[email protected] Capital plc, the innovative fintech platform which provides a unique, market-leading Inventory Monetisation© service to European manufacturing and trading companies. Zak Mir spoke with Alessandro Zamboni and here is the list of questions and answers below.
ZM: [email protected] Capital has just announced a launch in the United States. How significant is this move in the history of the company?
AZ: The announcement to launch in the US is further proof of how scalable the [email protected] platform is. In fact, we decided to accelerate our expansion into the US in response to increasing interest from investors there. Further, the powerful network (both of funders and on the client company side) introduced to [email protected] by Anthony Brown encouraged us to kick off the US programme earlier than we had originally planned.
ZM: As [email protected] Capital expands internationally, how easy is it to maintain and control the business?
AZ: The international platforms we roll out follow a standardised “format” and are all, therefore, subject to strong governance by our UK headquarters. Our standard group policies, procedures and methodologies mean [email protected] sufficiently oversees all its operations in Europe and now the US, managing any risks safely and soundly in line with local requirements.
ZM: This autumn has seen a resurgence of COVID-19. How much does the pandemic affect the rollout of [email protected] Capital? Is it overall a positive or a negative at the moment?
AZ: In my opinion, [email protected] Capital is one of the few shares in the market that is uncorrelated with macro-economic factors, including the potential negative impacts of COVID-19. That’s a point we’re committed to demonstrating, particularly to the investment community, because it’s such an important part of our offering.
Looking at the demand, it is reasonable to expect a further increase in inventory monetisation service requests from companies with high creditworthiness, since public recovery measures and the banking industry are set to face further financial pressure.
ZM: Inventory monetisation is a unique concept. Do you think that [email protected] Capital has got the message across in terms of both it uses for businesses and to investors on the stock market?
AZ: There is still work to be done to demonstrate the unique features and benefits of our inventory monetisation service. For example, [email protected]’s service tends to be compared with asset-based lending facilities, which is like comparing apples to oranges – they are not the same thing.
On the funders side, we hope that the completion of our first securitisation will generate significant interest, communicating to a wide audience that [email protected] really is a new asset class for the global asset management industry.
ZM: You have spoken of how [email protected] Capital could challenge existing banks. How could you succeed where so many banks are currently failing to service the market adequately?
AZ: On the contrary, [email protected] presents opportunities for banks. Our partner banks can offer our unique service to their clients, diversify their risk concentration, optimise their de-risking strategies, and focus more on commission margins.
However, we understand that this strategy is not simple for a typical commercial bank as there are a lot of regulations, policies and procedures associated with launching a new product or service.
Some of these steps take longer to complete than others, therefore our self-funding agreements (i.e.) the service model which sees a bank arranges its clients into a portfolio and directly funds this portfolio with its own balance sheet) can take more time to authorise than more well-known processes. We are, however, working to speed up this process for our partner banks and envisage a quicker journey as uptake increases.
ZM: When do you think the first phase of the [email protected] network will be completed, at least in
terms of geography?
AZ: In our business plan, we have identified Italy, the UK, the UAE and the US as core network hubs. It is important to note that each of the international platforms we launch follow a standardised format. Therefore, there are a lot of shared elements across our global platforms, including the inventory servicing network, the Big 4 firm network and an appropriate legal framework.
ZM: Would you be looking to acquire synergistic businesses to [email protected] Capital, once significant enough revenues start flowing in?
AZ: It became my mission, from the day I took on the responsibility of overseeing [email protected]’s strategy, to monitor the market continuously for strategic and opportunistic acquisitions/partnerships. An example of this was the Captive-Bank agreement that [email protected] announced via RNS on 21 September.
The [email protected] team is also analysing another exciting opportunity as we speak – watch this space!
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