What's next for the Corporate Advisory Landscape?

At SWAN Capital Solutions, Corporate Advisory is one of your core business services, where you have the local expertise and global network to assist clients in achieving their financial goals. Can you take us through the services offered by your Corporate Advisory team?

At Swan Capital Solutions, we are driven towards crafting a tailor-made solution according to our clients’ specific and dynamic needs. In fact, we assist them across different spectrum and service level, be it advising the company on a holistic approach or on a granular level or projects. Our services mainly englobe corporate finance advisory, financial engineering, capital raising, equity listing, transaction advisory and M&As. Our priority remains in providing our clients a customized advice and assistance in materialize the right deal.

SWAN Capital Solutions recently raised Rs 369 million on behalf of La Prudence Leasing. With fundraising being one of your services, it demonstrates the strength of the local capital market. Along with other recent raises closed on the market including those of Meridian and the Mauritius Sugar Syndicate. Why do companies opt for this type of financing and what are the alternatives?

La Prudence Leasing trusted us in assisting them for the first ever walk into the capital market world which was highly welcomed. In fact, we are planning to the launch of the second tranche in the coming months and we are confident of its success. Like La Prudence, many other companies have been utilizing traditional means to finance their businesses, mainly through bank loans. However, we are starting to observe a paradigm shift towards financing solutions converging towards capital markets. The latter allow for way more flexibility in terms of financing instrument, ranging from issuing of equity through ordinary or preference shares, debt instruments either through private placement or listing on the stock market for additional liquidity. These financial instruments bring more dynamism into our capital markets for all its stakeholders, especially issuers having assess to various structures that would allow them to cater for their specific needs.

In Mauritius, and across Africa, there is a strong tradition of family businesses, some of which have grown into conglomerates operating across a wide range of sectors, with an increasing number of HWNIs at the helm. How do you see this evolution and their economic contribution? How can SWAN Capital Solutions help to support such businesses and individuals as they seek to take their businesses to the next level?

That is correct, the family business culture is very much ubiquitous across different sectors of our economy and usually driven by the elders of the family members who have their net worth tangled to the business value. These ultimately make a preponderance chunk in our HNWIs pool. In that momentum, the Africa Wealth Report 2023 revealed that the number of millionaires in Mauritius grew by 69% – the biggest increase in Africa. We are convinced that this evolution is on the upper trend with significant economic contribution along the way. At SWAN Capital Solutions, we have made it our mantra to provide tailor-made financial solutions to those business and individuals in order to satisfy their sophisticated and dynamic needs and requirements. We assist them to sail through the financial obstacles and complexities they come across through comprehensive explanations and assistance and thus making our offering a seamless experience.