The MENA region is home to some of the largest asset owners who are now deepening access to international markets – including through securities finance programmes. Jérôme Cazaux and Alessandro Cavallari of Societe Generale Securities Services (SGSS) say customisation of lending arrangements is crucial.

There’s no doubt that Africa has been seen increasingly as an attractive prospect for inbound investment in recent years, with investors seeing real potential in the continent, particularly in the private equity, infrastructure and real estate asset classes, as it experiences strong economic growth.

Plausible explanations exist for why low-volatility stocks perform better than their high-volatility counterparts.