Solertia Capital Advisors
Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority
ABOUT US
PRODUCTS
Solertia Capital Advisors provides advice and structuring services to financial institutions, located in Europe and North America, targeted at reducing capital costs, optimising balance sheet use and improving return on capital.
Many financial institutions do not possess all of the necessary capabilities to develop, structure and implement such transaction based solutions, and therefore benefit from Solertia Capital Advisor's provision of a “cradle-to-grave” transaction structuring and execution service.
THE TEAM
The Solertia Capital team is a turnkey multi-disciplinary team of professionals, blending insurance and banking regulation, accounting, US & non-US tax, and capital markets skills, with extensive experience in the global insurance and banking sectors, offering innovative solutions and proven execution which is capable of delivering substantial RoE improvements for its clients.
PROVEN TRACK RECORD
The team, individually and collectively, have an impressive history of profitable, value added transactions. They have developed a market-leading reputation for innovative, commercially driven transactions within the sector.
The core team members have worked together for over a decade, during which they have collectively delivered over one billion USD of economic value for their respective employers during that period, through the design and implementation of numerous transactions involving a broad range of technologies and asset classes (securitisations, structured trusts, structured notes and securities lending transactions).
THE MANAGEMENT TEAM
Vincent Oratore | Director
- Vincent began his career in Linklaters’ Tax Department, where he specialized in the taxation of financial instruments and M&A for financial sector clients. In 1993 he became a Board Director at the merchant bank J Henry Schroder Wagg and Co. where he developed and executed tax enhanced capital markets transactions for both Schroders and its clients.
- In 1997 he became a Managing Director at Merrill Lynch where he started and ran the Hybrid Capital Business, winning the IFR Award for Bank Capital of the year from 1998 to 2001 inclusive. At Merrill Lynch he also served on the Global Fixed Income Management Group and executed transactions in fixed income, equities (including equity-linked and dividend arbitrage) and investment banking. In 2002 he joined AIG Financial Products, where he developed and executed a number of structured capital market transactions for AIG and its clients. In September 2009 he joined Ernst & Young as a Tax Partner in its Financial Services group, where he worked on changes in the regulatory capital regime (Basel III, Dodd Frank, Solvency II) and tax.
- In 2011 Vincent re-joined AIG to set up the Portfolio Solutions Group to design and implement structured transactions which improved AIG’s return on capital. This business included securitizations and other capital market driven transactions.
- He was Chairman of the Chartered Institute of Taxation Technical Committee from 2001-2003, was President of the 17,000 member Chartered Institute of Taxation between May 2010 and May 2011 and is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Tax Advisors. Since 2010 he has been one of the 11 members of the Forum of Tax Professionals which advises the UK Government on implementation of tax policy. He was appointed to the Business and Industry Advisory Committee OECD Finance Task Force in 2011, which works with the OECD in its role on the Financial Stability Board.
Alex McDonald | Director
- Alex McDonald began his career at JP Morgan in 1995 working in the Interest Rate Derivative Group, focused on Swaps, FRAs and bonds.
- In 1997 he moved to DB’s Structured Credit Trading Desk in London, initially to focus on trading asset swaps, structured notes and credit derivatives. Later at Deutsche Bank Alex established the European Secondary Structured Notes Business, which included inverse floating, range accrual, CMS and equity-linked structures, and was also instrumental in the establishment and growth of Deutsche Bank’s European stripped convertible trading business. In 2003 at Deutsche Bank, Alex established and Co-headed a group focused on principal investments into European renewable energy projects, focused on wind, solar and biomass generation.
- In 2007 Alex moved to AIG Financial Products as a Managing Director in the energy and infrastructure principal investment team, building a portfolio of gas storage and pipeline investments, airports and a substantial portfolio of European and American solar power projects.
- In 2010 Alex was a founding partner of Cohen and Co. Capital Solutions LLP, a joint venture with the US securities Broker Dealer Prince Ridge, focused on balance sheet rationalisation and restructuring assistance for financial institutions in the post-financial crisis environment.
- In 2012 Alex joined the AIG Portfolio Solutions Group in London, to design and implement structured transactions to improve AIG’s return on capital and reduce its ETR. Alex provided capital markets structuring input into transaction structures, ensuring that any unwanted risks were fully mitigated and ensuring that where distribution was required the form of the transaction was conducive to optimal distribution and best execution. Alex led external conversations with banks and financial institutions where risk distribution was required.
Simon Isbister | Director
- Simon is a highly experienced originator, structurer and executer of tax and regulatory transactions, and has established and managed a number of global client solutions businesses for major banks. Simon has 20 years of directly relevant experience in the solutions business. He also has a wealth of leadership and management experience, having lead high performance teams in the Royal Navy and at several investment banks. His career began as an officer in the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm, where he commanded several Lynx helicopter flights.
- In 1994, having gained an MBA at Warwick Business School, Simon joined UBS, where he established the Structured Loan Products business.
- In 1997 he moved to ABN Amro to head the European Financial Engineering team and develop the bank’s cross border business. In 2002 he was recruited by RBC Capital Markets to build and lead the Strategic Transactions Group, with teams in New York, Toronto and London. In the immediate post-Enron era, Simon worked closely with RBC’s board to establish corporate governance, transaction approval and risk monitoring procedures which became bank standard policies. In 2004 he moved to AIGFP as a Managing Director of the Transaction Development Group at AIG.
- Simon was most recently co-head of AIG’s Portfolio Solutions Group, which he established with Vincent Oratore having re-joined AIG in November 2011. Based in both London and New York, the team delivered $950 million of economic value for AIG from designing and implementing 15 transactions (involving securitizations, structured trusts, structured notes and securities lending transactions) to manage AIG’s capital and tax attributes covering tens of billions of $ assets, spanning multiple asset classes. His extensive experience in capital markets distribution enabled the placement of in excess of $1.5 billion of assets arising from PSG’s transactions as primary risk and securities with third party investors.