This week has seen RWC Partners announce the creation of a new emerging and frontier markets desk, AXA unveil a flexible real estate fund and Alliance Trust Savings buy Stocktrade from Brewin Dolphin.
There’s always plenty of breaking news in the investment industry so FE Trustnet has rounded up some of the stories that have been making the headlines over the past seven days.
RWC poaches 15 to create emerging markets team
RWC Partners has hired a 15-strong team from Everest Capital to build a new emerging, frontier and Asian equities business.
The new emerging and frontier markets team will be jointly led by John Malloy and James Johnstone. Malloy will have primary responsibility for emerging market with support from co-manager Thomas Allraum while Johnstone will look after frontier markets with Luis Laboy.
The team will also be supported by emerging market economist Cem Akyurek, Garret Mallal as Singapore-based portfolio manager and Min Chen, who will cover Asian equity research.
Miami-based Everest Capital closed six of its seven hedge funds earlier this year after its position in the Swiss franc was hit heavily when the Swiss National Bank removed a cap on the currency's value against the euro.
Dan Mannix, chief executive of RWC Partners, said: “An extremely unusual set of circumstances allowed us to recruit a fully formed institutional quality emerging and frontier markets investment team.”
“It is incredibly hard to build a team of the depth and breadth that John and James have over the last few years and we are all very pleased to have been able to create the environment for the team to stay together.”
AXA IM unveils global flexible property fund
AXA Investment Managers has launched a fund offering flexible exposure to global real estate investments, which claims to offer reduced volatility, improved diversification and lower transaction costs than bricks and mortar funds.
AXA WF Global Flexible Property will invest in equity and debt issued by publicly traded real estate companies around the world, with a targeted allocation of 60 per cent in equities and 40 per cent in debt.
It has been designed to mimic the liability side of a real estate company’s balance sheet, enabling the fund manager to build a return profile similar to that of a direct property investment.
Frédéric Tempel, global head of listed real estate at AXA IM and lead manager on the fund, said: “Property holds a lot of appeal as an asset class with strong historical performance and resilient income, however, investors have previously had to choose between illiquid physical real estate and liquid yet often volatile real estate equities.”
“AXA WF Global Flexible Property fund represents another option for investors aiming to provide exposure to the return profile of physical real estate assets but with better liquidity and reduced volatility compared to equity markets.”
Alliance Trust Savings to buy Stocktrade from Brewin Dolphin
Alliance Trust Savings (ATS) has agreed a deal to buy Brewin Dolphin’s execution-only Stocktrade business for £14m.
A statement by Brewin Dolphin said Stocktrade had assets of around £4.6bn under management and 48,000 customers in 2014. The firm will made about £1m from sale after costs are considered.
The acquisition will increase ATS’s assets under management to £11.5bn spread across around 105,000 clients.
Patrick Mill, managing director of ATS, said: “Stocktrade is a great strategic fit for ATS, giving us access to new customers, an increase in assets and the opportunity to build a strategic partnership capability.”
“It also gives us the ability to align a traditional stockbroking business with our innovative, scalable and cost effective approach by offering customers online access alongside our in-house customer service team.”
WMA appoints three to its board
The Wealth Management Association (WMA) announced that three new members will join its board later this month, including Coutts chief executive Michael Morley.
Morley joined Coutts & Co in 2009 and had previously work as head of international private banking at Barclays Wealth, chief executive of Barclays Switzerland and director of private wealth services for Europe and the Middle East at Merrill Lynch.
Interactive Investor chief executive Adam Seale will also join the WMA board. Seale’s CV includes starting his career at the Bank of England, 18 years at global consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, where he led the UK financial services practice, and being managing director for specialist banking on the retail board of HBOS.
The final appointment is David Loudon, managing partner at Redmayne-Bentley. He started his career in financial services as operations manager of HFC Bank in 1989, before being made a partner of Redmayne-Bentley Stockbrokers in 1995 and managing partner in 2006.
Tim Ingram, chairman of the WMA, said: “We are delighted to welcome Adam, Michael and David to the board. Their considerable industry knowledge, experience and expertise will serve as a great asset to WMA and the member firms we represent.”
Saunderson House plans discretionary service
Advisory firm Saunderson House will launch a discretionary service later this year, an interim update from its parent IFG Group revealed this week.
“As the year progresses, Saunderson House plans to selectively broaden its investment offering as a discretionary management service,” the statement said.
“This will enhance its ability to tailor its service proposition based on client circumstances and broaden the proposition to a wider market.”
Meanwhile, IFG said it is also looking to grow its business further and hinted this may involve acquisitions.
“In line with our strategic focus to provide independent advice and full platform services for retirement wealth planning in the UK, we continue to pursue both organic and inorganic opportunities to leverage the capability in our business,” it said.
