Societe Generale Private Banking is boosting its presence in the Middle East with a team that is focusing on the extremely exclusive Ultra High Net Worth segment that is coveted by virtually all the banks all over the world. Chief Executive Eddy Abramo tells Mike Gallagher why Société Générale Private Banking has the edge over its competitors
Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UNHWIs) in emerging markets are probably the most interesting segment of high finance. It is the most sought after and fought after and it is one market that Société Générale Private Banking is sharply focused on catering to. To this end it has built up a formidable team in the Middle East that is working hard to become the private bank of choice.
Société Générale Private Banking's offering includes international wealth planning and fiduciary services (trust and tax planning), a global expertise in structured products, hedge funds, mutual and private equity funds, real estate investment solutions and direct access to capital markets.
In November 2009, Société Générale Group expanded its wealth management activities in the Middle East with the creation of a new office in Bahrain under the brand Société Générale Wealth Management. The new entity is regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) and takes over the Investment Firm's Licence (Category 2) held by Société Générale Asset Management in Bahrain. Around the same time, it appointed Eddy Abramo as its new Chief Executive for the Middle East.
Société Générale Private Banking won the Best Investment Advisory Service Award at the 2010 Banker Middle East Product Awards on 20 April at Emirates Towers hotel in Dubai and Eddy Abramo and a number of Société Générale staff were in attendance to collect the award.
Can you explain what the bank's open architecture policy is?
This is definitely one of our strengths regarding traditional private banking in the Middle East. We have what we call an investment advisory team based in Dubai. The role of this team is to provide advice to the clients, but there are a lot of different products and we can't analyse all the products available on the market. For this reason we have several bases in Europe that we call the Centres of Expertise. We have one centre of expertise dedicated to each asset class, such as one dedicated to structured products, one for hedge funds, one for bonds, equities, real estate, private equity etc.
All of this expertise works in open architecture. In order to satisfy the various needs of our clients and provide them with neutral advice we decided to work in open architecture and extend our offering to external products.
Depending on the asset, we could find one third of internal products in our offering. Two thirds are external products. This is very important because when I meet a client or a prospect and I have to brief him on his investments, he can be sure that I am completely neutral and I am not there to push any internal product.
How do Middle Eastern Ultra High Net Worth clients compare with those in say, Asia, Europe or the US in their choice of investments?
The first difference between Europe and the Middle East is regarding Shari'ah needs and Shari'ah products. Because we are in the Middle East, we need to have Shari'ah products in order to be able to meet our clients' needs. We have external products because we are not an Islamic bank and for Shari'ah products it is better for us to leverage off existing products which come from Islamic banks.
Generally all Ultra High Net Worth clients are different, whether they are in the GCC or in Europe. There is no real specificity, but if we have to find one specificity between Europe and the GCC, then it is in the GCC the clients want to leverage more of their investments. They want to have the loan to value on products, usually they want to add leverage on each investment and this is something very important. In Europe, it is not common to use leverage on products.
Is succession planning going to be the next big thing for UHNWIs in the coming years?
The area of succession planning for Ultra High Net Worth clients is quite sensitive because we are talking about huge wealth and it is never easy to organise this kind of succession planning for those kinds of clients. They have different businesses in different countries with different tax laws and so on.
We have a centre of expertise called Wealth Planning and it is in charge of giving that kind of advice. Within Société Générale Middle East, we have a team that is dedicated to wealth planning to give this kind of advice to our clients. All of these clients are completely aware of the products and know how to play the markets. They are very sophisticated, but I think that in the coming years, the importance of wealth planning will increase. Local regulations are changing and every year there are new rules and new laws and it is a full time job dealing with such important matters.
What does Soc Gen offer it when it comes to exclusive events for UHNWIs?
We often organise very exclusive events. For example in May, as a sponsor of Cannes Festival we offer our clients a unique experience at the heart of the Cannes festival with VVIP access to red carpet events.
We also have sponsorship deals with international golf players and we organise a day with clients and the players. This is quite popular with the clients because it isn't every day that you get to play alongside international professional golfers like for example, Angel Cabrera, Thomas Levet, Christian Cevaer or Jeev Milkha Singh. That way our clients can get dedicated advice for improving their game.
When it comes to art, modern and contemporary art is one of the Société Générale Group's privileged axes of sponsorship. In line with the Group, we participate in a variety of art-themed activities from exclusive access to private collections and visits to artists' workshops and locally sponsored exhibitions. Examples would be a private viewing and reception of Zao Wou-Ki Graphic Arts Exhibition at Suzhou Museum, China or supporting an art exhibition by internationally honoured Indian artist S.H. Raza.
What does Soc Gen do by way of philanthropic activities for Middle Eastern UHNWIs?
We have a lot of philanthropy initiatives within Societe Generale all around the world, such as through the Société Générale Foundation, which was created in 2006 for professional rehabilitation or through the Société Générale Charitable Trust Fund in London to encourage social and community enterprises or arrangements we have made with Care, which is an internationally known aid agency.
We have one dedicated person for the Middle East that deals with philanthropic projects and coordinates and he fine tunes group level philanthropic activities for the local clients.
The Holy Month of Ramadan is obviously a very important event for Muslims and this year we would like to increase our focus on philanthropic activities at that time of year. Our client relationship manager who coordinates the philanthropy activities for the Middle East is currently working on organising a dedicated event for the Holy Month.
There are a lot of philanthropic initiatives at the group level, but given that we are based in the Middle East, we have to adapt and to focus on the
local market.
© Banker Middle East 2010
