Sponsors of the HfB 2006
Prof. Dr. Thomas Heimer - HfB
Prof. Dr. Erich Barthel - HfB
Anton Simonet - Dresdner Bank AG
Dr. Dirk Notheis - Morgan Stanley
1st discussion
Dr. Michael Göttgens - Deloitte & Touche GmbH
2nd discussion
HfB Conference 2006 in Frankfurt am Main
I very much enjoyed my visit to the HfB Conference 2006 with motto "Think differently - Growth from a different point of view" this year, run by the HfB - Business School of Finance Management, and I found it very informative. The high level of the conference and the full schedule left me with few opportunities for photography, so I was not able to fully use the potential of my camera.
The HfB Conference opening speech was held by members of the university executive Prof. Dr. Thomas Heimer and Prof. Dr. Erich Barthel, and from the students' initiative Lars Fetzer. After the opening speeches the individual talks began, and I found it difficult to decide which of the excellent simultaneous talks to go to. All the talks and discussion rounds can be found here.
The first talk I attended was held by "Herr Anton Simonet" from the Dresdner Bank AG, on the subject of "Profitable growth strategies in international private banking". The subject "wealth management" deals with the asset management of wealthy and very wealthy private customers. As a customer of a bank competing with the Dresdner Bank AG, I found the comparison very interesting, though superficially there were not many differences :-)
The second talk was about "The future of Investment Banking in Germany", held by "Herr Dr. Dirk Notheis" from Morgan Stanley Germany. He was responsible for stock market flotations such as those of Fraport and Air Berlin. Here I was particularly interested in his remarks on the asset class Private Equity, also known as locusts by politicians. I think though that my investments in the area of Private Equity happened rather too late (2001 und 2002), as I believe that the market has too much liquidity - exacerbated by the low interest rates of the last few years. The most recent example is the Blackstone Group's holdings in the Deutschen Telekom AG, whereby the locusts were explicitly welcomed by politicians this time, and the investment says something for Deutsche Telekom :-)
Then came the first discussion round, moderated by Andreas Scholz (Bloomberg TV) with participants Richard Breitenbücher (UBS), Carsten Klante (Sal. Oppenheim), Dr. Annette Messemer (JPMorgan), Herr Guido M. Sollors (Berenberg Bank), Heiko Thieme (Thieme Gruppe), Prof. Dr. Heimer (university executive HfB). I was particularly impressed by the arguments and presentation of Dr. Messemer. She also pointed out the problem of excess liquidity in the Private Equity Segment and is expecting further take-overs and dismantling of (German) companies. Heiko Thieme garnished the discussion with remarks like "The US is a highly stylised emerging nation". I was sadly not able to ask my question "What kind of country is Germany?" due to lack of time.
After lunch, I went to the talk on "Growth through sustainable company development - New trends in company reporting" by "Herrn Dr. Michael Göttgens" - Deloitte & Touche GmbH. A very interesting subject for me as a nature lover! He talked about companies recognition of having to act sustainably, in order to also be able to generate growth in the future. The term "sustainable" is of course very wide and complex, the important thing though is that the companies recognise the need for it.
The last discussion and final event was chaired by Robert von Heusinger (Die Zeit) with participants Hendrick Scherer (GVM Gorr und Partner), Heiko Thieme (Thieme Gruppe), Prof. Robert A. Dickler (STRATECO), Dr. Michael Göttgens (Deloitte & Touche) and Thomas von Baross (D-Link). I found the chair Robert von Heusinger the most impressive in this discussion, with his searching questions for the participants. The technical discussion between Prof. Dr. Dickler and Herr Thieme was at a high level, and I could not follow all of it.
After the HfB Conference 2006, I have the impression that euphoria is in the air. This is more of a feeling than something to describe with words. I am interested to see how the fall in euphoria which I expect from the markets will make itself known. As a customer in the area of "Wealth Management" I was able to get a good idea of the training in the financial sector.
