Capital Partners

Whether you have already decided to issue mutual capital instruments (MCI), or co-operative capital units (CCUs) or are at the stage of considering your options, the program will provide valuable insights for your business:

Legal, constitutional and membership issues

• Constitutional and legal considerations for issuing MCI or CCU
• Making your mutual constitution MCI or CCU -ready
• Designing bespoke MCI
• Collective structures for issuing mutual capital
• MCI and taxation
• Member engagement and management

Relating MCI to your business strategy

• How to decide whether to issue MCI or CCU
• Retail or wholesale? Which MCI is for you?
• Member engagement and communications
• MCI – International experience case studies – Mutual capital issuers
• MCI – International experience case studies – A Regulator’s perspective
• CCU – Australian experience case studies

Capital for the impact investment market

• Designing Impact Investments: Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) compliant MCI/CCU
• Leveraging the impact of your mutual status
• ESG and credit ratings

Market issues for MCI

• Making your co-operative or mutual investment-ready
• Presenting your business to wholesale investors
• Preparing to roadshow
• Approaching the retail market
• Insights into accessing international investment markets
• Managing liquidity through a listing
• Credit ratings for mutuals

Interview with Greg Hammond OAM

Peter Hunt spoke to Greg Hammond, Independent Facilitator of The Hammond Review, the Government’s 2018 inquiry into access to capital for co-operatives and mutuals. Peter and Greg discussed the potential for new capital to change the face of the mutual sector.

Interview with Martin Stewart, Ex-director, Bank of England

Peter Hunt spoke to Martin Stewart about mutual policy reforms and global economics. Following an executive career in mutual banking, Martin held senior positions at the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority and the UK’s Financial Services Authority. He was a key influencer on global financial services policy development post the financial crisis, with special responsibility for co-operatives and mutuals.

Interview with Peter Burrows, CEO, Cambridge Building Society, UK

Peter Hunt caught up with Peter Burrows about his experience of successfully attracting a placement investment to his mutual.

Interview with Colin Melvin, Managing Director, Arkadiko Partners

Colin Melvin is a pioneer of impact investing. He has been at the forefront of global developments in corporate stewardship, sustainability and responsible asset management for over twenty years. Peter Hunt spoke to Colin about his views on the potential of ESG investment for mutuals.

Interview with Hilde Vernaillen, CEO, Groupe P&V, Belgium

Hilde Vernaillen is a leading mutual business leader in Europe, and Chair of ICMIF, the global representative body for co-operative and mutual insurers. In this interview with Peter Hunt, Hilde discussed Covid, co-operation and capital raising. Hear her tips for a successful career for mutual leaders.

Interview with Simon Nuttall and Barry Clavin, The Co-operative Group, UK

The Co-operative Group raised £300 million in sustainability bonds. In this interview, Peter Hunt is joined by two of the Group’s sustainability and investment experts, Simon Nuttall, Head of Tax, Treasury and Insurance and Barry Clavin, Head of Ethics and Sustainable Reporting. They spoke to Peter about investment, sustainability and living your values as a business.

The Capital Partners interviews, webinars and related resources are available to BCCM members on the secure members’ website. Contact the BCCM to find out how to access the resources.

BCCM members should email the web administrator to set up an account for the members’ website.

Capital raising for co-operatives webinar
Thursday, 10 March 2022, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm AEDT

Invitation only – BCCM member webinar

A one hour webinar covering:

• Capital raising for co-operatives
• Case studies from Australian and NZ co-ops.

The Capital Partners interviews, webinars and related resources are available to BCCM members on the secure members’ website. Contact the BCCM to find out how to access the resources.

BCCM members should email the web administrator to set up an account for the members’ website.

The first issuance of MCIs with Australian Unity
Wednesday, 3 February 2021, 5 pm AEDT

On 4 January, the first Mutual Capital Instruments (MCIs) began trading on the ASX. This marked the culmination of several years’ work by BCCM members who drove the advocacy for enabling legislation, as well as the pioneering efforts of Australian Unity to initiate this inaugural capital raise.

Rohan Mead, Group Managing Director and CEO, Australian Unity (AU) Adam Vise, Group Treasurer, Finance and Strategy, AU; Esther Kerr-Smith, CEO Wealth and Capital Markets, AU; and Damian Pretty, Director, Acacia Partners joined Peter Hunt to provide first-hand insights into the decisions and steps taken by Australian Unity to bring the first offer of mutual capital to market. The team described the challenges overcome in the process and offer tips for others considering issuing MCI.

Towards an ASX listing: Practical issues to consider when seeking to raise capital from listing mutual capital instruments
Wednesday, 3 March 2021, 5 pm AEDT

In this webinar, Ken Chapman, Head of Strategic Delivery, Capital Markets and Kimberley Brown, Principal Adviser, Listing Compliance, both from ASX, provided an overview of the ASX listing requirements and what mutual organisations need to consider when seeking to list MCIs. This webinar provides practical advice and information on how to become ‘listing ready’.

Demutualisation – do we need to prepare for a new wave?
Wednesday, 19 May 2021, 4 pm AEST

Peter Hunt, Mutuo, outlined events unfolding in the UK and offered an analysis of the factors driving this. The session considered the legislative and political environment affecting the sector and examined how CMEs can prepare themselves to protect their capital assets.

Read the synopsis of this issue: Demutualisation is bad for members, for competition and choice and for market stability.

Co-op registry management – for member engagement and investment-readiness
Friday, 29 October 2021, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm AEDT

A one hour webinar covering the role of digital registry management in engaging members and raising and managing capital in co-ops. The webinar included case studies from the Co-operative Farming pilot project and NZ co-ops. Experienced share registry provider Syndex and the BCCM launched their new partnership aimed at supporting Australian CMEs member and share registry functions.

The Capital Partners interviews, webinars and related resources are available to BCCM members on the secure members’ website. Contact the BCCM to find out how to access the resources.

BCCM members should email the web administrator to set up an account for the members’ website.

Constitutional and legal issues for mutual capital instruments
Tuesday, 7 July 2020, 2 pm AEST

The first handful of mutuals has now amended their constitutions to give themselves the option to issue MCI in the future. The 36-month window to complete this under the special ASIC procedure now has less than two years left.

In this webinar, Jo Dodd, Partner, King & Wood Mallesons, covered what constitutional amendments are needed to make your mutual ‘MCI-ready,’ what options there are to tailor the changes to suit your own circumstances and how to present these changes to your members, for the best chance of success.

The webinar also considered:

• Constitutional requirements under the Act
• Options to match your culture, history and likely use of MCI
• Early ideas for designing instruments

MCI, CCU and business strategy: Marketability and key issuance considerations
Wednesday, 15 July 2020, 2 pm AEST

The decision whether to issue Mutual Capital Instruments (MCI) or Co-operative Capital Units (CCUs) will be a key part of a mutual’s overall business strategy. Led by capital management and capital market experts from National Australia Bank including Matt Price, Director, Financial Institutions Group, this webinar explored how MCI and CCU can be factored into existing strategic decision making and considered some of the practical questions related to the potential markets for new instruments including:

• Capital structuring 101; overview of different capital types and structures
• Capital planning and how MCI/CCUs can play a role

An introduction to Mutual Capital Instruments [MCI]
Friday, 24 July 2020

With Peter Hunt, Managing Partner, Mutuo – This briefing provides an opportunity to hear about Mutual Capital Instruments in a way that sets this development in context and gives you the information you need to understand what MCI are, and how they are likely to work.

The presentation leads you through the story of MCI and how they can help to improve the business environment for mutuals. We examine how they really work and the thought process that you might apply if you are considering issuing.

We then look at some international examples of mutuals that have issued this type of capital already. We briefly describe what the legal changes mean for your mutual and talk about how best you might approach communicating these constitutional changes to your members. We look at the options for different types of MCI and finally cover the potential market for MCI.

Credit ratings and capital markets
Thursday, 20 August 2020, 4 pm AEST

In this presentation with Daniel Yu, Vice President, Senior Analyst, Financial Institutions at Moody’s, Daniel described Moody’s approach to rating mutuals, credit consideration for mutual capital instruments (MCIs) and discussed how the sector’s strengths and weakness are reflecting in ratings.

Daniel also discussed how access to capital is becoming increasingly important for Australian mutual banks, with the sector’s historically strong capitalisation under pressure from rising credit losses and risk-weighted densities. Meanwhile, technological developments are driving a structural shift in customer demand for digital services and products, with new entrants competing for market share. Intensifying competition will lead the mutuals to increase their spending on technology, and in turn pressure net interest margins and weaken their ability to generate sufficient capital organically.

Join Daniel as he explains Moody’s approach to rating mutuals as well as credit consideration for mutual capital instruments (MCIs), and how the sector’s strengths and weakness are reflecting in ratings.

Assessing investment options and the suitability of MCIS and CCUS
Thursday, 27 August 2020, 4 pm AEST

Prior to undertaking an issue of Mutual Capital Instruments (MCIs) or Co-operative Capital Units (CCUs), mutual organisations need to assess their suitability relative to other funding options. In this webinar Rade Musulin, Jon Tindall, and Sen Nagarajan from Finity Consulting walked through factors organisations should consider such as valuing members’ benefit from investment opportunities, balancing member equity, risk management, and assessing/ranking available funding options. The Finity team also outlined the type of financial projections and scenario analysis that mutual organisations should consider as part of assessing whether MCIs and CCUs are suitable for them.

Mutual entities and fundraising – understanding the regulatory framework
Wednesday, 30 September 2020, 4 pm AEST

Firms considering issuing mutual capital instruments will wish to weigh up the option of a retail offering to members and beyond to the public.

In this webinar, led by Claire LaBouchardiere, Senior Executive Leader, Corporations and Fiona Laidlaw Senior Specialist, Corporations, from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), Claire and Fiona  described the regulatory environment for retail share issues. They outlined ASIC’s rules for share offers and the expectations that firms will need to meet.

The power of balance – retail vs wholesale markets
Wednesday, 7 October 2020, 4 pm AEDT

In this webinar, Steven Wright, Executive Director, Fixed Interest and Philip Lee, Executive Director, Corporate Finance at Morgans Stockbrokers and Wealth Managers examined how mutuals and co-ops can approach fundraising markets.

Steven and Philip considered a range of issues for firms considering issuing new capital:

• Defining potential investors
• The Concept of Balance – Wholesale vs Retail
• Investor Education
• A Balanced Investor Register
• Target Investors and examples
• Aftermarket – support and success

Project managing a share issuance
Wednesday, 28 October 2020, 4pm AEDT

Led by Alison McGuire, Link Group, this webinar examined how to project manage a share issuance. Alison discussed how to prepare a prospectus and communicate your offer, manage the transaction, maintain member communications and systems management as well as looking at ongoing registry management and investor relations.

The Capital Partners interviews, webinars and related resources are available to BCCM members on the secure members’ website. Contact the BCCM to find out how to access the resources.

BCCM members should email the web administrator to set up an account for the members’ website.

In 2019, the BCCM and Mutuo ran a European study tour for BCCM members to gain insights and learn more about accessing capital from international colleagues.

Mutual executives visited a number of mutuals in the UK and the Netherlands, with experience in issuing capital instruments. Businesses met with included Nationwide Building Society (UK), Cambridge Building Society (UK) and Rabobank (NL). The group also met with UK policymakers, regulators and Barclays Bank wholesale investment team.

Melina Morrison

Chief Executive Officer, BCCM

Melina is the inaugural CEO of the Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals. Melina advocated for a Federal Government inquiry into the co-op and mutual sector, which handed down 17 ground-breaking recommendations in 2016. This was followed by then Australian Treasurer, now Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, ordering an independent inquiry into access to capital issues for co-operatives and mutuals. This led to the first enabling legislation for mutuals in Australia in 18 years. Enacted in April 2019, the new laws permit mutuals to raise investment capital whilst safeguarding their mutual status.

Peter Hunt

Managing Partner, Mutuo UK

Peter founded Mutuo in 2001 to promote co-operative and mutual business to opinion formers and decision makers. He led the parliamentary teams which piloted five bills through the UK Parliament, working with all parties to update co-operative and mutual law. He was a founder of Supporters Direct, an initiative to give fans an ownership stake in their football clubs. He has worked with the BCCM since 2013, helping with strategy and co-ordinating the successful project to update Australian mutuals legislation through the Mutual Reforms Act 2019.

Mark Willetts

Partner, Mutuo

Mark joined Mutuo in 2010 and works on a range of projects globally. He is currently Secretary to the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group for Mutuals, liaising with Government, MPs and Peers on projects to help develop mutual businesses. Between 2010 and 2012, he served as Assistant Secretary to the Ownership Commission – a two year study into corporate diversity. He has worked with the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) since 2015, co-authoring research publications. He recently worked on the team to help facilitate new capital to be raised by Australian mutuals. He has previously co-authored guides for the ICA, ICMIF and the BCCM.