Scipion Capital (Scipion), the frontier market investment specialist, has appointed Chris Jenkins to lead a global marketing drive as the firm targets new investment following the fourth anniversary of its flagship Commodity Trade Finance Fund (CTF).
In a newly expanded COO role, Jenkins will be responsible for managing the firm’s day to-day operations. Notably, his role will also include a strong focus on business development as Scipion looks to expand its investor bases across Europe, the US and Asia. Formerly Head of Sales and Marketing at Carrousel Capital and Managing Director of Equity Finance Trading at Bear Stearns, Jenkins brings with him a huge amount of operational, trading and sales experience within the investment industry.
Principally, Jenkins will be responsible for attracting new investment into Scipion’s CTF fund, which celebrated its fourth anniversary in August. The fund, which finances deals in soft and mineral commodities, has enjoyed remarkable performance since its launch in 2007. To date the fund has made a cumulative net return over 61% and, remarkably, has generated positive returns in every month since inception. In that time the fund has completed more than 150 transactions in locations across the whole of Africa.
Jenkins brings a wealth of experience in finance trading, operational and sales roles to Scipion. While heading up sales and marketing for Carrousel, he was responsible for the development and growth of the company through its media and investor relations. Prior to this, Chris was with Bear Stearns International for 10 years as Managing Director of Equity Finance Trading. In this role, he oversaw the growth of the Equity Finance business from USD100m AUM in 1999 into a self-funding USD12 billion portfolio by the time JP Morgan bought the Prime Brokerage unit from Bear Stearns in 2008.
Previously, Jenkins worked at Industrial Bank of Japan, and spent four years at Merrill Lynch as Vice President of CFD & Equity Swap Settlements. He started his career at Royal Bank of Scotland in 1990.
As well as growing the CTF fund, Jenkins will be responsible for devising and implementing a concerted marketing strategy for Scipion’s other funds, namely the Scipion Alpha Seeker Fund, and the Scipion Ai40 Index Tracker Fund, the world’s first pan-African investible index. Chris will also play a key role in launching and marketing a number of new products that Scipion have in the pipeline.
Nicolas Clavel (pictured), CIO and Founder of Scipion, says: “Chris is an outstanding hire for Scipion. As well as having the skill set to take on a traditional COO role, his experience in sales and marketing makes him ideally placed to spearhead our drive for new investors. Our focus up to this point has been concentrated on managing the performance of the CTF fund, and we believe that now is the time to bring its remarkable track record to a much wider audience of investors. Chris will be essential to that process, and with his expertise on board, I believe we can look forward to Scipion growing significantly in the coming months.”
Jenkins says: “Scipion represents a highly attractive proposition for investors. 48 consecutive months of positive performance is a staggering achievement in light of the market turbulence of the last three years, so I am certain the fund will prove popular with new investors. We also have a number of projects that we expect to roll out in the coming months, so it’s an exciting time to be joining Scipion. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to work with such experienced individuals as Nicolas and his team, and I relish the challenge of bringing the firm to the next level.”
