The co-CEO also added that the firm will take its time before making plans to adapt to the Millennial market.

The chief investment officer and co-chief executive of Prime Partners, an investment management and consulting company, has said the firm will be expanding its operations in the Middle East and North African region. However, he admits that the company will have to go through a transitioning period before it can tap the Millennial market.

The MENA region is an area which has been going through a bout of turbulence, including the recent severed ties between Qatar, which has been accused of supporting terrorism, and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, the UAE and internationally recognised Yemeni government. However, due to its access to the worlds’ oil reserves, the MENA is an important source of global stability.

Francois Savary, CIO and co-CEO of Prime Partners, based in Geneva, believes his firm can flourish in the region and is looking to make some hires before the end of the year.

“We are looking at reinforcing our teams,” Savary said. “We are particularly interested in the Middle East and North African region, and maybe in Africa. These are the areas where I would say we are strong. We now want to work on our strengths and develop those markets.”

He also explained why his firm is looking to explore the MENA region, and how productive it has been already for Prime Partners.

“The way the company was built over time has been quite opportunistic,” Savary added. “In 2015, the company hired two relationship managers to cover on the MENA and Israel region. They were very successful in developing their markets and we want to continue to develop, and we have found people who are compatible with what we have in house, and we wish to build on that experience.”

Millennials

The financial world is entering a period of change, as wealth begins to be handed over to the generation dubbed Millennials - those aged between 18 and 34. Millennials are seen, to an extent, as revolutionary with their reported interests in impact investing and financial technology causing both sectors to expand dramatically over the course of the last 12 months. Larger firms have started to adapt to the needs and wants of Millennials, but it is rather costly.

Savary admits the firm has not yet started to invest much in Millennial strategies, but insists it has started drafting a plan. 

“Up to now, we have not done a lot,” Savary said. “Let’s be realistic. We have not yet adapted to that. What we are thinking is, but again we are a small company, we need to go step by step, to create a special allocation process for those clients. Divvy up a special allocation for those people. It’s not only fintech, but Millennials are more socially conscious and they want to invest into green and environmental sectors. We are thinking about this are but we are not quite there yet.”

The Prime Partners CIO also said that smaller firms should not rush into technological advances until they have a solid, strategic plan in place.

Savary said: “It would be wrong to make a decision on that before you know how you want to grow your business and where you want to be five years from now. First you need a strategy and to define how you want to move the company forward. Then you may find that your technology and IT system is not optimal, and this is when you make the decision.” 

Partnerships

Prime Partners, which currently manages €3 billion ($3.4 billion) of assets, is also looking to chalk up partnership agreements with other financial institutions in a bid to oust its weaknesses.

Savary was optimistic when this publication spoke to him about the firm’s potential but admitted his company would not sacrifice its DNA to reach its goals in the financial services sector.

The CIO said: “The first step will be to deal with institutional clients. If you want to grow, you need to find partners that share your DNA and values, who want to be in the project for the next ten to fifteen years, and have the capabilities that you don’t have because they add to your skills. We have weaknesses and the way to combat those weaknesses is to partner with another company that has different strengths than us, so that we can collaborate to improve on our different weaknesses.”

“We are a small company,” Savary added. “We will never be Pictet, never be Lombard but that is not our aim. We don’t look to be that.  We don’t want to be an organisation where there is a family of people who are dictating the way to move forward or one where there is a fake democracy, i.e. where one tries to manage people by telling them that they are important when as a matter of fact they are not important. That’s what we want to avoid.”