Beat Wittmann, a Swiss financier, with a business associate has launched a new investment firm. They have managed to attract a string of international financial experts to provide them with investment advice.
The new company is called Finos and based in Zurich, according to the Swiss trade registry. Beat Wittmann is listed as chairman, while Daniel Kornmann (pictured below), gets a mentioning as member of the board.
Kornmann has had a similar career path as his companion Wittmann, with positions at Credit Suisse (CS), Clariden (which used to be a CS unit) and Julius Baer.
The two investors also were the driving forces behind TCMG asset management, a company owned by Raiffeisen Switzerland. TCMG had been integrated into the bank after an abrupt change of strategy.
Porta Advisors
Following this development, Wittmann and Kornmann founded Porta Advisors some two years ago, a firm based in Zurich and active as a financial adviser. Porta Advisors will remain in business and take charge of some of the Finos projects.
The new company will make first investments starting in the third and fourth quarters of 2017, having received capital from institutional investors. Finos aims to take stakes in financial-services and luxury-goods companies in Europe.
Investment Opportunities in Europe
Wittmann repeatedly has said that the economic development in Europe, with low interest rates and a period of consolidation in the financial market presents good investment opportunities.
Finos will receive specialty know-how from experts that have joined Porta Advisors over the past year. Roland Knecht for instance joined the group, a banker with a past at Clariden based in Singapore. Until very recently, Knecht managed Atlas Asset Management in Asia. The company is a divestment of Banque Heritage.
Kenneth Ho, Pierre Mallevays and Mark D. Jordy
Kenneth Ho is a further banker to provide his expertise. The former CS and Julius Baer banker two years ago founded Carret Private Investments, a multi-family-office based in Hong Kong. Porta Advisors has an advisory committee of six people that now will provide Finos with its expertise.
Porta Advisors recently agreed to cooperate with Savigny Partners, a London-based financial-advisory firm specialized in transactions in the luxury goods and lifestyle industries. Pierre Mallevays, the founder of Savigny Partners, since has been a member of the Porta Advisors committee.
The board of Porta Advisors also contains Mark D. Jordy, a member of the LGT Group Foundation.
It will be interesting to see which investments the new investment company will seek to take.
