In order to gain from a major technological and social shift that is still under-exploited by investors despite its strong value creation credentials, Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management, a pioneer in investment themes like healthcare – EdR Fund Global Healthcare has just celebrated its 30th birthday- is launching Edmond de Rothschild Fund Global Data.
The fund takes a stock-picking approach across all capitalization sizes and geographical zones, investing in growth stocks which have only limited exposure to global economic conditions.
Jacques-Aurélien Marcireau, the fund manager, has isolated several different but complementary stock profiles. Some companies (infrastructure) collect data and sell them to clients; others (analytics) develop software which analyses data while the third category concerns data users, or non-tech companies which have already integrated big data into their main business so as to achieve competitive edge.
The fund is a balanced blend of core holdings (51% minimum) in established big data players and companies which are capable of using big data to transform their business model. To mark the launch of EdR Fund Global Data, the international equity team has just been reinforced with the arrival of Nan Zhang, a junior fund manager and analyst.
A New Value-Creating Investment Opportunity
The arrival of big data is ushering in major social changes and forcing companies to adapt their strategy. The concept emerged at the beginning of the decade and covers two key areas: technological innovation to facilitate data storage but also, and perhaps more importantly, new developments tied to the rapid increase in connected objects which are bringing billions of people together.Huge sections of the economy are concerned by a development which seeks to turn data into a key decision-making tool, thereby creating value for companies.
Harnessing exponential flows of data (Volume) from different sources (Variety) which are most often cross-referenced in real time (Velocity) allows companies to better understand their markets, boost organisational efficiency and generate robust revenues. The financial gains from such large-scale analysis based on the 3V concept could run into billions of US dollars in coming years.Economic players will benefit from as yet largely untapped growth from digital data reckoned to hit 35,000 exabytes in 2020, or twenty times more than in 2010. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), only 0.5 % of global data is currently being analysed.
Giants like IBM, Cisco and Microsoft as well as start-ups have big ambitions in data analysis which they see as a value-creating tool.A good number of sectors like insurance or autos are making huge efforts to collect as much data on customer behaviour as possible to optimise risk analysis and identify new markets. Growing use of big data should also radically transform the healthcare sector with the emergence of personalised medicine. Companies, governments and entire cities will see real benefits from this development. Estimates suggest that the smart city market, for example, will be worth USD 100 bn by 2030.
The Edmond de Rothschild Group is an independent, family-owned group that specialises in private banking and asset management.Founded in 1953, the Group has been chaired since 1997 by Baron Benjamin de Rothschild. At December 31 2013, it had € 133.6bn under management with 2,800 employees and 31 offices throughout the world. As well as asset management and private banking, the Group is active in corporate finance, private equity and fund administration.
With 6 investment hubs in the world (France, Switzerland, Germany, Hong Kong, Luxembourg and the UK), the Edmond de Rothschild Group is positioned as a multi specialist investment firm.It builds on recognised areas of expertise such as European and US equities, corporate debt, multi manager, overlay, asset allocation and quantitative asset management.
The group’s asset management division had close to EUR 45bn under management at December 31 2013 and employed 550 people including 100 investment professionals.