High Profile Speakers Announced for Coface Country Risk Conference in Manchester

March 16, 2010 - PRLog -- Philip King, chief executive of the Institute of Credit Management (ICM) and Coface Economist Christine Altuzarra, will be among high profile speakers at the Coface – UK & Ireland Country Risk Conference in Manchester.

Mr King and Ms Altuzarra and will address more than 250 delegates at the half-day conference on Wednesday, 9th June at the Palace Hotel.

It is the first time that Coface, a leading provider of country, sector and business climate ratings and a world leader in credit management services, has staged the conference outside of London.

Mr King’s address will be entitled “Out of Recession: Risk & Response”. As the UK emerges from the longest and deepest recession since the Second World War, he will discuss how companies are beginning to benefit from an improvement in business.
Mr King will assess how best practice credit management, together with advice, training and other techniques can help mitigate the risks that accompany recovery.

Ms Altuzarra’s presentation “Coface Country Risk Assessment” will focus on those countries where growth has begun to return along with those where economic recovery remains under threat and discuss why. Country and sector rating analysis is one of Coface’s key areas of expertise and enables international trade players to further secure their transactions.

Ms Altuzarra is an analyst at the Economic Studies and Country Risk Department of Coface in Paris, where she is primarily in charge of industrialised countries and sectors.
Further keynote speakers will soon be announced. They will cover topics such as the UK economy – risks and opportunities and the regional North West economy in the context of the UK.

This conference will be of benefit to finance directors and credit management professionals, their advisers and those with an interest in country risk.

The conference will be hosted by Xavier Denecker, the managing director of Coface - UK & Ireland.

For further information on the Conference and how to attend please contact Heidi Cotsworth at Coface - UK & Ireland on email at heidi_cotsworth@cofaceuk.com

Media: For further information please contact Justin Strong, associate director, SKV Communications, on 0161 838 7770 or e-mail at justin.strong@skvcommunications.co.uk

About Coface
Coface's mission is to facilitate global business-to-business trade by offering its 130,000 customers four business lines to fully or partly outsource trade relationship management and to finance and protect their receivables: credit insurance, factoring, ratings and business information and receivables management.

Thanks to the worldwide local service delivered by 7,000 staff in 67 countries, over 45% of the world's 500 largest corporate groups are already customers of Coface. Coface is a subsidiary of Natixis whose share capital (Tier 1) was 13.4 billion euros at the end of June 2009.

In the UK and Republic of Ireland Coface has been a leading provider of credit management services (http://www.cofaceuk.com/CofacePortal/UK/en_EN/pages/home/...) since 1993 - it’s objective being to enable businesses to trade securely at home and overseas. Operating from offices in London, Dublin, Watford, Birmingham, Leeds and Cardiff allows Coface to provide a local service.

The company’s credit insurance offer (http://www.cofaceuk.com/CofacePortal/UK/en_EN/pages/home/...) integrates credit assessment, collection services and cover for unpaid debts. Multinational businesses can protect their worldwide subsidiaries through Coface’s international network. Coface provides working capital and off balance sheet facilities to complement its product line.

The company also provides access to domestic and international business information and a collection network at home and overseas. Coface is also a recognised operator in the London political risk market and a provider of surety bonds and guarantees.

http://www.cofaceuk.com and http://www.coface.ie

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Coface is a leading provider of country, sector and business climate ratings, providing country ratings for 165 countries. The country and sector ratings assess the average level of risk of payment default associated with a country’s companies and business sectors

Coface also provides a ‘business climate’ rating to assess the overall business environment in a country and the degree and reliability of corporate information and if a country’s legal system provides fair and efficient creditor protection

Coface is a world leader in credit management - primarily credit insurance but also business information and ratings, receivables finance (invoice discounting) and receivable management (debt collection)

Coface serves businesses that trade either domestically or overseas on credit terms. Its clients range from multi-nationals to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)