ABOUT AdFIN

As economic pressures continue to challenge businesses in the small open economies of the Caribbean, organizations are required to continuously enhance their performance so that they can grow sustainably, maintain profitability and generate sufficient cash flow to meet financial commitments.

Financial institutions are also faced with the challenges of prudently growing their loans and investment books, while managing their existing portfolios and recovering defaulted assets in timely and optimal manner. This all has to be done while remaining compliant with regulatory guidelines, maintaining high levels of employee engagement and beating the competition at customer service!

AdFIN’s financial advisory experts work with corporate and state entities, financial institutions and non-profit organizations, to solve complex business and financial problems. The firm implements viable and achievable solutions that are identified from in-depth, professional analysis, and that are based on years of experience and training. Driven by passionate Caribbean professionals, AdFIN has a keen interest in assisting regional companies in financing growth and being internationally competitive. With concerns also for the preservation of economic capital and employment, and the generation of economic activity, the firm works with troubled entities to put them back onto a stable footing and to return them to productive capacity.

AdFIN assists regional indigenous banks as well in maintaining credit and general management practices that adequately support their clients’ growth initiatives and that allow for efficient remediation and recovery, so that financial system savings are not unduly eroded.

SERVICES

AdFIN’s mission is to mobilize experienced and well-qualified professionals from a wide range of industries and backgrounds to successfully address its clients’ financial challenges and business needs. Specifically, the firm offers services in the following areas:

AdFIN’s professionals can employ substantial cumulative experience in working with clients to:

  • Review the appropriateness of financing arrangements for existing business levels.
  • Recommend and develop cash flow and interest saving financing structures.
  • Assess the suitability of financing plans for the achievement of growth and expansion targets.
  • Develop financial planning and forecasting models to support strategic initiatives.

By employing experience and training in working capital and trade financing, AdFIN can assist clients by:

  • Assessing the effectiveness of working capital and cash flow management arrangements.
  • Developing working capital management policies and procedures to improve cash flow and lower borrowing costs.
  • Implementing accounts receivable, accounts payable and inventory management policies and procedures that lower operating costs and improve earning.
  • Determining the optimal level of working capital financing and the financing products that best suit the operating cycle.
  • Negotiating with lenders for financing arrangements that match business plans and cost parameters.

Using multiple investment appraisal techniques, AdFIN can support clients by:

  • Selecting long-term investments and asset acquisition options that optimize returns.
  • Determining whether new projects should be pursued.
  • Designing the best capital structure to finance selected long-term investments and projects.
  • Sourcing and negotiating the most efficient financing vehicle from the market.

Using extensive experience in Corporate and Investment Banking, AdFIN can work with clients to:

  • Develop financing plans for working capital and international trade, equipment acquisition, property acquisition and expansion, mergers and acquisitions, and other forms of investment.
  • Identify, select and negotiate financing options most suited to purpose.
  • Arrange financing conditions and security arrangements to expedite drawdown and transaction closure.
  • Satisfy lender requirements in respect of covenant monitoring and margin reporting.

As Certified Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors, AdFIN can assist clients by:

  • Developing debt restructuring plans that properly align financing arrangements with asset classes, lower interest cost and improve cash flow.
  • Formulating debt restructuring plans where financial difficulties are being experienced and there is need to regularize debt servicing arrangements.
  • Developing turnaround plans that return the enterprise to solvency and profitability.
  • Negotiating with lenders and creditors for the restructuring of debts and the continuation of working capital funding.

Employing specialized training, AdFIN will assist with:

  • Identification of financial statement fraud and asset misappropriation, divorce litigation, business valuation and assessment of economic damages.
  • Determination of ways to prevent, detect and deter fraudulent activity.
  • Provision of Expert Witness services.

Using extensive practical experience and specialized training, AdFIN can assist financial institutions with the:

  • Review and upgrade of credit policy and procedures.
  • Update of systems and procedure for efficient credit portfolio administration.
  • Revalidation and upgrade of credit scoring, risk rating and pricing models.
  • Review of provisioning methodologies against regulatory and accounting standards.
  • Review and upgrade of debt recovery systems and procedure.
  • Delivery of training in:
    • Financial Statement Analysis
    • Credit Risk Analysis
    • Business Development Techniques for Corporate Banking
    • Commercial Credit Selling Skills

To avoid the slippage of accounts into non-performing status, AdFIN can work with financial institutions to:

  • Conduct reviews on problematic accounts or accounts in imminent danger of insolvency, and provide stabilization plans with credit management solutions.
  • Monitor impaired or distressed accounts for adherence to agreed austerity arrangements.
  • Perform security reviews and valuations for assessment of exposure .

As Certified Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors, AdFIN can assist financial institutions and their clients with:

  • The assessment of clients in insolvency and the development of turnaround and debt restructuring plans.
  • Participation on Creditor Committees in the formulation of debt restructuring solutions.
  • Negotiation of debtor-in-possession financing for continuation of operations.
  • Monitoring of performance and reporting against change management plans, turnaround forecasts and debt servicing agreements.

Where business operations cannot be turned around, AdFIN will work for financial institutions to:

  • Supervise voluntary liquidation.
  • Act as a Receiver - Liquidator.
  • Act as a Receiver - Manager.

MEET THE PRINCIPAL ADVISOR

MEET THE PRINCIPAL ADVISOR

AdFIN is led by Ian De Souza, a former senior banking executive with 40 years of experience in the industry, the last 25 of which were with Republic Bank, the largest indigenous banking group in the Caribbean. He has held the positions of Corporate Manager - Trade Finance, General Manager - Risk Management, General Manager - Corporate & Investment Banking, and President/CEO of subsidiaries in the Dominican Republic and Barbados. His career also took him through management roles in the banking sector in Toronto, Canada, and special assignments with Republic Bank throughout the Caribbean and Africa.

Following retirement from Republic Bank, Ian was appointed Executive Director and C.E.O. of the School of Business and Management at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. In addition to his leadership role at the School of Business and Management, he was appointed Professor of Practice - Banking and Finance in the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Ian is a graduate of the University of the West Indies with a B.Sc. Economics, a Graduate Diploma in Management and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration. He is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School - Advanced Management Programme, a Chartered Accountant (Trinidad) and a Certified Insolvency and Restructuring Advisor (American Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors). He is certified in Forensic Accounting and Fraud Investigation under the Southern New Hampshire University graduate programme and he is licenced as a Trustee under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act by the Ministry of Finance of Trinidad & Tobago.

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TESTIMONIALS

[email protected]

P.O. Box 10279, St. James,
Trinidad & Tobago, W.I.

+1(868) 681 - 6166

+1(868) 683 - 1313