London-based financial services firm Appital, today announced two senior board appointments to further accelerate its growth. Greg Bennett and Stephane Carty have been appointed as non-executive directors to support Appital’s mission to bring technological innovation and automation to equity capital markets, the company revealed.
Appital said it provideds Liquidity opportunities for buyside firms, including in small and medium cap stocks, enabling them to execute large volumes, often in excess of five days of Average Day Volume (ADV), with minimal market impact or risk of price erosion.
The appointments come at a time when the drive to modernise equity capital markets is gathering pace and follows the recent appointment of Brian Guckian and Philipp Eberle to the management team.
Appital’s book-building and allocation methodology is transparent, unbiased and unconflicted, delivering a fair outcome for all market participants and unlocking liquidity that has historically been difficult to access.
Greg Bennett brings a unique overview of equity capital markets to the board, Appital said.
As the former head of capital markets for EMEA and the Americas for Fidelity International he has first-hand experience of the liquidity challenges faced by the buy-side. Additionally, he brings sell side expertise gained as partner and managing director in equity capital markets and equity syndicate for Cazenove and JPMorgan Cazenove.
Stephane Carty brings more than 23 years investment experience in trading and financial derivatives to his new role. He founded Fir Post Capital, a global Volatility fund, in 2010 and subsequently Blackheath Capital Management.
Prior to that, he was head of European principal strategies at Wachovia Securities International, and his early career included trading both agency and proprietary books at Commerzbank, Lehman Brothers and Bankers Trust.
Driving innovation in equity capital markets
“I am very excited to welcome Greg and Stephane to the Appital board of directors. Their industry insights and expertise are invaluable as we scale up our business and drive innovation in equity capital markets. We bring technology, automation and transparency to the equity capital markets empowering asset managers to take control of the book building process, ” Mark Badyra, CEO of Appital, said.
Greg Bennett, NED, noted that after a career in Equity Capital Markets as both an adviser and an investor, he has seen first hand the inefficiencies and opacity within the process and believe that technology has a key role to play in moving ECM forward.
“Illiquidity is a systemic issue within equity markets and has a real adverse cost of capital for issuers and diminishes investors’ returns. With Appital, there is the opportunity to address this key issue as well as provide a significant step change in the execution of ECM business across the market. I am excited to be working with the team to help deliver this vision,” he said.
“Appital truly challenges indoctrinated norms and inefficiencies across the small and mid cap ECM public market space. I am delighted to have joined the board and look forward to working with the rest of the Appital team over the coming years as we face the challenges ahead,” Stephane Carty, NED, added.
