Louis Adande

Saoti Finance - a consulting firm founded in 2006 and based in Paris, France- specializes in Corporate Finance and Business Development services in Africa, particularly in West and Central Africa.

Our firm supports local and foreign owned industrial companies and financial institutions as they seek to meet growth or productivity challenges in Africa.

We help our clients in two areas:

I. Corporate Finance
- Debt services: structuring, raising and restructuring
debt
- M&A services: structuring capital increases,business
valuation,acquisitions and divestures.

II. Business Development
- Risk Management systems compliance with Basel II, for
wholesale banking organisations.
- Corporate restructuring and reorganisation

I am a banker with over 20 years of experience in structuring financing deals and managing businesses in West Africa.

I began my corporate banking career in 1983 with Citigroup in Gabon, West Africa.I then went on to hold a series of roles in Customer Relationship Management, Risk Management, Project Management and Business Leadership at country and regional levels. I worked in most of the countries making up the West Africa area including postings in Gabon, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon and Nigeria.

This extensive corporate banking experience with Citigroup helped me develop a keen understanding of the dynamics of the financial markets in West Africa, a hands-on familiarity with best practices in the areas of risk, customer and business management and an ability to get things done in this part of Africa.