West Sands

West Sands helped a client gain transparency on the intersection between the financial sector, Government, ruling elite and key businesses of a Central Asian frontier economy through the use of an intelligence framework. This framework enabled the client to take a risk-adjusted decision over how to engage the market and where best to avoid exposure to possible financial risk.

Seeking opportunities in the financial sector of a BRIC country, West Sands helped a Client gain a clear understanding of the potential for government intervention by building an intelligence framework that identified companies perceived as weaker and likely to be sacrificed in a government sweep, those that were considered strategic and thus more likely to gain government protection, and the tools the government would likely deploy.

West Sands' advice helped the Client make a more informed decision over which corporate entities to avoid.

West Sands was asked to develop an intelligence framework to help determine whether or not there was a collusive relationship between minority shareholders in a strategic asset, in which a Client held a stake. It was determined that there was evidence of collusion between two key shareholders who were seeking to create an obstacle to a merger that the Client considered essential for the future growth of the asset.

As the asset was strategic, and several shareholders were government-owned entities, the Client then had information necessary to appropriately navigate their stake.

A Client was looking to establish an investment platform in Central Europe with a local investment team that claimed privileged business and political ties throughout the region and into Eastern Europe.

West Sands conducted an investigation and built an intelligence framework - revealing that the local team had no significant access to indigenous or outlying markets.

The Client decided to reconsider their growth strategy in this region, and identified an alternative route to market with our continued assistance.

A Client with limited internal resources was seeking to increase investment exposure in a specific emerging market. West Sands was tasked to use its intelligence network to help identify opportunities and make a direct introduction between our client and the ultimate decision maker of the asset of interest.

West Sands' influence map helped identify the opportunities and decision makers, thus providing our client with competitive advantage.

West Sands was asked to develop an intelligence-led monitoring system of a Client's portfolio companies and their subsidiaries in Africa. As the Client was focused on making socially responsible investments, the mandate was driven by the need to ensure that their investments were transparent and maintained a high degree of integrity.

The Client was reassured to know that they would be provided with an ongoing feed of any key developments that could impact their business interests. This intelligence feed included monitoring of key people and entities involved with each target investment. During the course of one such update, for example, West Sands was able to disclose a potential conflict of interest arising from the business interests of a senior management member. Other updates included changes to the corporate structure, a reputational issue associated with a supplier, pending litigation, and environmental issues that were hidden from media coverage.