Early start on risk assessment

Facing adversity is nothing new to Edward Rigg, having grown up on a farm, often in drought conditions, at Coorow, north of Perth.

The ability to devise innovative and practical solutions while assessing risk are characteristics from these formative years that have served him well, he says.

Mr Rigg’s integrated investment bank, Argonaut, focuses on companies in the oil and gas, mining, agribusiness and contracting sectors. Argonaut was built on a premise to offer high quality, big-firm service without the big firm fees, originating as a corporate advisory firm. It now offers stock broking and capital raisings, funds management and investments and resources incubator divisions as part of the Argonaut Group.

Mr Rigg started the business in 2002, in the wake of the dot.com market crash. With three years’ experience at global investment bank CIBC World Markets in Sydney, he recognised the potential for a corporate advisory firm in Perth’s resources sector. He gained support from CIBC and business partner Charles Fear, whose relationships with some of Western Australia’s largest industrial companies were critical to the business’s early success.

While managing the growth of Argonaut, Mr Rigg has been integral in the ASX or AIM listing of six companies, which now have a combined market capitalisation of about $250 million.

Luckiest business break

“One of my lucky breaks was not being able to join corporate finance at Arthur Andersen. I was in tax in Arthur Andersen and I wanted to join the corporate finance department there. But the corporate finance department went from 37 in 1987 to four people in 1989. So I had to leave there…”  

Motivation

“When we set up Argonaut one of the motivating factors was to try and create a really good quality, reputable investment banking firm and I think that was pretty much lacking in WA in 1992.”