Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company hosted its first roundtable event for chief financial officers (CFO) of its portfolio companies to share best practice and knowledge in financial management.

The event, held at the Capital Club, is expected to be the first in a series of CFO roundtables.

The initiative is part of an overall corporate strategy to create uniform standards of corporate governance and boost knowledge sharing within Mumtalakat and across all portfolio companies.

'Roundtables are useful forums to network, exchange ideas, share knowledge and experience, deliberate on common issues and explore solutions to such issues,' said Mumtalakat CFO Arun Kumar.

'This new regular event for CFOs will further strengthen the relationship between Mumtalakat and its portfolio companies to achieve our objectives of growing the wealth of Bahrain.

'With the extensive knowledge and experience that this group brings to the table, I believe it is well positioned to provide thought leadership in the area of financial management.'

The Mumtalakat CFO roundtable will address developments related to corporate finance functions, such as capital markets, internal accounting standards, liquidity management, hedging strategies, financial systems, internal controls, stakeholder communication, corporate governance and best practices.

'The role of CFOs has changed dramatically and today they play an important and strategic role in an organisation,' Kumar said.

'The continued global economic uncertainty poses significant challenges to capital availability, liquidity and earnings.

'Today's CFO has to rise to these challenges and an event such as this will generate thoughts, ideas and solutions to meet such challenges and manage the expectations of internal and external stakeholders,' he added.

The event featured participation from representatives of Alba, National Bank of Bahrain, Garmco, Gulf Technics, Batelco, Gulf Air, Bahrain Airport Company and @Bahrain as well as from Ernst & Young and Standard Chartered Bank.-TradeArabia News Service