Beltone Holding is revamping its Beltone Trading App into an investment fund platform with a new fully digital onboarding process, Beltone Holding Local and Regional Markets CEO Khalil El Bawab (LinkedIn) told Enterprise. Beltone aims to introduce the new process in the next quarter and is planning to apply for approval from the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) in July, El Bawab added.

Four new funds incoming: “We have already applied for four new low-, medium-, and high-risk funds, ranging from fixed-income to equity funds,” El Bawab told us. They expect to introduce the new funds along with an upgraded Beltone Trade App in the next quarter, El Bawab added. “We plan to issue investment certificates at EGP 10 with a minimum subscription of ten certificates to avail access to the market to retail, mass affluent, affluent, high net worth, and ultra high net worth investors. We are also studying foreign currency mutual funds too.”

Beltone is also lining up for the EGX33: “We have applied with the FRA for a new fund tracking the newly-introduced EGX33 Shariah index, and we hope to launch it in the next quarter,” El Bawab said. He added that the shariah-compliant product will be the first of many from Beltone and explained that “by having a respectable shariah board, I believe we will be able to come up with proper shariah products.”

And a revamped app is also in the works: “We are upgrading the infrastructure, and will sign an agreement with one of the renowned regional system providers in the coming few weeks, which will help us to expedite our digital transformation,” El Bawab said.

Selling the need, not the product: “We are in the business of selling the need, not the product,” El Bawab explained. Beltone’s strategy is “to avail direct via our brokerage arm and indirect access via our asset management arm to the market to clients, so that they can choose from a variety of investment vehicles depending on their investment goals and their risk appetite portfolio. Every client has their own needs and their own risk appetite. Historically most financial institutions have been in the business of selling the product but the world is evolving, and we want to offer them a more customized product.”

By the numbers: Beltone currently has 17 investment funds on its books and a large number of investment portfolios. Beltone’s assets under management reached EGP 27 bn by end of 2023, up from EGP 19.9 bn in 2022, and the company is working to increase this to EGP 50 bn within three years, El Bawab told us.

Get ready for ChatEGP: “Currently the investment advising is done by humans, we have an investment committee and a buy-side research team that analyze the market and look for opportunities suitable for each client,” El Bawab told us. However, El Bawab explained that, “eventually, we are working to fully automate business processes and to provide full digital channels to reach our clients, that’s why we are investing heavily in the digital infrastructure and expanding our teams.” Beltone also views itself as well-positioned to take this step as they “have one of the strongest data science and analytics teams in the market and our executive management is highly committed to this transformation,” El Bawab added.

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