FinanceMalta, the public-private partnership set up to promote Malta’s financial services sector, is attending The HedgeNews Africa Symposium being held on 23 February in Cape Town, South Africa.
The HedgeNews Africa Symposium is the top event in the African alternative asset management calendar, bringing together leading managers, investors and service providers to discuss the dynamic investment landscape.
An impressive array of speakers is set to contribute their views on pertinent topics ranging from the investment opportunities in the African and South African markets, what different hedge fund strategies have to offer, how African managers are positioned after a difficult 2011, as well as trends among institutional investors going into 2012.
The HedgeNews Africa Symposium is acknowledged industry-wide and drives the African alternative asset management calendar, bringing together stakeholders from the developed market of South Africa to the nascent economies across Africa. FinanceMalta will seek to consult with industry players and inform them about recent developments in Malta, helping the industry to achieve new levels of accountability, transparency and excellence based on high-level peer-to-peer interaction.
FinanceMalta’s attendance in the HedgeNews Africa Symposium coincides with a Malta Enterprise delegation to Johannesburg and Cape Town, headed by Alan Camilleri, chairman of Malta Enterprise,.
The event is followed by the HedgeNews Africa awards dinner, which recognises those fund managers who deliver the best risk-adjusted performance for the calendar-year 2011, which will provide the FinanceMalta attendees significant opportunities to network with delegates and make strategic contacts. With the HedgeNews Africa Symposium being the top event in the African alternative asset management calendar, FinanceMalta is a platinum level sponsor to ensure that the growing Maltese financial services industry is highly visible to the international delegates.
Given the volume of overseas initiatives that FinanceMalta pursued last year, it is clear that the foundation’s efforts to generate new business opportunities are creating increased interest from European and sources worldwide. The UK, Germany and Scandinavia and other parts of the world like South Africa, Switzerland, Hong Kong, China, India and America have all expressed interest in the quality of Malta’s financial services hub offering. What’s more, those interests are already being expressed as a tangible investment in Malta as a European Financial Centre (EFC). This work by FinanceMalta to attract overseas investors and their managers is gaining considerable traction with corresponding growth of the finance sector industry at home to this demand.
According to the concluding statement of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released on 23 January, Malta’s financial regulatory and supervisory framework should keep pace with the demands and risks of a sophisticated and fast-growing financial market. As part of its self-imposed quality controls, in 2010 the MFSA commissioned an independent assessment of regulation and supervision of banking, insurance, and securities markets against the respective international standards. The increase in recruitment of qualified staff, the creation of an enforcement unit, and work in the area of concentration risk represent commendable progress, says the IMF. A review of the MFSA’s consumer protection and business conduct functions could be considered to secure consumer protection, promote efficiency, and enhance the integrity of the financial system.
Significantly, the IMF stated that the reforms to secure these objectives include continuing to diversify the economy into high value-added activities, reducing the economy’s dependence on energy imports, and strengthening female labour force participation and labour force skills. Financial services are an important contributor to the Maltese economy providing over €1 billion in revenue.
Malta is a financial gateway to Europe and the finance industry offers a number of attractions including a stable economy, liquid markets, skilled workforce, cost-efficient business infrastructure, and advanced IT support. Maltese households and the local business sector enjoy the benefits of a flexible financial services industry, which now employs over 8000 people as well as generating benefits in other parts of the economy.
Among the speakers at the HedgeNews Africa Symposium are Tutu Agyare, Nubuke Investments, Windall Bekker, OMAC Actuaries and Consultants, Valérie Bénard, Aksia Europe, Stephen Brown, Fairtree Capital, and Isabella Burke from Investec Prime Broking, while Ian Morley of Allenbridge Hedge and Heath Davies of Signet Capital Management will be leading the strong line-up of speakers. Morley founded and was elected the first chairman of what is today known as the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), the global trade body for the hedge fund industry. Davies is managing director of Signet Capital Management, an award-winning global fund running US$1.3 billion.