About Sovereign

Profile

Sovereign offers a wide range of services in the fields of corporate and public finance.
We are specialised in solving financial problems. These problems can concern all aspects of treasury management and budget management but also public private partnerships and financial aspects of European competition and procurement rules or financial supervisory rules. We can be of help particularly if difficult circumstances persist.
We have at our disposal a blend of financial, budgetary, fiscal, planning, strategic and policy tools and know how to assist clients to manage their present and future issues as best as possible.

Approach

At the outset of an assignment we define in close cooperation with the client the objective, and the conditions and procedures as well as the estimated length and costs required.
In many cases the assignment is carried out in defined stages to provide periodical feed back to the client so as to realise the best solution.
As soon as possible we develop our independent vision. Our solutions are comprehensive and future-oriented. We provide recommendations that are empirically sound and practical and frequently innovative.
We only work on a daily or hourly basis or service fee and guarantee our complete independence. We are a small professional organisation but if required can use our network of specialists.

Experience

Since its inception Sovereign served many clients in the public and private sector. Our clients are public sector institutions like Ministries, Universities, local authorities, not-for-profit organisations, social housing corporations and their representative organisations. In the private sector our clients are major financial institutions and other companies active on financial markets. Though we are focused on Dutch clients we also carry out assignments abroad>
We provided optimal solutions to many financial and budgetary problems. We interpreted rules and regulations and practices from the public sector and financial institutions and contributed to the developing of new ones. Often the expertise of Sovereign was recruited to obtain financial-economic support on a short-term or long term base. We were asked to provide an objective view on problems or to come to a strategic reorientation based on sound projections of the financial future.
Moreover experts of Sovereign were consulted about possibilities of internally freeing financial resources or to obtain additional funding, to improve the capital structure of institutions and to provide support in the handling of financial and budgetary legislation. Sovereign was also consulted by governments to improve the development of their financial markets or to strengthen their borrowing policies.
Examples of projects carried out are:

• Evaluating the budgetary consequences for a municipality of the start of a professional football club.
• Analysing the lagging supply of new housing investment and providing solutions for a new town.
• Analysing the effects of the amended EU Transparency Directive for housing and for municipalities.
• Restructuring debt portfolio’s of municipalities and housing corporations.
• Evaluating the application of corporate tax and sales taxes to the social housing sector.
• Analysing risk management policies of a social housing guarantee institute and risk profile of Dutch social housing corporations.
• Analysing the effects of Basle II for the pricing of housing loans in the Netherlands.
• Evaluating the national guarantee institute for the promotion of residential housing.
• Evaluating the changed EU state aid regime for social housing.
• Developing a new cash and interest rate cost approach for a social housing provider.
• Developing proposals to finance public private partnerships in environmental infrastructure projects.
• Developing public sector benchmarks for the financing of toll roads.
• Authoring a book for a financial institution on a new public private partnership approach.
• Developing a public private partnership for a sports stadium and other facilities.
• Developing a public sector risk monitor for the construction and operational years of a public private partnership.
• Privatising real estate of the Dutch institutions of Higher Education.
• Financing privatised real estate of Dutch institutions of professional education.
• Finding new ways to fund investment in the Dutch health care sector taking into account governmental budgetary restrictions.
• Treasury management for a major health care institution.
• Authoring a study as to the impact of technology on healthcare for a bank.
• Writing an accompanying memorandum for a new law on guarantee institute for healthcare borrowing.
• Analysing the merits of export credit swaps for the public sector.
• Analysing monetary and other macro-economic developments for catering industry.
• Reorganizing the ways and means department of a university.
• Restructuring cash management and negotiating bank transactions costs of a university.
• Analysing the possibilities of an international credit rating institute operating from the Netherlands.
• Analysing the possibilities for a merger of two major music conservatories.
• Analysing the competitive position of the financial offshore industry of the Netherlands Antilles and providing recommendations for negotiations with the EU.
• Public sector debt management and capital market restructuring in Czech Republic.
• Investigating the consequences for stock exchanges of EU proposals as to corporate tax harmonisation.
  Developing a proposal to finance the restructuring of high rise buildings in new EU member countries.

  About the Principle

  Drs. Alphons P. Ranner is founder and director of Sovereign BV financial consultancy. His background includes many years of experience in strategic and financial management and consulting. He was active in both the public and corporate sector. Mr. Ranner is recognized for his ability to identify and focus on key business and operational issues to solve problems, achieve unrealised opportunities and attain bottom-line results.>
  Since graduating in 1970 he gained profound and in depth experience in macro-economics, public finance-including privatisation and public private partnerships-business economics, finance, banking, capital markets and international and national monetary policies.
  Prior to establishing the firm, Mr. Ranner worked as partner with Deloitte and Touche, as civil servant at the Ministry of Finance of the Netherlands and as lecturer at the University of Leyden.