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Michel Akkermans Sees Specific E-Finance Know-How In Belgium
Interview with Chairman and CEO Michel Akkermans, in the Belgian daily newspaper De Standaard.
Summary: When he sold his technology company FICS at the end of 1999 to the American group S1, it appeared that Michel Akkermans' future lay in the US. Two years later, he chose Europe once again and has resurfaced both in established organizations such as Gimv and the start-up company Clear2Pay. "There is a common thread about what I do'', says Michel Akkermans.
By Pascal Dendooven, 20 February 2002 - Michel Akkermans (41) was 29 when he gave up his job at a bank to found his own company, FICS, which would focus on the banking sector, predominantly in electronic banking. The founding factor behind one of FICS' businesses, its financial reporting division, was the result of a joint venture with Rob Heyvaert, the founder of Capco. This joint venture was Belgian Bankers' Association (BBA).
Akkermans sold his company in 1999 to the American company Security First Technologies, which, merging simultaneously with both Edify and FICS, formed the group S1.
At the time, it seemed like you'd hit the jackpot but in light of the changed conditions and a fluctuating stock price it became a much lower figure.
"The amounts that were originally circulated have nothing top do with what was real'', says Akkermans. "S1's stock price has been everywhere between four and a hundred-and-twenty dollars'', explains Akkermans, who reveals that he has since sold most of his stocks. After selling FICS, Akkermans remained active for two further years at S1. He experienced the initial outbreak - and the subsequent stalling - of merger mania.
At S1, the urge-to-merge meant that the project to join three companies - FICS included - soon spread. Three companies became six. "As a commonsensical Belgian, I certainly had second thoughts about it all", says Akkermans. In his position as executive chairman, he traveled across the United States and large swathes of the planet. This was at the height of a climate where financial paper-based deals, based on stock alone, were common.
"The business world was suffering from an attack of deal-itis. A buoyant press release was all that was needed to send a stock price through the roof. Throughout it all, I was asking myself a lot of philosophical questions and some of the events at the time take on a surreal air in retrospect. You might have had a meeting at midday, then in the middle of the night you'd be phoned up asking for another board meeting to discuss the next deal.''
In February 2001 Akkermans came to some conclusions - driven in large part be a sense of humility "I was a specialist in financial software, not financial deals in an American environment.'' He returned to Belgium with a beautiful bank balance. And, too young to stop being active, he looked up former contacts.
Since then, he has been wearing three hats - company executive, investor and consultant - the common thread being knowledge in the financial sector. Clear2Pay and the e-finance arm of Gimv are top of his agenda. These are his two executive functions, which Akkermans combines with a series of board functions for amongst others Capco, Data4s, CR2 and Eccent.
Clear2Pay (C2P) is an idea developed by Jürgen Ingels (ex-Dexia Ventures), that Akkermans has put his full weight behind. The fledgling company with twelve employees delivers solutions for payments over the Internet.
Akkermans: "Today, the Internet relationship between a bank and its client is a bilateral one. It enables a person, for example, to transfer money from one account to another account. C2P delivers a solution for multilateral payments problems over the Internet. It handles cases where the bank-client relationship is no longer the issue, for example when the client wishes to buy goods from a supplier abroad. In these cases, C2P offers an elegant solution that directly processes the payments, using existing banking systems. Today, people either use a credit card number that must be keyed in, or rely on traditional, paper-based solutions.''
According to Akkermans, Belgium possesses considerable know-how in the area of payments traffic, something that has made our country somewhat of test-bed for new ideas. "The talent is definitely here. C2P functions as a think tank. My role is to flesh out the concept, to make it acceptable to banks, and to show that it works.''
Akkermans has also become involved at Gimv in his capacity as e-finance specialist. Originally, the idea was that Capco itself would launch a venture capital fund, run jointly by Philip Ghekiere and Akkermans. With the bursting of the dotcom bubble, these plans were shelved and instead became today's cooperation between Gimv, Akkermans and Capco (Capco has co-investment rights).
Akkermans joins Gimv as both venture capital partner and co-investor. At CR2, an Irish vendor of Internet banking solutions and card management systems, both Gimv and Akkermans have capital participations and places on the board. "Belgium is a good starting point for e-finance, as organizations here such as Capco, Fics, Swift, Isabel, Banksys, Europay and Euroclear have shown. It is a service that we can definitely export to the outside world.''
Two new dossiers are currently under study, although both Akkermans and Gimv director Bart Diels are tight-lipped on the subject. E-finance is not as yet a separate structure within Gimv's ICT division, but the potential is there, says Diels. This decision will be taken within twelve to eighteen months. Gimv also works with an external expert (Simon Barnes) in its life sciences activity.
"I only take on ventures where I know that I can generate added value. A board position may seem great for your ego, but if you know that it doesn't fit with your true strengths you shouldn't take it on", says Akkermans. "We live in a knowledge economy. It's all about gathering knowledge, bundling it, and giving it a sense of direction.''
This last remark is what is happening with the insurance platform Eccent. "They have interesting know-how, but no market. We now have to ensure that we are able to do something useful with that know-how.'' In this respect, a re-capitalization of Eccent is currently at hand.
©Copyright De Standaard
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