Challenge

An international private firm was considering a partnership with one of Egypt's leading retailers and wholesalers of electrical home appliances. Among many players in the market, the firm chose Crownox to conduct due diligence on their potential partner.

Crownox was requested to meet market needs and ensure that Know Your Customer (KYC) standards were being met. We were also asked to interview previous employees at the subject's firm as well as their current partners. We conducted security and reputation checks on seniors and stakeholders, whose information was not as easily obtained.

Solution

All of the individuals we interviewed provided positive feedback on the company and its stakeholders. However, after conducting in-depth checks with legal entities to ensure that legal and regulatory requirements were met, we found out that one of the stakeholders was secretly politically affiliated with one of Egypt's political movements. This was an essential element to point out to our client especially considering that none of the other interviewees knew about this. 

The due diligence report we produced was fundamental to our client's mitigation against political risks. Their entity would have otherwise been subjected to many loses if the partnership was processed and finalized.