LONDON: BMG with its wealth management partner Julius Baer hosted its third Family Business Forum in London, UK, on Thursday, with the participation of speakers from various parts of the world that highlights the business environment in the GCC, and particularly in Saudi Arabia.
The event focused on particular issues relevant to family business in the GCC and elsewhere.
Stefan Hofan, responsible for global emerging market equity strategy at Julius Baer's Research department (Middle East), spoke about his bank's perspective on the Saudi economy's growth in light of the prevailing global slowdown.
Other speakers included Claude Kurzo from McKinsey, Abdullah Al-Zamil from Zamil Group, and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, CEO of Saudi Fransi Capital, Tawfik Alwan from BMG Financial Group.
They discussed related to family business, continuity and progression and sustainability concerns as the business transcends new generations.
European family businesses also presented their own experiences and Enrico Bonatti, president of Techint SpA, an engineering and contracting company based in Milan, shared his story as a third generation family business.
As often is the case, family businesses consider transforming to a publicly listed company to ensure continuity and growth and Al-Zamil shared his perspective on this evolution as the Zamil Group went through this exercise in 2002.
The narrative of the forum was an exchange of experiences from highly respected family owned businesses, where a discussion panel was conducted about the unique challenges and rewards that family businesses encounter.
© Arab News 2011
