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July 18, 2006
Transparency, FDI & Foreign Groups - Counterintuitive Observations
An amusing side note to distract from the Lebanon hysteria that is sucking us all in.
I'm presently doing research on North African financial groups for a potential new piece of business (my idiot whankers back on the other side of the Atlantic still not grasping the lack of transparency that renders any given piece of research in MENA twice as hard at minimum than in the developed world).
It has been amusing so far to find that despite all our talk in sector about how foreign groups bring best practices, better governance and more transparency, that in the Maghreb -comparing like to like, i.e. listed to listed- the locals are actually rather better about publishing their financial reports than the French groups(*). Never mind site functionalities. Not really surprising, if one knows French banks, but provides a bit of nuance to easy talk about FDI and benefits. Not, mind you, that I am against FDI and all things being equal foreign groups usually do raise standards....
(*: I have a fine recollection of a meeting where some American banker opined to a mixed audience "whenever we want to do some dodgey transaction, we can always find a French bank as a counter-party." [Phrasing is off, I think another word than dodgey was used] I bloody choked on my drink, but it was so true.)
Posted by The Lounsbury at July 18, 2006 08:49 PM
Filed Under:
Biz - Policy & Development
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Biz - Private in MENA
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North Africa
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Perso-Expatedness
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