call it the ADC which is the Alternative Distribution Channel.

In anything that we do where we touch the customer or where the customer is touching us, we ensure service quality, we monitor it. So the focus on service quality is what’s differentiating us. From the time the customer enters a branch, the look and feel of the branch, the way the first person who they interact with, which we call a CSO, a Customer Service Operator, who is going to direct them, and depending upon what transaction they want to do, up until the time that they leave the branch. And the branch manager thanks them for coming in, we focus on service delivery.

World Finance: You mention the re-brand and the re-profiling process that took place in 2011, tell us about this and the challenges involved.

Ahmed Khizer Khan: I think re-branding is one thing that has worked phenomenally well for us. This bank was a family-owned bank so to speak, and that’s why it was called Dawood Islamic Bank, its major shareholding was with the Dawood family. We had a major change in shareholders, one of our largest shareholders is now the private sector development arm of the Islamic Development Bank, which is known as ICD, which is Islamic Corporation for the Development of private sector. Also we have Bank Alkhair which is a Bahrain based bank, we have a Kuwaity investor, we have UAE which is Gargash Enterprises, Daman Investments, so one of the things we noticed was this is now a middle-eastern heritage, the shareholding is significantly changed, and then we looked for various options, with our shareholders with our board, of names.

Islamic finance is probably one of the fastest growing elements in Pakistan

We really wanted to reach new heights, and Burj as you may realise is a name which is now associated with reaching a new level, a new height. The challenges mean that you have to rebrand every physical location, you had to get the brand across, and you had to earn from the customer the trust with the new brand. So we moved very fast on that, our marketing team did an exceptional job in making sure that the message was received, and what the brand stood for, what the objective was and what the bank wanted to accomplish was communicated effectively. And we overcame all the challenges, and the brand became one of the most recognised brands now.

World Finance:So in the context of Pakistan’s banking sector, what role does Islamic finance play?

Ahmed Khizer Khan: Islamic Finance is probably one of the fastest growing elements in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. As you know, Pakistan is one of the most populous countries, there’s about 180 million people, it’s the second largest Islamic country in the world after Indonesia.Predominantly, the population are muslims, so therefore Islamic finance is a very appealing concept to the general public.

It is now that we have penetrated the market to become about 10 percent closer in Islamic banking, this is the entire Islamic banking industry, and the conventional banking has continued since the inception of the country, so they’ve been there for 65 years, whereas Islamic banking has been there for probably about 10 years. But it’s probably one of the most rapidly growing areas and like I said, the choice remains between fully-fledged Islamic banks, or the windows, but I think both elements are growing very very quickly.

World Finance: How important is transparency and inter-department communications, both at Burj Bank and in Pakistan at large?

Ahmed Khizer Khan: Well, I’ll speak for the bank first. I think one of the, if you like, the bases of our success has been the transparency, from anything else occuring, from the strategy to our execution of our strategy, to various difficult decisions we’ve been taking, to the good times in terms of when the business is doing well, everything is shared with our management and our senior team, and then trickles down into the organisation. One of the forums and ways we do this is in our town halls. So I travel from each city, and I have touched and communicated directly with about 85 percent of our staff, and there’s 1000 people that work at our bank. They have an open forum, so they ask any questions, the management sits on stage, they answer anything. Then we have a very effective board, I think transparency, governance is very strong at the board level.

So management, fiduciary responsibility remains to make sure that the staff has very clear direction at the bank, and what is important in terms of the board in terms of the shareholders, because at the end of the day, delivery of what the vision is is critical to our success. As far as Pakistan is concerned, I think I would apply the same principal anywhere, if it’s transparent, it’s clear, it’s honest, I think you’ll have less room for misinterpretation, less room for misgivings, and overall success. Transparency is critical for Pakistan also.

World Finance: You mention there the delivery of your vision, so finally, tell us where you want the bank to be in 5 years?

Ahmed Khizer Khan: We would like to be Alhamdulillah one of the fastest growing banks, we’d like to be the lead bank, we want the customer to make the choice to come to us. We want to be the bank that is looked at to be a progressive bank, which is coming out with unique solutions to cater to the customers needs. We would like to be considered the bank which is going to be the first stop for any customer when they want to have an Islamic finance, or and Islamic banking transaction. And when they leave or the transaction is complete, they should have a feeling that this is the right bank that they approached, that there is a lot of repeat customers and repeat business. As such, we would like to be the bank the choice that the customer makes, and Alhamdulillah, we are on that track.

Ahmed, thank you

Thank you.

Maznah Mahbob on investment solutions | AmInvest

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AmInvest is a global asset management house that provides investment solutions for global investors across a full spectrum of asset classes, in both the conventional and Islamic space. Maznah Mahbob, CEO of AmInvest, discusses the company’s expansion plans, and its strategies for success.

World Finance: First, how is AmInvest positioning itself in the global market?

Maznah Mahbob: What we are offering is actively managed Asian equities, actively managed Asian bonds particularly local currency, and Islamic investments across both Sukuks and equities globally.

World Finance: This is the second year in a row that World Finance has recognised AmInvest as the Best Investment Management Company in Malaysia, what sets AmInvest apart from its competitors?

Maznah Mahbob: Primarily its investment performance, and a lot of the awards that we have been getting are based on that. Traditionally we have been largely a fixed income house, where we win the awards every year for the Best Bond Fund, the Best Bond Group, but increasingly our equities funds across the board have had a very healthy performance. Not just our fixed income bond funds, but our equities funds were consistently in the first and second quarter across all the asset classes, Islamic, conventional, fixed income, equities, so that is also encouraging.

World Finance: What do you think were the key achievements for AmInvest last year?

What drives our innovation is actually our customers

Maznah Mahbob: From the business point of view, ending last year on a three-year basis, we have grown faster than the industry, we have grown faster in equities from a lower base, faster in foreign assets, faster in Islamic assets, and faster in institutional assets. As a result, our asset mix and our client mix is increasingly becoming more balanced than before, and we like that because it means more stability in income growth and profitability. We are expanding our team, we are expanding our capacities, so it’s all these things perhaps.

World Finance: Tell us more about your innovation, what are you offering to your potential investors today?

Maznah Mahbob: What drives our innovation is actually our customers, whether it’s institutional or retail. We always pay attention to their needs, and over the last few years, the years have been challenged by a low interest-rate environment. Many of our investors, they want cash flow and income, so many of our strategies, our mandates, and our products try to deliver this to them. For example, Asia pac ex Japan REITS Fund, a fund we launched two years ago which has done very well in Malaysia. It performs, it has income, and it’s pretty smooth, it raised about 300 million USD and it returned over these two years over 42%, so we try and give them these kinds of solutions.

World Finance: How do you see AmInvest growing over the coming years?

Maznah Mahbob: Well, we hope to have a higher profile among international investors as well- beginning with institutional and sovereign funds, pension funds, also Takaful companies, family offices- who are looking for exposure to Asia, exposure to local currency bonds- this is our speciality- and looking for the same risk/return they have enjoyed in the conventional investments, in the form of Shariah compliant investments. So you know, those are the kinds of investors that we want to add value to.

Datin, thank you very much for your time.

Thank you very much

Infrastructure Investment Awards 2013

Posted on by Ashton Wenborn

Best Urban Investment Project
Barka IWPP, Oman

Best Healthcare Project
Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Australia

Best Social Project
Bulgarian Solar Park

Best Economic Development Project
Ghana PPP Advisory Group, Ministry of Finance, Ghana

Best Multilateral Team
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Best Project Sponsor
Plenary Group

Best PPP Policy Coordination
FCT, Nigeria

Best Transportation Project
Libramiento de Xalapa, Mexico

Best PPP Project
Rio Olympic Park, Brazil

Best Project Advisory Team
Colliers International

Best Project Financier
Banobras

Best Inward Investment Programme
Rio de Janeiro City Government

Best Infrastructure Fund
Fonadin

Best Water Project
Samra Wastewater Treatment Plant Extension

Technology Awards 2013

Posted on by Ashton Wenborn

Best Middle and Back Office Solutions Provider, North America
IBM, US

Best Middle and Back Office Solutions Provider, Latin America
Itautec, Brazil

Best Middle and Back Office Solutions Provider, Western Europe
Linedata, France

Best Middle and Back Office Solutions Provider, Eastern Europe
TurboConsult,Czech Republic

Best Middle and Back Office Solutions Provider, Middle East
Transguard Group, Pakistan

Best Middle and Back Office Solutions Provider, Asia
Steria, Singapore

Best Middle and Back Office Solutions Provider, Africa
Aegis, South Africa

Best Middle and Back Office Solutions Provider, Australasia
FileOptics, Australia

 

Best Core Banking Systems Technology Provider, North America
IBM, US

Best Core Banking Systems Technology Provider, Latin America 
Computer Sciences Corp, Brazil

Best Core Banking Systems Technology Provider, Western Europe
Sopra Banking, France

Best Core Banking Systems Technology Provider, Eastern Europe
Forbis, Lithuania

Best Core Banking Systems Technology Provider, Middle East 
International Turnkey Systems, Kuwait

Best Core Banking Systems Technology Provider, Asia
Temenos, China

Best Core Banking Systems Technology Provider, Africa
ICS Financial Systems, Jordan

Best Core Banking Systems Technology Provider, Australasia
Fiserv, Australia

 

Best Mobile Banking Technology, North America
TriNovus, US

Best Mobile Banking Technology, Latin America
Cyclos, Brazil

Best Mobile Banking Technology, Western Europe
SAP, UK

Best Mobile Banking Technology, Eastern Europe
IND Group, Russia

Best Mobile Banking Technology, Middle East
Acette Technologies, UAE

Best Mobile Banking Technology, Asia
Mahindra Comviva, UAE

Best Mobile Banking Technology, Africa 
Mahindra Comviva, South Africa

Best Mobile Banking Technology, Australasia 
Sandstone Technology, Philippines

 

Best Financial Technology Consultants, North America
MFA Cornerstone, US

Best Financial Technology Consultants, Latin America 
MJV Tecnologia Inovacao, Brazil

Best Financial Technology Consultants, Western Europe
Axxiome, Netherlands

Best Financial Technology Consultants, Eastern Europe
Universal Kube, Russia

Best Financial Technology Consultants, Middle East
Accenture, India

Best Financial Technology Consultants, Asia
Inntron, Thailand

Best Financial Technology Consultants, Africa
AH Consulting, Uganda

Best Financial Technology Consultants, Australasia
PWC, Japan

 

Best IT Outsourcing Company, North America
CGI, US

Best IT Outsourcing Company, Latin America
Stefanini, Colombia

Best IT Outsourcing Company, Western Europe
Syntax, UK

Best IT Outsourcing Company, Eastern Europe
BSB Poland, Poland

Best IT Outsourcing Company, Middle East
Meshbox, India

Best IT Outsourcing Company, Asia
Tech Mahindra, India

Best IT Outsourcing Company, Africa
HCL, South Africa

Best IT Outsourcing Company, Australasia
Avanade, Australia

 

Best Network Infrastructure Provider, North America
Dell, US

Best Network Infrastructure Provider, Latin America
Alog, Brazil

Best Network Infrastructure Provider, Western Europe
Intertech, France

Best Network Infrastructure Provider, Eastern Europe
BSB Poland, Poland

Best Network Infrastructure Provider, Middle East
EMC, Jordan

Best Network Infrastructure Provider, Asia
Thakral One, Singapore

Best Network Infrastructure Provider, Africa
Cisco, South Africa

Best Network Infrastructure Provider, Australasia
UXC Connect, Australia

 

Best Security Technology Provider, North America
Air Watch, US

Best Security Technology Provider, Latin America
Itautec, Brazil

Best Security Technology Provider, Western Europe
Icar Vision Systems, Spain

Best Security Technology Provider, Eastern Europe
Hitachi, Czech Republic

Best Security Technology Provider, Middle East
Mak Group, Syria

Best Security Technology Provider, Asia
Feitian Technologies, China

Best Security Technology Provider, Africa
3M, South Africa

Best Security Technology Provider, Australasia
Tier 3, Australia

 

Best Business Intelligence Software Provider, North America
Jaspersoft, US

Best Business Intelligence Software Provider, Latin America
BSI Tecnologia, Brazil

Best Business Intelligence Software Provider, Western Europe
SkySparc, Sweden

Best Business Intelligence Software Provider, Eastern Europe
Asseco, Poland

Best Business Intelligence Software Provider, Middle East
Tatweer, Egypt

Best Business Intelligence Software Provider, Asia
AG Delta, Singapore

Best Business Intelligence Software Provider, Africa
Business Connexion, Kenya

Best Business Intelligence Software Provider, Australasia
Professional Advantage, Australia

 

Best Automated Banking Branch Technology, North America
NCR, US

Best Automated Banking Branch Technology, Latin America
Itautec, Brazil

Best Automated Banking Branch Technology, Western Europe
CTS Cashpro, Italy

Best Automated Banking Branch Technology, Eastern Europe
NCR, Serbia

Best Automated Banking Branch Technology, Middle East
Glory, Turkey

Best Automated Banking Branch Technology, Asia
Infosys, Hong Kong

Best Automated Banking Branch Technology, Africa
Paynet, Kenya

Best Automated Banking Branch Technology, Australasia
Unisys, Australia

 

Best Payment Technology Provider, North America
Traxpay, US

Best Payment Technology Provider, Latin America
WEX, Brazil

Best Payment Technology Provider, Western Europe 
Fides Treasury Services, Switzerland

Best Payment Technology Provider, Eastern Europe 
BPC Banking Technologies, Russia

Best Payment Technology Provider, Middle East
Acette Technologies, UAE

Best Payment Technology Provider, Asia
Ingenico, Singapore

Best Payment Technology Provider, Africa
EMP Group, South Africa

Best Payment Technology Provider, Australasia
Tyro, Australia

 

Best CRM Technology, North America
Microsft, US

Best CRM Technology, Latin America
Avitis, Brazil

Best CRM Technology, Western Europe
Cegedim, France

Best CRM Technology, Europe
Exact Software, UK

Best CRM Technology, Asia
CRMnext, India

Best CRM Technology, Middle East
LiveRoute, UAE

Best CRM Technology, Africa
Odyssey, South Africa

Best CRM Technology, Australasia
3 Cubed, Australia

 

Best Technology and Innovation City, North America
UTP Chicago, US

Best Technology and Innovation City, Latin America
Sapiens Parque, Brazil

Best Technology and Innovation City, Western Europe
Johanneberg Science Park, Sweden

Best Technology and Innovation City, Eastern Europe
Tehnopol Tallinn Science Park, Estonia

Best Technology and Innovation City, Middle East
Qatar Science & Technology Park, Qatar

Best Technology and Innovation City, Asia
Chungnam Techno Park, Korea

Best Technology and Innovation City, Africa
Abuja Technology Village, Nigeria

Best Technology and Innovation City, Australasia
Innovation Campus, Australia

 

Best Technology CEO, North America
John Thompson Virtual Instruments, US

Best Technology CEO, Latin America
Marcos Galperin, Mercadolibre, Brazil

Best Technology CEO, Western Europe
Bill McDermott, SAP, UK

Best Technology CEO, Eastern Europe
Adam Goral, Asseco Poland, Poland

Best Technology CEO, Middle East
Yasser Zeineldin, eHosting DataFort, UAE

Best Technology CEO, Asia
Kazuo Hirai, Sony, China

Best Technology CEO, Africa
Luke Mckend Google SA, South Africa

Best Technology CEO, Australasia
Scott Farquhar, Atlassian, Australia

 

Best Investment Banking Systems Provider, North America
Progress Software, US

Best Investment Banking Systems Provider, Latin America
CPQi, Chile

Best Investment Banking Systems Provider, Western Europe
PROFILE Software, Switzerland

Best Investment Banking Systems Provider, Eastern Europe
Zeto, Poland

Best Investment Banking Systems Provider, Middle East
International Turnkey Systems, Kuwait

Best Investment Banking Systems Provider, Asia
Catena Technologies, Singapore

Best Investment Banking Systems Provider, Africa
Caplin, South Africa

Best Investment Banking Systems Provider, Australasia
Cognizant, China

Investment Management Awards 2013

Posted on by Ashton Wenborn

Best Investment Management Company, Angola
Bongani Investment Group

Best Investment Management Company, Argentina
HSBC Global Asset Management

Best Investment Management Company, Australia
AMP Capital

Best Investment Management Company, Austria
BAWAG P.S.K. INVEST

Best Investment Management Company, Bahrain
Khaleeji Commercial Bank

Best Investment Management Company, Bangladesh
LR Global Bangladesh

Best Investment Management Company, Belgium
Petercam Asset Management

Best Investment Management Company, Bolivia
Grupo Fortaleza

Best Investment Management Company, Brazil
Itau Unibanco

Best Investment Management Company, Canada
Mawer Investment Management

Best Investment Management Company, Caribbean
NCB Capital Markets

Best Investment Management Company, Chile
Bci Asset Management

Best Investment Management Company, China
BOCI Investment Management

Best Investment Management Company, Czech Republic
Pioneer Investments

Best Investment Management Company, Cyprus
MeritKapital

Best Investment Management Company, Denmark
Danske Capital

Best Investment Management Company, Egypt 
Arab African Investment Management

Best Investment Management Company, France
Oddo Asset Management

Best Investment Management Company, Finland 
Alandsbanken Asset Management

Best Investment Management Company, Germany
Sal. Oppenheim

Best Investment Management Company, Ghana
Liberty Capital Ghana

Best Investment Management Company, Greece
Alpha Asset Management

Best Investment Management Company, Hong Kong
BOCI-Prudential Asset Management

Best Investment Management Company, Iceland 
VIB – Islandsbanki

Best Investment Management Company, India
Kotak Mahindra Asset Management

Best Investment Management Company, Indonesia 
PT Batavia Prosperindo Aset Manajemen

Best Investment Management Company, Ireland
Kleinwort Benson Investors

Best Investment Management Company, Italy
UBI Pramerica

Best Investment Management Company, Jordan
Awraq Investments

Best Investment Management Company, Kazakhstan
Resmi Financial Investments

Best Investment Management Company, Kuwait 
Kuwait & Middle East Financial Investment Company

Best Investment Management Company, Lebanon
Bank of Beirut

Best Investment Management Company, Luxembourg
JP Morgan Asset Management

Best Investment Management Company, Malaysia
AmInvest | Maznah Mahbob receives the award on behalf of AmInvest

Best Investment Management Company, Mexico
Banamex Asset Management

Best Investment Management Company, Morocco
Wafa Gestion

Best Investment Management Company, Namibia
Momentum Asset Management

Best Investment Management Company, Netherlands
MN Services

Best Investment Management Company, New Zealand
Harbour Asset Management | Jody Kaye, Andrew Bascand and Christian Hawkesby receive the award for Harbour Asset Management

Best Investment Management Company, Nigeria
Stanbic IBTC Asset Management

Best Investment Management Company, Norway
Storebrand Investments

Best Investment Management Company, Oman
Bank Muscat

Best Investment Management Company, Pakistan
AKD Investment

Best Investment Management Company, Panama
Multibank

Best Investment Management Company, Peru
Banco de Credito

Best Investment Management Company, Philippines
BPI Asset Management

Best Investment Management Company, Poland 
Pioneer Pekao Investment Management

Best Investment Management Company, Portugal
Banif Gestão de Activos

Best Investment Management Company, Qatar
Amwal

Best Investment Management Company, Romania
OTP Asset Management

Best Investment Management Company, Russia
UralSib Asset Management

Best Investment Management Company, Saudi Arabia
Al Rajhi Capital

Best Investment Management Company, Singapore
DWS Investments

Best Investment Management Company, South Africa
Sanlam Investment Management

Best Investment Management Company, South Korea
KB Asset Management

Best Investment Management Company, Spain
Santander Asset Management

Best Investment Management Company, Sri Lanka 
National Asset Management Limited

Best Investment Management Company, Sweden
DNB Asset Management AB

Best Investment Management Company, Switzerland
Swiss & Global

Best Investment Management Company, Taiwan
Shin Kong Financial Holding

Best Investment Management Company, Thailand
Manulife Asset Management

Best Investment Management Company, Turkey
TEB Asset Management

Best Investment Management Company, UAE
SHUAA Asset Management

Best Investment Management Company, UK
Janus Capital International

Best Investment Management Company, Uganda
Pine Bridge Investments

Best Investment Management Company, US Equity Sales
Champlain Investment Partners

Best Investment Management Company, US Fixed
Income Loomis, Sayles & Co

Best Investment Management Company, Uzbekistan
Orient Capital Management

Best Investment Management Company, Vietnam
Vietcombank Fund Management

Enrique Nuñez-Escudero | Shirebrook Commodities

Posted on by Ashton Wenborn

Mexico has experienced a number of political and financial changes in recent months. Discussing the impact that these are having on the wider economic environment is Enrique Nuñez-Escudero, Chairman of Shirebrook Commmodities, a Mexico-based financial services company.

World Finance: Since we last spoke to you, Mexico has elected Enrique Pena Nieto as its President, what impact has this had on the Mexican economy?

Enrique Nuñez-Escudero: We have a new President indeed, he was elected in the Summer of last year and he came into power in December. He won by a wide margin, so that has allowed him to have great political credibility. All political actors have respect for him and he’s been able to make some difficult decisions, touching some issues and some people and matters that were considered sacred before. So I think that the country is little by little turning its way towards the right path. Our currency is getting stronger, it’s maybe 10 percent stronger since he has taken power, and there is more direct foreign investment coming into Mexico for industry, to make factories for real businesses, as non-speculative investment. So I think the country has taken very well that President Pena Nieto has come into power, he has everyone’s respect and I think he finally was able to take the position parties and pretty much all the political actors and converge them all into one single direction in the favour of the country.

“Organised crime is the main challenge for the President”

World Finance: You’ve mentioned in the past that certain laws need to be reformed, particularly education and labour, do you think the new president will address these issues?

Enrique Nuñez-Escudero: Well, they’ve already been addressed. Since the end of last year, with President Calderon coming into good political terms with President Pena Nieto, the labour reform was approved last year. This year President Pena Nieto was able to pull every single party to go in the same direction in favour of the country, and there has been an education reform and a telecommunications reform, which will allow the country to be more competitive and have better infrastructure. Now we are on the way for approval for a tax reform, for an energy reform, and for a financial reform which will allow small and medium entrepreneurs to access credit for longer term and at cheaper rates.

World Finance:So, liberalising the economy is one of the challenges, what other challenges do you think there are that the political party faces?

Enrique Nuñez-Escudero: More than the reforms which I think will be approved this year, there is a big challenge for the President which I think is the war on organised crime. Organised crime has been gaining territories since last President Calderon started a huge war against drug cartels and organised crime. Organised crime is quite powerful down there, and they are asking many entrepreneurs for protection fees, monthly fees, which are very very bad. That’s the main challenge which President Pena Nieto has to overcome.

“We as consultants will have more work to do”

World Finance: Now, growth in Mexico slowed dramatically in the last quarter, how do you explain this?

Enrique Nuñez-Escudero: The world’s economy has been slower to begin with, so that of course affects us. But there is also like a technical miscalculation, there is a problem in the calculation of the first-quarter GDP because of the holy week for Easter, which has a big impact. You pretty much shut the country down for a couple of weeks. Last year we had it in the second quarter, this year we had it in the first quarter- so that has an impact there. But hopefully with these new reforms that will be approved this year, we’ll reach the target that everyone has of 3 percent in growth of GDP for 2013.

World Finance: So how has Shirebrook Commodities been affected by the change of President and the subsequent reforms in the country?

Enrique Nuñez-Escudero: Well, I think we’re doing good. We’ve been getting new RFPs from customers, for work we had not been getting for many years- the outlook is positive. And now that all financial entities will be regulated in Mexico we as consultants will have more work to do.

“We are the first country in the world to be fully-compliant with Basel III regulations”

World Finance: And finally, what new projects and developments do you have on the horizon at Shirebrook?

Enrique Nuñez-Escudero: We are the first country in the world to be fully-compliant with Basel III regulations. Our regulators are really proud of that. Our financial system is not very happy with that, because our regulators are probably one of the toughest in the world. But I think all these new regulations, this new environment, is favourable for business and eventually I think it will materialise and this great outlook will be very good for us.

Enrique, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Construction Awards 2013

Posted on by Ashton Wenborn

Asia

Best Retail Project, Asia
Medium Cap Project: SM Aura Premier, Philippines
Large Cap Project: IICG Wuxi Shopping Centre, China

Best Energy Project, Asia
Medium Cap Project: Singapore LNG Terminal, Storage Tank IV, Singapore
Large Cap Project: Malacca LNG Import Terminal, Malaysia

Best Commercial Project, Asia
Medium Cap Project: Aeropod, Kuala Lumpur
Large Cap Project: Bandar Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur

Best Recreational Project, Asia
Medium Cap Project: Six Senses Con Dao, Vietnam
Large Cap Project: Baku Flame Towers, Azerbaijan

Best Sports Project, Asia
Medium Cap Project: Philippine Arena, Philippines
Large Cap Project: Singapore Sports Hub, Singapore

Best Residential Project, Asia
Medium Cap Project: Trump Tower, Philippines
Large Cap Project: The Haven Lakeside, Malaysia

Best Mixed-Use Project, Asia
Royal City, Vietnam

North America

Best Retail Project, North America
Medium Cap Project: Landsdowne Place
Large Cap Project: Westfield Centre, California

Best Energy Project, North America
Medium Cap Project: Maiden Solar Farm, US
Large Cap Project: Suncor MacKay River Oil Sands Expansion, Canada

Best Commercial Project, North America
Medium Cap Project: Jackson Street Chinese Hospital, US
Large Cap Project: Hudson Yards, US

Best Recreational Project, North America
Medium Cap Project: Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, US
Large Cap Project: Cabana Bay Beach Resort Hotel, US

Best Sports Project, North America
Medium Cap Project: Vikings Stadium Development, US
Large Cap Project: Farmers Field NFL Stadium, US

Best Residential Project, North America
Medium Cap Project: One57, US
Large Cap Project: 432 Park Avenue, US

Best Mixed-Use Project
Runway, California

Latin America

Best Retail Project, Latin America
Medium Cap Project: Shopping Barra, Brazil
Large Cap Project: Calima Centro Comercial, Bogota, Columbia

Best Energy Project, Latin America
Medium Cap Project: El Salitre Wastewater Treatment Plant Development, Colombia
Large Cap Project: NSL’s Wind Power Plant, Chile

Best Commercial Project, Latin America
Medium Cap Project: Mogi Mirim Technology Centre, Brazil
Large Cap Project: Airport Business Park, Uruguay

Best Recreational Project, Latin America
Medium Cap Project: Grand Hyatt Bogota, Colombia
Large Cap Project: BD Bacata, Colombia

Best Sports Project, Latin America
Medium Cap Project: Arena Amazonia, Brazil
Large Cap Project: Monterrey Estadio do Futbol, Mexico

Best Residential Project, Latin America
Medium Cap Project: Lomas De Aguirre, Chile
Large Cap Project: Parque Cousino Macul, Chile

Best Mixed-Use Project
Serra Mixed Use Complex, Brazil

Africa

Best Retail Project, Africa
Medium Cap Project: Elim Mall, Limpopo, South Africa
Large Cap Project: Morocco Mall, Morocco

Best Energy Project, Africa
Medium Cap Project: Ciprel’s Gas Powered Plant, Ivory Coast
Large Cap Project: Kwazulu-Natal Wind Farm, South Africa

Best Commercial Project, Africa
Medium Cap Project: Village Walk Tower
Large Cap Project: Alger Mediumina

Best Recreational Project, Africa
Medium Cap Project: St Regis Hotel Cairo, Egypt
Large Cap Project: Melia White Sands, Cape Verde

Best Sports Project, Africa
Medium Cap Project: Stade Abdelkelar Khalef, Algeria
Large Cap Project: Grande Stade d’Alger, Algeria

Best Residential Project, Africa
Medium Cap Project: 90 Avenue, Egypt
Large Cap Project: Sahl Hasheesh Development, Egypt

Best Mixed-Use Project, Africa
Cairo Festival City, Egypt

Middle East

Best Retail Project, Middle East
Medium Cap Project: Salalah Mall Gardens, Oman
Large Cap Project: Abdali Mall, Jordan

Best Energy Project, Middle East
Medium Cap Project: Ras Laffan Condensate Refinery Expansion, Qatar
Large Cap Project: Duqm Refinery and Petrochemical Complex, Oman

Best Commercial Project, Middle East
Medium Cap Project: Mediumfield Terminal Complex,Abu Dhabi
Large Cap Project: Sowwah Square, Abu Dhabi

Best Recreational Project, Middle East
Medium Cap Project: Marsa Malaz Hotel, Qatar
Large Cap Project: Worlds of Adventures Theme Park, Dubai

Best Sports Project Medium, Middle East
Cap Project: Lekhwiya Sports Stadium, Qatar
Large Cap Project: Lusail Solar Sports Stadium, Qatar

Best Residential Project, Middle East
Medium Cap Project: Damac Towers, Dubai
Large Cap Project: Infinity Towers, Dubai

Best Mixed-Use Project
Bahrain Bay Development, Bahrain

Western Europe

Best Retail Project, Western Europe
Medium Cap Project: Marmara Park, Turkey
Large Cap Project: Milaneo Shopping Centre, Germany

Best Energy Project, Western Europe
Medium Cap Project: ARC De Dierrey Gas Pipeline Development-Champagne-Ardenne, France
Large Cap Project: Anholt Offshore WindFarm, Denmark

Best Commercial Project, Western Europe
Medium Cap Project: Senator Office, Poland
Large Cap Project: Canary Wharf Crossrail Station, UK

Best Recreational Project, Western Europe
Medium Cap Project: Princes’ Palace Resort and Spa, Turkey
Large Cap Project: Birmingham Casino and Leisure Complex

Best Sports Project, Western Europe
Medium Cap Project: Timsah Arena, Turkey
Large Cap Project: Tele 2 Arena, Sweden

Best Residential Project, Western Europe
Medium Cap Project: Milanofiori Housing Complex, Italy
Large Cap Project: Tour Odéon, Monaco

Best Mixed-Use Project, Western Europe
Battersea Power Plant Development, London

CIS and Eastern Europe

Best Retail Project, CIS and Eastern Europe
Medium Cap Project: One Khimki Plaza, Russia
Large Cap Project: Avia Park, Russia

Best Energy Project, CIS and Eastern Europe
Medium Cap Project: Slavonski Brod Gas-Fired Thermal Power Plant, Croatia
Large Cap Project: Liquefied Natural Gas Terminal, Ukraine

Best Commercial Project, CIS and Eastern Europe
Medium Cap Project: Palas Iasi, Romania
Large Cap Project: K2 Business Park, Russia

Best Recreational Project, CIS and Eastern Europe
Medium Cap Project: Kempinski Hotel Cathedral Square, Lithuania
Large Cap Project: Kempinksi Chernomoritz Park Spa Hotel, Russia

Best Sports Project, CIS and Eastern Europe
Medium Cap Project: Leninsky Stadium, Russia
Large Cap Project: Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Park, Russia

Best Residential Project, CIS and Eastern Europe
Medium Cap Project: St Petersburg City Development, Russia
Large Cap Project: Glavstroy Residential Housing Development, Russia

Best Mixed-Use Project
The Minsk Lighthouse, Belarus

Mario Cruz on development in Angola | Banco Atlantico

Posted on by Ashton Wenborn

Angola’s Economy Minister recently announced the country is on target to grow 7.1 percent this year, and maintain that strong rate through to 2017. Mario Cruz from Angolan bank Banco Atlantico is here to tell us more about the country’s prospects.

World Finance: First tell us about Angola‘s economy; what are the main drivers of growth?

Mario Cruz: Political and macroeconomic stability during the past ten years has been a main driver of growth. The economy has more than doubled during the period 2002 and 2012, all the big macroeconomic variables are under control like the inflation rate- we are actually below 10 percent for the first time in our history- the exchange rate is stable, international reserves are growing and the economy is growing around 7% per year last year. So the past growth history has actually been a very good driver of growth. We also have very good expectations for future growth, we expect the economy to double again during the period 2012 and 2025. There are a lot of international investors that are interested in Angola, sub-saharan Africa, so we are quite positive about the development of the economy.

“The oil and gas sector has been booming since 2002”

World Finance: You mention interest from international investors, tell us a bit more about that.

Mario Cruz: There’s interest from China and Chinese investors, there’s interest from European investors as well, South African, Latin America as well. Brazil has been a partner of the Angolan economy for quite some time and they’ve been investing a lot in projects like infrastructure, construction, retail, the oil and gas sector has been booming since 2002- especially since we have very high oil prices, we are producing around 1.8 million barrels of oil per day now. We expect this to grow to around 2.5 million barrels per day in 2017.

World Finance: So what kind of businesses does Banco Atlantico support, and what services do you offer?

Mario Cruz: Atlantico started in 2006 mainly as an investment bank and wealth manager. We specialised in these two businesses in the beginning. In 2011 the shareholders of the bank have adjusted the strategy, and we are now also providing commercial banking services. We have a client base which is growing, and we provide all the services like a universal bank, asset management, transactional banking, individual and corporate banking. We are also going into the insurance and risk-management areas, we provide all the banking services.

“Infrastructure development is still a problem and human capital is also a huge challenge”

World Finance:What are the challenges for business development in Angola at the moment?

Mario Cruz: I think I would say infrastructure development is still a problem and still something we have to move forward. Infrastructure like technology, roads, and all the infrastructure which is required for an economy to grow. We’ve gone a long way since 2012 but we still have a huge gap that we have to fulfil throughout the whole country. Human capital is also a huge challenge and the government and all the private sector has been working very hard, because in order to make the economy grow and develop you have to have good human resources. I believe those are the two main areas that we believe are the main challenges for investing in Angola.

World Finance: Last year we heard about your big plans for 2015, first tell us about you’re getting on with your domestic expansion

Mario Cruz: Actually 2012 has been a very good year. There was a big milestone in our project which is to cover the whole country, and we’ve done that. Banco is present in all 18 provinces, we have a 42 branch network at the moment, and we expect to grow it to 75 branches by 2015. That is growing very well and we’ve done a good job on that aspect.

“There was a big milestone in our project which is to cover the whole country, and we’ve done that”

World Finance: You also aim to operate across four continents by 2013, how are those plans going?

Mario Cruz: At the moment the bank is operating in Angola which is our operational base. We are also operating in Portugal, we are in the process of expanding in sub-saharan Africa in countries like Namibia and Mozambique as well, which is growing very well as well. We still have our plans in going to the far-east and Latin America. We are studying good opportunities and we hope that by the end of the year we will have a little bit more detail on that.

World Finance: Mario, thank you

Mario Cruz: Thank you very much.

Pierre Imhof on Brunei’s banking needs | Baiduri Bank

Posted on by Ashton Wenborn

Brunei is very wealthy for its small size, but not without its problems. To deal with some excessive levels of personal debt the government has created a credit bureau to assist banks with their risk management. Pierre Imhof, CEO of Baiduri Bank, discusses some of the products and programs that have helped them to successfully meet the needs of their customers.

World Finance: Brunei’s never had a credit bureau before, why now?

Pierre Imhof: Well, it’s better to have it now than not to have it at all. We have been operating in such an environment without a credit bureau for many years, Baiduri Bank had developed its own processes and procedures for credit control and risk assessment. But of course, having a credit bureau will be a very positive move for banks. To have access to a database giving us the overall indebtedness of our clients, or our future clients, is something that we have been looking forward to for months and years.

“As a local bank, it is important for us to know our clients well, to listen to them”

World Finance: Good risk management is one of the reasons for Baiduri Bank’s leading position in Brunei, talk us through some of your other strengths.

Pierre Imhof: First, Baiduri Bank is a local bank. As a local bank, it is important for us to know our clients well, to listen to them, to identify their needs and then to respond to their needs. And secondly, we do it in a flexible way. We are domestic, our decision making process is done locally and, as such, we are able to answer to our clients much faster than I believe most of our competitors do. Another reason is that we have developed a business model that is made of three pillars; we have retail banking, we have corporate banking, and we have car financing. These three pillars are allowing us to cover a wide range of products to our clients so this is also a very strong point for our success.

“Bruneians need a car and once they’ve chosen a car, they want to have it quickly”

World Finance: You’ve talked about car financing, which is provided through your subsidiary Baiduri Finance, you have a 60% market share why is this so successful?

Pierre Imhof: The fast processing of requests from our clients. Cars are extremely important in Brunei for our clients, there is limited public transportation so Bruneians need a car and once they’ve chosen a car, they want to have it quickly. So we have developed a process which allows us to be extremely responsive and very fast to grant this to our customers.

World Finance: You are well known for innovating in the local market; tell us about some of your new products and services.

Pierre Imhof: We have just launched a few months ago our executive program. We already had a prestige program for four years, which was offered to our very high net worth individuals and clients, but we needed a program to offer to the younger generation (successful, well-educated, promising) and this category of people now also has additional benefits- probably more trendy, relying more on electronic channels, and also having some preferential treatment at our branches where they have dedicated counters.

“We are now getting more specialised and able to undertake more sophisticated financing for corporates”

World Finance: Finally, Brunei has an increasingly competitive banking sector, what are your plans for the future?

Pierre Imhof: We are still focussing very much on the three pillars that we have built. I was mentioning car financing, retail, and corporate banking. In the immediate future, in line with our image of innovation, we will launch a marketing app for retail, which will give some information to our clients about our activities, events, products, and rates. We will also launch a mobile app for our customers who want to bank and do transactions through their mobile. And of course, corporate banking is an area with a number of projects (infrastructure, oil and gas projects), which are developed in Brunei, where we want to be more and more present. We are now getting more specialised and able to undertake more sophisticated financing for corporates, which are still small in Brunei but which are getting bigger and more demanding.

World Finance: Pierre, thank you.

Pierre Imhof: You’re welcome.

The future looks (too) bright

Posted on by Ashton Wenborn

While economics has long been known as the ‘dismal science’, this does not seem to apply to the science of forecasting. With some exceptions – such as the Mayans, or Nouriel Roubini – forecasters, it seems, are just way too cheery and confident.

As forecasting experts Spyros Makridakis and Nassim Taleb pointed out in an article in the International Journal of Forecasting, ‘Empirical evidence has shown that the ability of people to correctly assess uncertainty is even worse than that of accurately predicting future outcomes. Such evidence has shown that humans are overconfident of positive expectations, while ignoring or downgrading negative information.’

A good example of the overly-sunny nature of economic forecasts was the recent crisis. Not only did few economists predict it (Roubini and Taleb were the most famous exceptions), they were also too positive about the recovery, which has proved rather slower than expected.

In April 2007, for example, the IMF said that: ‘Notwithstanding the recent bout of financial volatility, the world economy still looks well set for continued robust growth in 2007 and 2008.’ A year later, in the aftermath of the credit crunch, they were predicting a ‘mild recession’ in the US to be followed by a ‘modest recovery’ in 2009. Instead, US gross domestic product shrank by 3.5 percent in 2009.

Their forecasts for the European recovery were also too positive. In 2011 they were foreseeing a rosy 2.1 percent growth in 2012, rather than the flat-lining which actually occurred. The IMF is far from unique – other organisations such as the OECD failed to spot the dangers, as did surveys of individual economists. Over the last thirty years, according to the New York Times, the average probability forecasters put on the economy lapsing into recession ‘has never risen above 50 percent—until the economy was already in a recession’. So why is it that forecasters are such champions of positive thinking – are they just sunny by nature, or is something else going on?

Positive thinking
Part of the reason is that optimism is always popular, especially in areas such as business, because it makes everyone feel good. As psychologist Daniel Kahneman wrote in his book Thinking Fast and Slow, ‘Most of us view the world as more benign than it really is, our own attributes as more favorable than they truly are, and the goals we adopt as more achievable than they are likely to be.’

Not only are we optimistic about the future, but we think we can predict it as well: ‘We also tend to exaggerate our ability to forecast the future, which fosters overconfidence.’ This confidence is particularly valued in times of crisis, since ‘Extreme uncertainty is paralyzing under dangerous circumstances, and the admission that one is merely guessing is especially unacceptable when the stakes are high.’ Because of its role in decision-making, ‘the optimistic bias may well be the most significant cognitive bias.’

Forecasters, it seems, are mirroring a basic human trait in their optimistic stance. Of course, one might expect to find a healthy level of optimism in high-flying leaders and entrepreneurs, who are so busy living on the edge that they have little time to make a rational analysis of how all their decisions have panned out; or to ask how much of their success is due to luck or the efforts of other people rather than their own brilliance. But professional forecasters have the luxury of being able to compare their past predictions with historical data. Surely the desire for accuracy should serve to correct any bias over time?

Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case. Consider for example the results from the Survey of Professional Forecasters, which is the oldest quarterly survey of macroeconomic forecasts in the United States with data going back to 1968. This survey asks economists to give their predictions of key variables such as GDP, by assigning probabilities to various outcomes – for example the chance of growth being between one and two percent. This allows the compilation of probabilistic forecasts, such as a central forecast along with 90 percent confidence intervals.

As with other such surveys, the forecasters missed the recent crisis, predicting positive growth for the years 2007 to 2009. Perhaps more concerning is that, over a period of more than 40 years, they have consistently overestimated the accuracy of their predictions. If forecasters were good judges of their own abilities, then the true GDP would fall outside the 90 percent confidence intervals only 10 percent of the time. Instead they miss over a quarter of the time. To reflect reality, the 90 percent confidence intervals should be widened to plus or minus a little more than three percent.

Given that forecasters have been repeating the same exercise every quarter for a number of decades, one might think that they would have grown more realistic about the uncertainties involved. At the same time, though, it is easy to understand why they prefer to sound confident. Predicting GDP growth of one percent sounds plausibly savant-like, but predicting growth of somewhere between minus two and four percent is less convincing, and might lead policy makers to go back to other methods of prognostication, such as tea leaves or the reading of animal entrails.

While a bias towards optimism may be adaptive in areas such as business or politics, where an aura of confidence and positivity are likely to attract things like funding and attention, they can also be dangerous if they mean that we do not pick up signals warning of impending disasters; or fail to take into account the full range of possibilities. No one likes to sound uncertain or pessimistic, least of all forecasters, but sometimes a healthy scepticism is appropriate. As PG Wodehouse wrote in Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest: ‘I rather fancy it’s Shakespeare who says that it’s always just when a fellow is feeling particularly braced with things in general that Fate sneaks up behind him with the bit of lead piping.’