Wealth & Finance Finance Awards 2015

Wealth & Finance Finance Awards 2015 30 Camden Associates Specialist International Financing Firm of the Year - UK Camden Associates is a boutique investment banking firm offering bespoke services across a limited number of sectors. Jean-Claude Gonneau talks us through the firm’s innovative approach to investing and how it has led to their success. Company: Camden Associates Ltd Name: Jean-Claude Gonneau Email :[email protected] Web Address:www.camdenassociates.co.uk Address:27 Hill Street London W1J 5LP Telephone: 020 7290 9817 Camden Associates invests in a limited number of sectors, examples of which include energy and mining, as we tend to work with groups which have not found the partners they were looking for, who usually operate across a limited investment sector. Our overriding philosophy is to help our clients do the deals they want or find alternative solutions to permit them to overcome the obstacle they are faced with. In order to achieve this, we look at our clients individually to estab- lish exactly what sort of services they need. Large firms tend to be perceived as reliable but they often overlook the interests of medium size industry players not to mention the smaller players who are, more often than not, ignored. The qualities required vary but, at present, even the largest firms cannot do the deals they were asked to do because the market for mining and energy has shrunk tremendously in the last year and a half or so. Therefore it gives the smaller players new opportunities, which help them to capitalise on. There are a number of challenges in our industry, most notably the cy- cle of positive and negative growth. The current downward slope we are seeing in the energy and mining industries is here to stay for a while. The most exciting opportunity is that a down cycles tends to play rather favourably in favour of specialized players, and therefore provides us with a fresh challenge to overcome as an investment firm. The new year looks set to bring further challenges for the energy and mining sectors and we look forward to overcoming these issues.