Setting the scene against the backdrop of the Atlas mountains in magical Marrakech, IMAP Chairman, Jurgis Oniunas, quoted British theoretical physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson* - The world is both broad and deep – and we need both birds and frogs working together to explore it.
Relating the metaphor to IMAP, Jurgis explained: “With representatives from over 40 countries, IMAP partners have the opportunity both to have a top-down ‘bird’s eye’ view of trends from around the world, as well as the ability to arbitrage ideas from one market, to use in another; and the bottom-up ‘frog’s view’ of specific deals and markets.“
Providing the bird’s eye sessions with a quick immersion into the investment climate in Morocco and Africa were:
- Host firm, Ascent Capital Partners, Managing Partners, Abdellatif Imani and Mehdi Berbich
- Ahmed Reda Chami, President of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE), and current Moroccan ambassador to the European Union in Brussels.
- Sofiane Lahmar, Development Partners International (DPI), an industry leader in the African private equity space.
- Lamia Merzouki, is Deputy General Manager at Casablanca Finance City Authority (CFCA).
- Hans Bevers, Chief Economist at Bank Degroof Petercam, who gave a macro economic overview.
The frog’s perspective came from a series IMAP partners presenting on: completed innovative IMAP deals; how to transform our businesses into full-service financial firms; and using new software to integrate our pipelines. Thanks to the beautiful Moroccan climate, many of the discussions on deals in sector groups and bi-lateral meetings took place in the sunshine. The IMAP conclusion: perhaps it’s best to be a frog with wings.
An in-depth review of the Marrakech conference will appear in our 7th edition of IMAP’s bi-annual publication, Creating Value, due out at the end of November.
IMAP’s spring conference is in March 2020 in Denver with host firm Capstone Headwaters directing proceedings.
* As quoted in Range, by David Epstein, Random House, 2019.
IMAP closed 49 M&A deals worth more than $1.4bn in Q1 2020. 43% of the deals were cross-border.
Last weekend, IMAP colleagues from all over the world were due to congregate in Denver, Colorado, for a conference planned for many months, where deals, learning, and friendships would be developed and shaped.
One thing that this crisis is showing us is that no matter the geography, no matter the level of economic activity or wealth, all of us are inter-connected, facing the same problems and concerns.
