Appital appoints non-executive directors from Fidelity, Blackheath

By Sunniva Kolostyak

Equity capital marketplace Appital has made two senior board appointments, announcing that former Head of Capital Markets at Fidelity, Greg Bennett, and founder of Blackheath Capital Management, Stephane Carty, as Non-Executive Directors.

The appointments mark a strategic move for Appital in bringing technological innovation and automation to equity capital markets and accelerate growth.

Appital works to keep its book-building and allocation methodology transparent, unbiased and unconflicted, delivering a fair outcome for all market participants and unlocking liquidity that has historically been difficult to access. Buy-side firms are able to gain greater exposure to deal flow opportunities they have not been able to access before, helping portfolio managers and heads of trading build a comprehensive picture of liquidity, including highly illiquid, small and mid-cap stocks.

As the former Head of Capital Markets for EMEA and the Americas for Fidelity International, Greg Bennett has first-hand experience of the liquidity challenges faced by the buy-side. He brings sell-side expertise gained as Partner and Managing Director in Equity Capital Markets and Equity Syndicate for Cazenove and JPMorgan Cazenove. At Appital, he will help develop the platform’s capabilities to efficiently access liquidity and execution opportunities for market participants.

Stephane Carty has more than 23 years investment experience in trading and financial derivatives. He founded global volatility fund Fir Post Capital in 2010, and subsequently Blackheath Capital Management. Carty has also held the role of Head of European Principal Strategies at Wachovia Securities International, and his early career included trading both agency and proprietary books at Commerzbank, Lehman Brothers and Bankers Trust. Stephane’s market structure expertise, his insights into operating in regulated environments and experience in successfully driving companies’ growth strategies will be invaluable as Appital continues to build out its core capabilities and improve access to dealflow.

The hiring of the two Non-Executive Directors follows the recent appointment of Brian Guckian and Philipp Eberle to the management team.

Commenting, Mark Badyra, CEO of Appital, said: “I am very excited to welcome Greg and Stephane to the Appital board of directors. Their industry insights and expertise are invaluable as we scale up our business and drive innovation in equity capital markets. We bring technology, automation and transparency to the equity capital markets empowering asset managers to take control of the book building process. ”

Greg Bennett commented: “After a career in Equity Capital Markets as both an adviser and an investor, I have seen first hand the inefficiencies and opacity within the process and believe that technology has a key role to play in moving ECM forward. Illiquidity is a systemic issue within equity markets and has a real adverse cost of capital for issuers and diminishes investors’ returns. With Appital, there is the opportunity to address this key issue as well as provide a significant step-change in the execution of ECM business across the market. I am excited to be working with the team to help deliver this vision.”

Stephane Carty added: “Appital truly challenges indoctrinated norms and inefficiencies across the small and mid-cap ECM public market space. I am delighted to have joined the board and look forward to working with the rest of the Appital team over the coming years as we face the challenges ahead.”