About Us
CDMR SA (Switzerland)
We live in a finite world. And the supply of critical material resources, given foreseeable mining technologies, is limited. At CDMR. we believe that the wealth management industry should adapt to these facts. Ours is a long investment horizon that focuses on two key considerations.
First, the world is undergoing a technological revolution, in which rare metals play a pivotal role. Rare metals are practically unknown to most people, yet they are all around us. They are already fundamental to today’s technological landscape, and will be even more critical to the future decarbonisation and digitalisation of our economies, underpinning new growth sectors ranging from solar, wind and EVs to hydrogen energy and 5G. Without rare metals, the developed world as we know it would not exist, and the changes to our world of tomorrow would not be possible.
Second, today’s leveraged and debt-driven economies are not sustainable and, broadly speaking, financial and investment practices are failing to take this into account.
In this context, investing in rare metals represents a unique opportunity both for wealth preservation and for capital appreciation.
These are tangible assets whose value is determined by extreme rarity and by real, critical tech applications. As such they constitute a unique addition to any truly diversified portfolio.
And CDMR uses its unique expertise to analyse tech trends on one hand, and geological and geopolitical supply risks on the other, in order to select the most promising metals and exploit their upturn potential.
CDMR France SAS (mission-driven company)
Today’s world is marked by a number of powerful dynamics that represent a real break with the past.
– Firstly, the urgency of climate change, which is creating and will continue to create increasing constraints on our lifestyles,
– The return of geopolitics, with the end of globalization based on trade and the rule of law. The emergence of authoritarian actors explicitly challenging this legalistic world order is destabilizing and threatening globalized supply chains (in goods, services and raw materials), while making Western countries aware of the urgent need for a policy of reindustrialization and sovereignty.
At a time when the metal intensity of our economies continues to grow, and is set to grow even more in the future to meet the challenges of decarbonization, Europe’s high level of dependence on imported metals, coupled with this increase in needs and the growing tensions weighing on supply chains (nationalism of resources, depletion of deposits, geopolitical competition for access to resources, etc.), pose a risk to the availability and price of metals for European industry. Against this backdrop, the recycling of critical metals is becoming a key issue.
InifiniMetal project:
CDMR France, through its InfiniMetal project, intends to participate in the emergence and structuring of a critical metals recycling ecosystem. This ecosystem needs to evolve to become more resilient to exogenous shocks, and more efficient in order to meet the ambitious targets set by the European Union through the CRM Act.
The aim of the InfiniMetal project is to develop and deliver various solutions to the critical metals recycling ecosystem:
– Market place for recycled metals and fractions to be recycled,
– Market intelligence and advice for players in the ecosystem,
– Buffer/strategic stock to ensure double resilience (outlets and availability).
– Massification of flows, enabling the development of innovative shared solutions for the recycling of critical metals.
Our Team
Vincent Donnen - CIIA- Partner
Vincent studied economics, finance and geopolitical science in both France and China, with an Asian bias. After working as an economist for the French Ministry of Economy and Finance in Asia, he went on to accumulate more than ten years of experience in the financial industry. He started with analysis and selection of Alternative and Long Only investment funds for EIM, then moved on to Prisminvest before co-founding CDMR in 2013.
Vincent gives conferences for the SFAA (Swiss Financial Analyst Association) and the CAIA (Chartered Alternative Investment Analysts) on the theme of rare metals. He also teaches regularly at the Ecole des Mines de Nancy.
He has a BA from IEP Grenoble and a Masters in Business from IEP Lyon and the University of Chengdu. He is a CIIA (Chartered International Investment Analyst), a member of the Swiss Financial Analyst Association (SFAA), and is a qualified financial analyst and asset manager (Swiss Federal Diploma).
Grégoire Tézé – Partner
Grégoire studied business and management in the US, and benefits today from a financial experience accumulated over more than twenty years. He started his career at Paribas as a financial analyst and then went on to become an auditor and financial consultant at Arthur Andersen. Afterwards he joined EIM, first as head of International Affairs, then of Marketing, and finally as head of the Singapore office. After leaving EIM, Grégoire took over leadership of the Singapore office for RAM Capital up until 2013, when he co-founded CDMR.
Laurent Maurel - Commodities Analyst
Laurent has been an expert in the mining sector for over 20 years, with in-depth knowledge of precious metals (geology, exploration, development and production). Between 1998 and 2000, Laurent spent two years living in Western Canada, in Vancouver. He holds a Master’s degree in computer science from ESIGELEC and is certified in mining investment by the Corporate Finance Institute. After working in various sectors in Canada, the United States, Germany and France, he quickly turned his attention to the search for raw materials (precious and industrial) and the mining industry, drawing on a network of geologists, explorers and miners.
Pablo Maniglier - associate
Pablo Maniglier is an industrial engineer with a master’s degree in purchasing. He has worked in several large industrial companies of the SBF 120 (Airbus, Michelin, Soitec) in purchasing and Supply Chain departments and has developed an expertise on the criticality issues related to rare metals. He is the author of a book on the challenges of rare metals for European companies.
He joins CDMR as a market analyst. He will work with Vincent Donnen on portfolio strategies.
Advisory Board
François Rousseau
François is a former student of the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris where he studied mathematics and physics. He did research work in plasma physics at MIT before joining the Corps des Mines. After working at France Telecom and then at Novaled AG (Germany), he became head of the industrial risks department at DREAL Alsace, then head of the Subtances, Products and Processes division at INERIS. In 2016, he was made director of the Ecole des Mines de Nancy.
Marc Antoine Eyl-Mazzega – Director of the Energy and Climate Center at Ifri (French Institute of International Relations)
Dr. Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega has been Director of Ifri’s Center for Energy and Climate since 2017. He is an expert on energy security issues (oil, gas, electricity) and decarbonization policies, as well as on the resilience of low carbon value chains, focusing notably on critical metals.
Prior to joining Ifri, he worked for six years at the International Energy Agency, covering Russia and sub-Saharan Africa. He also worked at the Robert Schuman Foundation, where he led an observatory on Ukraine.
A French and German national, he holds a Ph.D. from Sciences Po.
Milestones
Creation of CDMR France SAS
Partnership with OFREMI (Observatoire Français des Ressources Minérales pour les filières Industrielles)
Creation of the Advisory Board
Fund listed on Lombard Odier platform
Best performing commodities fund in the world in 2017
License distribution authorisation by FINMA
Launch of the CSSF approved rare metals fund
Creation of CDMR
USP
We are the first – and still the only – company to be invested exclusively in a diversified and dynamically managed portfolio of physical rare tech metals.
Expertise
Since founding CDMR, we have developed unique knowledge and understanding of the industry-specific market dynamics for every metal in our portfolio, sharpening our financial analyses with technological, geological, economic and geopolitical insights.
Structure
We have built strong relationships with key players in the highly specialised world of rare metals trading, all of whom are members of the MMTA (Minor Metals Trading Association).
We have the expertise required to position ourselves opportunistically ahead of advantageous market events, and the structure that enable us to act when we need to act in an often illiquid market.