PROVEN Management Limited yesterday obtained a securities dealers licence from the Financial Service Commission (FSC), marking the investment house’s arrival in the financial adivisory services and investment banking business.

“This is a big deal for us because our business model is premised on two avenues: having strong capital and having strong service delivery,” said Proven CEO Christopher Williams to the Business Observer.

“The service delivery aspect firstly required the approval of the FSC and then secondly required us to put in place a strong, nimble, efficient team that can deliver local and global securities to our clients,” he added.

Proven, a partnership of Jamaican investment bankers, successfully raised US$20 million in late January, when 150 private and institutional investors took up 200 million shares in the entity. Williams said the FSC approval comes at an ideal time for the firm — when clients are being forced to look at securities due to a fall in repo rates to delivering negative real returns.

“Truth be told, securities have always delivered a better return, but obviously with repo rates high, there was no need to look to securities,” he said, adding “that has obviously disappeared and so, investors in attempting to protect and/or enhance their wealth will now look to advisors for guidance on appropriate securities… so

the competitive advantage switches from a strong balance sheet to a strong service-delivery model and Proven Management expects to deliver that.”

To this end, Williams said Proven made a strategic move in last December’s hiring of Paul Simpson, who had made a name for himself as a wealth advisor at Guardian Asset Management.

“That was one of the reasons why we have, from the get-go, employed Paul Simpson — because we always intended to utilise our securities dealers licence in a manner that would be more in an advisory capacity rather than just simply try to take leverage from the repo product,” said the

Proven boss.

“So, what we are aiming to deliver with this securities licence is advice, showing people securities — local and international — that can meet their investment needs based on their risk appetite and return targets,” he noted.

Williams added that the licence also allows the company to enter the investent banking market as well.

“It allows us to compete in the investment banking arena in terms of working with entrepreneurs to satisfy their fund-raising and balance sheet restructuring requirements,” said Williams.

Proven is a partnership of pioneering investment banker Peter Bunting, Mark Golding, Garfield Sinclair and Williams.