Monday 15th May 2023, 5pm
5.00 pm Mello welcome followed by a Question & Answer session from Sosandar
5.30 pm Company presentation from Diaceutics
6.10 pm Company presentation from WiseAlpha
6.50 pm Mello BASH with Damian Cannon & Kevin Taylor featuring Ten Entertainment Group (TEG) and Barratt Developments (BDEV)
Company Presentation – WiseAlpha
WiseAlpha has built one of the first digital Fractional Corporate Bond Trading marketplaces in the world, allowing private investors and wealth managers to affordably access institutional corporate bonds. It also licenses its technology to banks and other finance institutions globally. Normally, corporate bonds are issued in sizes of £100,000, WiseAlpha fractionalises these bonds in sizes of £100, so that investors can build a diversified portfolio of bonds. They have an online portal whereby sophisticated and high-net worth individuals can access their product.
Their technology encompasses a client management portal that serves the UK wealth management market, enabling wealth managers to create client accounts and trade bonds on behalf of their clients. WiseAlpha also have a portfolio service called, Robowise, which empowers the client or wealth manager to create a diversified portfolio that can be tailored to their ethical preferences and the algorithm then equally weights this portfolio, by buying and selling on a continual basis.
As a SAAS provider, they white label their technology to banks and other financial institutions, providing the much sought after technology for the bond market. Their product offering encompasses all of the tools needed for a bank, from back-office to front-office solutions enabling a full integration of their services into the bank’s infrastructure.
Rezaah is an internationally recognised and renowned leading corporate bond expert. Having studied economics and financial crises at the University of Cambridge he started his career in the No.1 Debt finance team in Europe at Deutsche Bank before working in the hedge fund industry. He has invested in every major asset class, public and private and has also led a number of high-profile corporate restructurings. He has also been on the board of a EUR 1bn cable television business in Germany, Telecolumbus. With a unique and broad skill set that sets him apart from other finance professionals he is committed to revolutionising the bond market by democratising access to a previously elitist asset class which has demonstrated superior risk-adjusted returns over the last 20 years.
Reezah Ahmad, Executive Director
Q&A session with Sosandar (LON:SOS)
Sosandar is one of the fastest growing women’s fashion brands in the UK targeting style conscious women who have graduated from price-led alternatives. The Company offers this underserved audience fashion-forward, affordable, quality clothing to make them feel sexy, feminine, and chic. The business sells predominantly own-label exclusive product designed in-house.
Sosandar’s product range is diverse, providing its customers with an array of choice for all occasions across all women’s fashion categories. The company sells through Sosandar.com and has brand partnerships in place with Next, John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, The Very Group, JD Williams and J Sainsbury.
Sosandar’s strategy is to continue growing brand awareness and expand its customer database, whilst also further driving its high levels of customer retention. This is achieved through its exceptional products, seamless customer experience and impactful, lifestyle marketing activities all of which is underpinned by combining innovation with data analysis.
Julie Lavington, Joint-CEO
Former fashion magazine publishing director, Julie Lavington, is co-founder and joint CEO of Sosandar.
In 2007, Julie launched Look magazine, a leading UK women’s fashion publication. During her tenure, Julie steered Look to have a multi-platform presence with a wide social media reach. She diversified into producing successful Look branded clothing ranges with leading UK fashion retailers. Julie was awarded the prestigious Publisher of the Year Award in 2010 by the Professional Publishers Association. From August 2014, Julie was also publishing director of UK InStyle magazine a global fashion brand published in 17 countries worldwide.
Prior to her role at Look and InStyle, Julie was publishing director of the TV portfolio at H. Bauer from 2001 to 2006, where she took TV Choice from fledgling brand to market leader. She has also held publishing roles on numerous women’s brands, including Marie Claire, after starting her career in advertising sales following a modern languages degree at Durham University. Julie is experienced in consumer research, sales and marketing, logistics and manufacturing, the development of customer-focused businesses, and in the recruitment and development of multi-disciplined teams.
Julie Lavington & Ali Hall, Joint CEOs
Alison Hall, Joint-CEO
Former fashion magazine editor, Alison Hall, is co-founder and joint CEO of Sosandar.
Prior to founding Sosandar in 2015, Alison was editor of Look magazine. After its launch in 2007, Alison helped it grow to become a leading fashion magazine title. Alison has been a highly influential fashion editor, and has twice been awarded the Editor of the Year (Women’s Magazines (weekly or fortnightly)) accolade by the British Society of Magazine Editors. During her tenure at Look, Alison designed successful clothing ranges for several of the UK’s top retailers.
Starting out as a reporter for regional newspapers, Alison began her magazine career at EMAP’s Slimming magazine. Recruited by Bliss magazine as deputy editor in 2001, Alison was promoted to acting editor, and six months later moved to More magazine as editor, where she successfully implemented a major relaunch of the title. Alison has also been a fashion contributor to both local and national radio and TV shows.
Steve joined Sosandar from Regatta, the outdoor apparel business in September 2020 as Finance Director and was appointed Chief Financial Officer in May 2021 . Steve is CIMA qualified and has a broad skillset gained across a number of roles in highly complex organisations with a blend of financial, commercial and strategic experience.
During his eleven years at Regatta, the last four as Finance Director, Steve supported the Group’s consistent double-digit growth across multiple brands, countries and channels including wholesale, own retail, concessions and online. He was also the finance lead for several key strategic projects including the Group’s Brexit planning and the implementation of group wide new IT systems.
Prior to his tenure at Regatta, Steve held a broad range of financial and commercial roles in retail and FMCG organisations including Kraft Foods and The Co-Operative Group.
Steve Dilks, CFO
Company Presentation – Diaceutics (LON:DXRX)
Diaceutics is a diagnostic commercialisation company which provides the world’s leading pharma and life science companies with solutions and technology for the commercialisation of their precision medicines, enabled by the proprietary DXRX platform. DXRX is the world’s first diagnostic commercialisation platform for precision medicine, utilising a global network of affiliate laboratories to deliver multiple pipelines of real-world healthcare data insights, advisory services and innovative platform enabled solutions. The Group is a trusted partner to pharma and currently works with all of the top 20 pharma companies in the US and Europe.
Peter Keeling, CEO
Peter has over 33 years’ experience as a leader, entrepreneur and strategist in the pharmaceutical industry. He has led international companies and teams with a focus on novel business models and product launches, including therapies, diagnostics and FMCG products. Peter founded and has led Diaceutics from its inception in 2005 to become a leader in precision testing commercialisation which currently supports the go to market biomarker programmes for the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. Peter has published several peer reviewed papers on precision medicine and is a respected speaker at precision medicine events around the world.
Nick Roberts, CFO
Nick is accountable for the financial health of the organisation, working alongside the EXCO team to determine overall direction for the company. He is responsible for developing, implementing and driving strategic plans collaborating across multiple functions, supporting the Board and leading investor reporting. Nick is an experienced senior finance professional with over 12 years’ experiences within the financial arena. He brings many years’ experience working with high growth AIM listed companies most recently in the pharmaceutical and green energy sector and has a proven record in managing growth companies with a strong platform focus.
The Mello BASH (Buy, Avoid, Sell & Hold)
Damian Cannon Private Investor
Kevin Taylor Private Investor
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