CEO of the newly formed Quantas Financial Group, Dr Adrian Stokes, says his company will offer Jamaican investors more innovative investment opportunities. 

Speaking on Taking Stock with Kalilah Reynolds, Stokes said Quantas was born to build the gap between the availability of capital and the users of capital. 

Stokes, the former Head of Wealth and Insurance at Scotia Group Jamaica, said over his career, he has noticed a lack of risk diversity in investment options.

“We have lots of liquidity but we were unable to find suitable investment opportunities, not just in Jamaica but across the region… That’s really how Quantas came about to bridge the gap between the availability of capital and the users of capital so that investors can choose the type of risk-return tradeoff that they want,” he said.

He explained that Quantas Financial is three entities: Quantas Management, Quantas Capital and Quantas Investments. 

“Quantas Management is the workhorse of the group. It is the vehicle that will manage the various investment options that we offer investors across the region. Quantas Capital, which we intend to license with the regulators in Jamaica, in particular the FSC, will allow us to do certain things to execute our strategy,” he explained.

“Finally, Quantas Investments will work as a special purpose vehicle to deal with certain classes of investors in Jamaica,” he added.

The CEO said Quantas has already hit the ground running with its first investment opportunity, dubbed Quantas Advantage. 

Stokes explained that Quantas Advantage creates a new asset class – a security backed by a contractual cash flow.

He said the types of contractual cash flows could vary.

“It could be trade receivables, it could be longer term receivables, but any receivable that is contractual in nature, in that the cash flows are predictable, that it will be repeated and is bound by a contract that is enforceable,” he said.

He said the company will then create a new security, backed by these cash flows and then sell them to different types of investors. 

“Basically we sit in the middle; we are providing solutions to people who want to raise capital by selling their contracts and you have investors who want diversification. Investors who want to move away from the traditional Jamaica Stock Exchange and bonds and repos etc,” he said.

“We’re creating a new asset class for investors, and by creating this new asset class, providing capital and liquidity,” he said.

Stokes said the company will mitigate risk by having a strict risk assessment process to determine what contracts are purchased. 

The CEO said that the company will eventually introduce new investment products to the market, but is taking time to successfully launch Quantas Advantage first.

Additionally, Stokes said that the company is set on regional expansion as he sees the need for diversification across the region. 

WATCH THE INTERVIEW HERE