Contacts:
Annette Farrell
T: +44 (0) 20 7220 5563
E: annette.farrell@sophis.net
Jérôme Knaepen
T : +44 (0) 20 7220 5563
Alexandra Bell / Jessica Stacey
T: +44 (0)20 7282 2829/1038
E: alexandra.bell@citigatedr.co.uk / jessica.stacey@citigatedr.co.uk
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Sophis wins first corporate contract for RISQUE with electricity and gas supplier POWEO
- Mandate proves benefits of RISQUE beyond financial markets and supports ambitious plans for growth
PARIS, April 30th, 2008 – Sophis, a leading provider of cross-asset, front-to-back risk and portfolio management solutions, today announced that it has completed the implementation of RISQUE for independent alternative electricity and gas supplier POWEO. This is the first implementation of RISQUE by a corporate organisation outside the financial markets and proves the benefits of Sophis’ robust and flexible software to organisations in all sectors who have a need to manage risk and support trading activities.
POWEO was established by CEO Charles Beigbeder in response to the opening up of the European energy markets. In France this ended the monopoly of EDF and allowed businesses and consumers to choose between energy suppliers for the first time. POWEO’s business model is based on trading electricity in the European market.
POWEO’s business strategy was to create a stable and highly reputable alternative to incumbent suppliers. That meant it needed to develop reliable and robust business processes and IT systems that would help manage risk in its trading operation.
Jerome Knaepen, Sourcing Director said: “We needed a single system that would support straight through processing (STP) and risk management across the front and back office. We did a full review of the marketplace and chose Sophis because it was developed for and stress-tested on the trading floor, a highly demanding environment. Working with Sophis we were able to take a product originally designed for investment banks and add some extra functionality to support our business. We looked at systems designed for the energy trading market but they did not have the sophistication that Sophis RISQUE provides.”
Another benefit of choosing Sophis RISQUE was that it could be implemented quickly, in line with POWEO’s ambitious plans for growth. The project began with risk management and then grew into the implementation of a single core solution for managing POWEO’s power positions, risks, physical delivery and operations processing, with the aim of completing a front to back deployment.
Charles Beigbeder explained: “We first approached Sophis because it had already developed a system for commodities trading that we believed could be applied to our market. We followed a deep and detailed validation process of the system, allowing us to prove that Sophis was a good partner to develop the management of physical power delivery as well as cover risk management and trading.”
Nicolas Roussel, Head of Sales, Sophis, said: “We are delighted to have worked with such an innovative brand as POWEO to help get its systems in place and up and running. This is our first project outside the banking/finance sector and we are now in an excellent position to build our corporate business across the world with companies that have similar requirements to POWEO.”
About Sophis
Sophis has more than 15 years of experience in supplying portfolio and risk management technologies to the world’s leading financial institutions. Sophis designs flexible, open and scalable solutions that support fully automated processing of transactions across all asset classes. Sophis’ technologies are developed by a highly-qualified R&D department, including a dedicated quant team, to rapidly meet the changing needs of a demanding client base. From nine locations worldwide, Sophis serves more than 100 market-leading institutions, including investment banks, asset managers and hedge funds. http://www.sophis.net
About POWEO
The leading independent power and gas operator in France, POWEO plans to deploy highly flexible power generation capacity through 2009, to anchor its strategy as an integrated energy provider. It is committed to having installed capacity of 3,400 MW by the end of 2012, including 600 MW generated from renewable energies. POWEO is electronically traded on the NYSE-Euronext Alternext stock market (ALPWO/FR0004191674). For more information, visit http://www.poweo.com