Ocorian, a global company operating in multiple jurisdictions, sees Mauritius as critical in its expansion plans. In the context of the group’s future developments, it plans to play an increasingly important role here by setting up their Global Operational Centre of Excellence in Mauritius. The Global CFO and the Global COO, who are now visiting Mauritius, share with l’express their views and ambitions for the local jurisdiction.

The world is facing an economic crisis which could imply a decrease in global capital flows and more careful investments. To what extent are the activities of Ocorian globally and in Mauritius affected?
If the Covid crisis has taught us one thing, it is that Ocorian is very resilient. In times of crisis, investors are carefully reviewing their investments and looking for reliable partners, which is an opportunity for us. As a service provider operating in the global corporate services sector, we see ourselves as the essential connector that allows cross border investments to continue to flow during any point in the economic cycle. We stay close to our clients to understand them and assist them in finding solutions to continue to manage the flows of capital so that economic growth continues.

How can the perspective of a global recession change your clients’ needs? And how can Ocorian adjust?
The global macroeconomic outlook is looking gloomy to say the least. Even as the world moves on from the worst of the Covid pandemic, it now faces the impact of spiralling inflation, which is being felt in everything from stock market volatility to rising energy costs. And if the cost of living is sky rocketing, so too are labour costs and costs to serve, which can have a potentially devastating impact on the balance sheet. When labour was more affordable, many companies took the sensible option of building in-house capability for everything from accounting to administrative support, in order to benefit from economies of scale.

But now, as labour becomes more expensive again, that logic suddenly falls short. For our clients where rapid inflation is having a negative impact on their balance sheets, it’s time to re-examine their set-ups and how they handle the gritty details of administering and managing their vehicles. That’s where Ocorian comes in. We have the infrastructure and expertise to tackle our clients’ needs more costeffectively; and our clients will once again find themselves benefiting from economies of scale, only this time they our ours. We are available to discuss refinancing, investment opportunities, and joint venture partnerships that would previously perhaps have been ignored. Regular communication and patience are key to helping our clients rationalise any uncertainty and ensure they and we can navigate our way out of difficulty.

The taxation policy of Mauritius is our best advantage. Still, competition is getting fierce with new African jurisdictions like Kenya or Rwanda, and our traditional competitors like Singapore. What are the strengths of the Mauritian jurisdiction according to you?
As the ‘Star and Key’ of the Indian Ocean, Mauritius has been a coveted destination for commerce and trade for nearly two centuries and deservedly so. In more recent years Mauritius’ hospitable business ecosystem – built on the back of a successful relationship between foreign capital and local business – has seen Mauritius establish itself not just as a prime location for companies wishing to harness the investment opportunities of Asian markets, but also burgeoning African markets. In our view, this will not change any time soon. The taxation policy of Mauritius was historically its strength, however in recent years this is becoming less and less the driver of the jurisdiction.

In our view, the primary strength of Mauritius is firmly in the quality of our people and the deep talent pool in the jurisdiction. The talent pool in Mauritius is very knowledgeable and has the right educational and professional background. Mauritius has one of the highest number of accountants per capita and many of these professionals already work in the financial services sector. Those who don’t yet may wish to consider a career with Ocorian. The workforce here is also bilingual, or even trilingual as well as being a resilient, dedicated, and hardworking nation; this all adds to the attractiveness of the local workforce in Mauritius.

The strength of Mauritius as an African International Financial Centre (IFC) continues to evolve and is based on the past 30 years of experience, knowledge, and openness to new ideas. Mauritius has been a significant strategic hub in the Indian Ocean for close to 500 years and a trading hub for over 200 years. Being part of Africa, Mauritius is also seen as a neutral hub for cross border investment into and out of the continent. Mauritius remains an attractive business destination as a result of its membership of all the major African regional organisations. These include the African Union, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Indian Ocean Rim-Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC). Mauritius also offers additional layers of comfort and security in the form of an international arbitration centre and a hybrid legal system.

The hybrid system draws legal principles from both French civil law and British common law – Mauritius’ highest court of appeal is the Privy Council based in London. Furthermore, Mauritius has adopted a number of bold and in-depth measures to enhance its regulatory regimes to global standards, as evidenced in the removal of Mauritius by the European Commission from its list of high-risk countries earlier this year. The Commission noted how Mauritius has strengthened its Anti-Money Laundering/Counter Terrorist Financing regime significantly.

FinTech is a segment that is not yet mature in Mauritius. What expertise can Ocorian bring to the country?
FinTech is not yet mature in Mauritius and yet with a robust and dynamic communications infrastructure, there has been a prominent push to establish Mauritius as Africa’s FinTech hub. Notably, the successful establishment and subsequent growth of the Mauritius Africa FinTech Hub in late 2018 has spawned an ecosystem that transcends pan-African borders and promotes technological advancement. The Hub’s introduction is particularly timely, with the African FinTech sector growing from a $200m market to one worth $3bn just before the pandemic. A large factor behind this is Mauritius’ Regulatory Sandbox Licence (RSL), introduced in 2016. It succeeds in catering for innovative FinTech projects, enabling them to deliver progressive products, services and business models in real markets with real consumers, all with regulatory supervision. This FinTech ‘test-centre’ approach has attracted a swathe of businesses looking to provide FinTech solutions across Africa.

Ocorian and its subsidiaries, Newgate Compliance and Platinum Compliance, have vast, first-hand regulatory experience with FinTech products such as cryptocurrency, digital banking and micro-insurance. Ocorian often provides or acts as trustee for wealthy families or companies across the globe; so, engagement with the FinTech ecosystem is very much day-to-day business. As our clients span the whole spectrum of FinTech, we are well equipped to work with the future of the industry’s leaders and pioneers in Africa as the market matures. Of course, FinTech is a sector that will remain under the close eye of regulation until the industry as a whole matures and is acknowledged to be safe and secure.

How do you plan and see the growth of Ocorian in Mauritius?
We run our business in five service lines: corporate and fiduciary services, fund administration and capital markets, as well as regulatory, legal, and compliance. At the moment we don’t perform the regulatory, legal, and compliance and capital markets services here. As Mauritius grows as a finance centre, we want to grow those capabilities here. Of course, with capital markets, it’s dependent on how they grow in Mauritius and in Africa. What we know is that there’s a very talented workforce here in Mauritius and we want to continue to grow our team locally. Already, we have grown the business here by 50% in the last year, the same the year before that, and we’re looking to continue that trend. We see Mauritius as being critical in our expansion plans. Ocorian is one company in multiple jurisdictions. Our teams no longer operate jurisdictionally but rather globally, interacting with colleagues across the globe. Ocorian Mauritius is very important to the future developments of the group, and we seek to play an increasingly important role of the sector in Mauritius.