THE VITALA GROUP AND GROUP CHAIRMAN DR WOLF VIERICH

CR: I HAVE READ EXTENSIVELY ABOUT YOUR VITALA GROUP OF COMPANIES AND ITS GLOBAL HISTORY IN THE PROJECT FINANCE INDUSTRY, OPERATINGNOW FOR OVER 40 YEARS AND ACTIVE IN OVER 153 COUNTRIES.

I HAVE ALSO RESEARCHED YOUR PROFESSIONAL RECORD AND THE RESULTS ARE SIMILARLY ASTONISHING: A FORMER WORLD CHAMPION AMATEUR BOXER, WHO WENT ON AFTER UNIVERSITY, TO SERVE SIX HEADS OF STATES AS LEGAL AND ECONOMIC  ADVISOR.  YOU LIVED THROUGHOUT AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST FOR MANY YEARS, UNTIL IN 1983 YOU ESTABLISHED YOUR OWN “VITALA GROUP OF COMPANIES”.

WV : YES, IT HAS BEEN AN EXCITING TRIP THROUGH LIFE.

CR: YOU HAVE WRITTEN BOOKS, PUBLISHED MANY ARTICLES, LECTURED IN THE USA AND UK UNIVERSITIES AND THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT AWARDED YOU A KNIGHTHOOD FOR SERVICES TO THEINTERNATIONAL HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY – AMONGST MANY OTHER INTERNATIONAL AWARDS AND RECOGNITION RECEIVED OVER THE LAST 50 PLUS YEARS.

YOU HAVE ALSO TRAVELLED IN YOUR LIFETIME IN EXCESS OF 20MILLION PLUS  AIR MILES AND YOU CONTINUE TO TRAVELANNUALLY IN EXCESS OF 300,000 MILES, TO VISIT MANY VITALAGROUP PROJECTS.

IS IT NOW TIME FOR RETIREMENT?

WV: Not at all, I enjoy working and pursuing our commercial dreams. To retire, for me personally, would be almost like dying. What would I do? Just sit at home and look after the garden? Medical research indicates a potential lifespan of not more than an average of7 years after retirement.

No, it’s not for me.

CR: I WOULD LIKE TO ASK YOU SOME QUESTIONS, NOT SO MUCH ABOUT THE  SUCCESS OF THE VITALA GROUP, BUT RATHER ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL AND COMMERCIAL EXPERIENCE TO DATE.

WV:   Go ahead please,  I am all ears!

CR : FOR SOMEONE WITH SUCH A RICH AND UNUSUAL LIFESTYLE, HAVING TRAVELLED THE WORLD EXTENSIVELY,WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE “SUCCESSFUL?”

WV: “success” can be interpretated in many ways and “success” can mean a wide range of things.

Firstly, it is general recognition, within your community, that you are at the top of your profession.

Secondly, success is mainly measured by financial success but, truly speaking, once you have acquired all those things you could never afford, it does not make any difference how much money you make, from that point onwards.

Success means many other things too: the freedom to do as you like, pursuing opportunities only money enables you to do, and most of all to meet all kinds of people and discover what it is they call success.

True success is probably to be at peace with yourself, to approach your life realistically (I learned as a boxer that you cannot win all your fights) and to attempt to pass on your positive experiences to others.

To remain content and not to confuse financial success with status in life.

Not to repeat all the mistakes you made the first time round.

Most of the “financially successful” people I meet are unhappy, chasing unrealistic dreams, seeking medical miracles to look younger and in general experiencing difficulties appreciating life.

They are driven by unrealistic dreams and mainly greed – itis never enough.

Some suffer from the fear of losing it all and ending up back where they originally came from.

There are many who believe that life owes us something, but this is not true.

And then there are those who wish to leave a legacy, they are determined to be remembered in one form or another.

I fail to see the point.  Once you are dead you will never know about the legacy you left behind.

CR : IF YOU COULD HAVE CHOSEN ANOTHER LIFE, WHAT KIND OF “SUCCESS “ WOULD YOU HAVE DESIRED?

WV: The type of “success” I would desire is answered by the question: what do you believe “makes you tick?”  What makes you get up in the morning? How hungry are you when the day starts?

For example, I could never be a nurse or medical doctor, I do not possess the care aspect required, but I am a great admirer of those professions.

When you are young the word success has no meaning at all because you lack any comparisons; it is like a race, you have to run many races in order to compare your level of success with others.

The word “ambition or drive” is more appropriate to be addressed, without either there is no  success in any form.

WV:I am hopeless at playing any musical instrument, not to mention singing. If I had a choice again I would like to be a famous pianist or opera singer – but not at any price.

CR: WHAT DO YOUMEAN?

WV: That is to say I would not like to be a success just because my parents were obsessed with the idea of me becoming a successful musician or the like.

CR:  YOU MENTIONED “FAMOUS”, COULD YOU NOT SETTLE FOR JUST AVERAGE?

WV: I come from a very poor social background and lived as a child through extreme poverty, just after the second world war.  This created a desire in me never to return to that type of life and I was always prepared to give 150 % and not just 100% to succeed.

There would be no point unless you can excel at something.

“Average” – the world is full of average people.

Of course, talent is the first requirement, then it is continuous training and hard work.  There is no other easy option.  Talent alone does not create success.

CR: WHATCONTRIBUTION,IF ANY, DO YOU THINK YOU PERSONALLY HAVE MADE TO SOCIETY IN YOUR LIFETIME, IF YOU ARE NOT,IN YOUR OWN WORDS, CARING OR TALENTED ENOUGH TO BE A MUSICIAN OR PERFORMER?

WV: This is very difficult to answer, to take a look at yourself.

Probably, using my global commercial experiences acquired in the past, to prevent others from losing their livelihoods or making bad financial decisions, which ruin them eventually.  Just to be able to pass on my own failures and successes.

Also to ensure that others who accompany me on this life journey benefit equally from any success we achieve with The Vitala Group.

CR: CHANGING THE SUBJECT BACK TO FINANCIAL…YOUR VITALA GROUP PROVIDES GLOBAL LOANS TO ALL TYPE OF INDUSTRIES, THE AMOUNTS BEING SUBSTANTIAL.WHAT IS THE AVERAGE COMMERCIAL LOAN AMOUNT?

WV: Today an average commercial loan would be in the range of USD million 50.0 – USD million 300.0, with many individual projects exceeding the half million dollar mark.

CR: THESE ARE TRULY LARGE AMOUNTS AND THEY ALSO CONSTITUTE A RISK YOUR VITALA GROUP HAS TO ENTERTAIN

WV: Correct.  But you need to remember that besides being attorneys, accountants and economic experts, we are primarily in the business of assessing risk.

CR: IT SOUNDS VERY SIMPLE, IS IT REALLY?

WV: By no means. There is only so much risk you can assess at any one time, there are too many other risks which can never be adequately assessed, like “force majeure risks”, tsunamis, floods, earthquakes, military coups, civil war outbreaks and so on…

CR: SURELY, THERE MUST BE A SYSTEM WHICH YOU COULD USE, AT LEAST TO REDUCE UNQUANTIFIABLE RISK FACTORS?

WV: This is only partly true and the options available are very limited. If this were true there would be no divorce, as obviously those who get married never contemplate it ending in  divorce.

It shows that risk assessment is a human function with a potentially high failure rate.

For example, just look at the Ukraine/Russia war, the recent earthquakes in Turkey; these were predictable, but the military coup in Niger and the military uprising in Sudan were not.

On the other hand, you could argue that climate change could have been foreseen. It was, but we all ignored it. In our view it did not constitute a risk.

Now we have woken up and started to assess the risk factors caused by flooding, excess temperatures, wild fires and huge changes in global temperatures.

CR: WHAT ABOUT THE HUMAN ELEMENT? TO WHAT EXTENT DOES IT  CONSTITUTE A RISK IN LARGE PROJECT LOANS?

WV: There is an old saying “show me who is your friend and I’ll tell you who you are”. The problem here is that this type of assessment has been distorted by the introduction of the Internet and social media.

Ina court of law it is very difficult to lie and falsify circumstances, but with the Internet and social media we have weaponised humans to lie, falsify, defraud and steal, almost and very often unnoticeable.

Almost any type of document can be forged nowadays.

The field of financial services faces an onslaught from every professional con man and scammer.

The Internet means we do not face each other, there is a protective screen between us.

It is extremely difficult to constantly detect and eliminate them.

CR: SO HOW DO YOU ADDRESS THIS PROBLEM?

WV: Well, at the Vitala Group we employ a very rigorous and detailed due diligence process which assesses all risks individually. When we are approached for a project loan(we deal with around 500-600 of them per month), for a certain amount, a certain geographical location or for a specific use purpose, we currently go through 14 risk assessment factors, such as: political, economic, legal, religious, environmental, criminal, military….and so on.

These risk assessment factors change constantly, not so much by type, but by severity.

CR: SURELY GOVERNMENTS WILL PROVIDE FINANCIAL GUARANTEES FOR LARGE PROJECTS?

WV: Yes, some will offer prime Sovereign Guarantees.

Frankly speaking, these are worthless in project loans which  extend to periods of 15/20 and 25 years’ duration. Commercial syndicate loans have to protect the syndicate investing members, mainly public corporations, in our case.

The paper these guarantees are written on are worthless over time, especially in developing countries with a less stable democratic political structure in place.

That is the main reason that we never deal with government loans, but only with corporate commercial applicants.

CR: I WOULD LIKE YOU TO ADDRESS THE CONCEPT OF “FAILURE”, IF THERE IS SUCH A THING IN YOUR INDUSTRY?

WV: My favourite subject.

We operate not dissimilar to the casino  industry, or bookmakers, in that our risk assessment is applied on a much wider scale (as we do not gamble), and when a project loan fails, which is usually due to circumstances outside our control (force majeure, sometimes internal fraud), then any project loan losses need to be leveraged and offset against  profits achieved in others.

This is where the skill comes into play, instead of gambling.

It needs years of operating experience in this field to get it right.

CR: FINALLY, WHERE DOES THE IDEA OF “TRUST” COME IN?

WV: “Trust” in general is an emotional subject.

Wedo not deal with trust but with mathematically calculable risks.

Theysay: …never do business with relatives…and…never lend money even to friends.

I think there is a great deal of truth in those statements.

CR :it was fascinating talking to you, thank you.