Photo: Jackietl, Flickr, Creative Commons. BME Joins the Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) Initiative to Promote Sustainable Capital Markets
BME has announced that it has partnered with the United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative to raise awareness on environmental, social and corporate governance issues, and to spread sustainable business practices.
The UN SSE initiative was launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in 2009, and offers a learning platform for exploring how exchanges—together with investors, regulators and listed companies—can encourage sustainable investments and enhance corporate transparency. The SSE is convened by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the UN Global Compact, the UN Environment Program’s Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), and the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI).
In a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, BME committed to working with investors, companies and regulators to promote long term sustainable investment and improved environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) disclosure and performance among companies listed on its markets.
The Chairman of BME, Antonio Zoido, said: “We are proud to join the SSE Initiative and partner with the UN and our industry to support best practices in corporate governance and transparency related to corporate sustainability and help advance this cause globally. Being part of the Sustainable Stock Exchange initiative demonstrates our commitment to adopting sustainable business practices and encouraging our stakeholders to do the same”.
CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrPhoto: Gabriel Villena. Robeco Builds Presence in the UK
Robeco announces the opening of its new London office in the City of London. The office will focus on serving UK institutional investors, global distribution partners and global consultants.
As previously announced Mark Barry has been appointed Head of UK and Institutional Business for Robeco UK. Robeco’s Global Financial Institutions team, headed by Nick Shaw, and Global Consultant Relations team, headed by Peter Walsh, are also run out of the London office. They are currently supported by a team of 6 FTE and Robeco is planning to expand this to around 20 FTE within the next two years. Robeco has a long track record with the UK institutional market and currently has approximately GPB 5bn in assets under management (as at 30 September 2015) from UK client mandates.
As in many other regions across the globe, Robeco will provide its client base in the UK market with access to high level expertise, amongst others within the field of Sustainability and Quantitative Investing. Robeco has been integrating ESG criteria in its mainstream products for many years, and has been at the forefront of active ownership by engaging with companies in which we invest to improve their sustainability practices since 2005. Robeco is also a pioneer in the field of quantitative stock selection since the early ‘90s. In 1994 the first stock selection models were used in Robeco equity strategies. Following the success of these models in practice, Robeco launched a 100% quantitative equity product line in 2002. This expanded over the years, currently spanning a wide range of investment strategies, with different regional exposures and risk-return characteristic and has over the last years developed a number of innovative factor investing strategies.
Mark Barry said: “Robeco coming to the UK is about bringing a suite of capabilities and skill sets to help clients build more sustainable, long-term portfolios to achieve their objectives. There is definitely a space in the UK for Robeco’s ‘cautiously pioneering’ mentality of using long-term, highly innovative sustainable investment strategies. These have been built on the bedrock that founded Robeco in 1929 and still stands today: using research-based, tried and tested strategies to deliver long-term results.”
Hester Borrie, Head of Global Distribution & Marketing and a Member of the Management Board of Robeco Group, said: “Building on our track record with clients in the UK, we are ready to be going to the next stage. We are delighted that our commitment to the UK market is now set in stone, with the opening of our new London office and the appointment of Mark Barry as Head of our UK business. Mark is supported by a strong team within Robeco that has had a solid focus on London in recent years. London is a key hub for the institutional and wholesale investment business globally. With the opening of our new London office, Robeco is now well established in all of the world’s major financial centres.”
CC-BY-SA-2.0, FlickrPhoto: Naroh. Dentons Combines With Luxembourg's OPF Partners
Global law firm Dentons today announced that it will further its leading presence in the world’s top financial centers with a combination between Dentons Europe LLP and Luxembourg’s OPF Partners. OPF Partners’ is a leading Luxembourg firm, rated by Chambers and The Legal 500 for banking and finance, corporate, investment funds, tax, real estate and dispute resolution. The firm’s 34 lawyers, including nine partners, will join Dentons Europe LLP on January 1st, 2016.
In 2015, Dentons has entered or expanded in six of the world’s leading financial centers, and this combination means that the Firm now has a presence in the following cities out of the 25 top financial centers in the world: London, New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, Toronto, San Francisco, Washington, DC, Chicago, Boston, Frankfurt, Sydney, Dubai, Montreal, Vancouver, Shanghai, Doha and Shenzhen.
“In our 10th transformative initiative in 2015, Dentons has done more for its clients this year than any global firm,” said Dentons Global Chairman, Joe Andrew. “By listening to our clients and planning our strategy around their business goals, we are creating the law firm of the future—one that anticipates client needs and delivers the specific practice expertise and business experience required, in communities around the world.”
Global Chief Executive Officer Elliott Portnoy added, “OPF Partners is recognized as one of Luxembourg’s leading firms and its lawyers will be able to offer our clients elite counsel in this important European market, consistent with our polycentric approach of offering the best legal talent in communities around the world. We are very pleased to welcome this high quality team to the Firm.”
Evan Lazar, Chairman of the Europe Board said, “Luxembourg plays a key role in the global and European investment fund and private equity sector, which is one of our core areas of focus and strategy. We are delighted to welcome our new colleagues from OPF Partners, with whom we have been working jointly for clients over recent years, and who share our commitment to excellence and building a leading pan-European practice.”
“We have already achieved a lot this year with our Milan launch, the hire of a substantial team in Hungary and the significant growth of our German practice with nine new partner appointments,” said Chief Executive Officer for Europe Tomasz Dąbrowski. “This transaction implements another top priority under our strategic plan for Europe which we will continue to focus on in 2016 and the coming years.”
Frédéric Feyten, Managing Partner of OPF Partners, commented, “We have always been committed to innovatively supporting local and international clients on the full spectrum of their Luxembourg projects. This combination will strengthen our capabilities in delivering pinpointed legal advice on a global scale. Luxembourg has achieved its status as a leading financial center, the largest European investment fund center, and a major private equity hub through its excellent services, international open-mindedness and stability. In this context, our teams are well positioned to solve the most challenging global client demands.”
The news builds on Dentons’ recent growth in Europe with the launch of a Milan office last month; the hire of 50 lawyers in Budapest earlier this year; and significant lateral partner hires in Germany, Russia and France. It also follows transformative combinations in China and the United States; the recent announcement of combinations with Australia’s Gadens and Singapore’s Rodyk; the Firm’s February establishment of its Johannesburg office in Africa, where it is the first global law firm to achieve Level 1 Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment status; and the creation of its innovation platform, NextLaw Labs, which is focused on developing, deploying, and investing in new technologies and processes to transform the practice of law around the world.
Photo: Cheezepie. Equity and High Yield: the Assets in Which to Find Absolute Returns in 2016
In an environment which is more uncertain than in the past, investors are wondering where to find absolute returns in 2016. Schroders experts are clear: in assets such as high yield bonds, or equities. “Given the adjustments that occurred in the credit market, the yields are attractive and we can now get real positive returns, even in an environment of rising interest rates by the Fed,” explains Karl Dasher, Head of Schroders in the US, and Co-Head of the management company’s Fixed Income.
As part of the Annual International Media Conference held recently in London, he said he sees opportunities in the high yield segment, “a very interesting asset in which to be now.” Despite the caution by the energy component in asset, he deems that opportunities may be found in different industries, such as consumer or industrial sectors, and also in the financial sector, with differentials of 6% -7% – avoiding the energy risk, and predicts total returns of between 5% and 10% next year. “The important thing is the selection of securities and investing in a widely diversified manner; we have about 150 names in the portfolio, “he adds.
For Alex Tedder, CIO and Head for and global and US equities, there are always opportunities in equities, despite the uncertain environment in which the market moves. “This year’s returns have been almost flat, disappointing, but in geographical and sectoral terms, there is much divergence”, demonstrating that there are always opportunities. The manager sees a situation with several equilibrating factors: on the positive side, profits, liquidity and its condition as preferred asset and flow capturer; and in the negative side, profit revisions, except in Japan, valuations (most markets, with the exception of Japan are relatively expensive), and geopolitical risk.
But “there are reasons to remain positive: the yields on equities are attractive versus bonds and, if we go back to previous crises, we see that valuations are not so bad,” he adds. In addition, there are always opportunities in those areas where the market is often wrong: the manager mentioned securities which benefit from disruptive technologies, secular growth, innovation, niche players, or those who have purchasing power. For example, those industries which benefit from the growth in online transactions and commerce, such as Tencent, Alibaba, Uber, LinkedIn, Netflix, Google, Trip Advisor, Expedia or Airbnb. “We have no sectoral or country bias: We have no sectoral or country bias: we seek global growth and opportunities and with this viewpoint, the set of opportunities is substantial.
Opportunities in Debt
The bond market has experienced 30 years of gains in fixed income, in a scenario of slowing economic growth, higher saving rate (partly due to demographic reasons) and a lower level of investment than expected, excess savings also in emerging markets, and a fall in public investments. The Bank of England estimates that the overall impact of these factors, among others, explains a fall of 4.5% in real yields.
For Dasher, markets are not looking to the forward looking indicators but at the rearview mirror, and are behaving as if the Fed had already raised rates. “In fixed income markets, many of the fears of a rate hike have already been priced in.” he explains. The proof: Also speaking of credit, the spreads on debt assets are lower than at other times in history. He rules out that the Fed will make a move any time soon: the market has priced it in that it will do so in December, but progress will be very slow, reaching 1.5% -2% within the next 18 months. For its part, the ECB will continue with its QE but will disappoint, while UK rates will rise sometime next year.
In the case of US credit, the expert talks about its dynamics: supply and corporate issues increased, but foreign demand has not been sufficient. However, he sees a trend on the horizon: the appetite of Japanese investors for the asset. “Japanese investors are changing their habits and shifting from investing in domestic assets to international assets, for example, in US debt”; therefore, he explains that issues in corporate debt and the increased supply in this area, can be offset by demand for the asset.
He explained that in emerging debt, adjustments in China will be gradual, and that if the renminbi is not undervalued further, and continues at levels of three years ago, it is because the rest of the world has depreciated more. But he is not worried about the country’s debt levels: “If there is a debt crisis, comparisons with other historical moments would put China in the less severe end of the spectrum,” he adds. In general, he believes that in emerging debt there are interesting opportunities from a viewpoint of selection, of both companies and public debt, building portfolios which are very different from the benchmarks.
Photo: Fut Und Beidl. Groundhog Day for Financial Markets
Financial markets have endured their own version of Groundhog Day in recent months: the three issues that troubled investors earlier in the year – namely the precise timing of the Fed’s first rate rise, the subdued pace of global growth and the ongoing macroeconomic uncertainties in China – are not that much closer to being resolved now than they were back in the summer. So perhaps it is worth considering what has changed in markets, and what hasn’t.
The Fed, for its part, has worked very hard to try and keep the December policy meeting alive (current market pricing suggests that a December hike is now likely, having been less than a 30% probability prior to the October meeting). Nonetheless, it is still impossible to predict with complete certainty whether or not the Fed will move before the year is out, particularly given the seasonal decline in market liquidity that is seen in December. Critics of the Fed would argue that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) has simply been too transparent, and that policymakers have painted themselves into a corner. If the FOMC itself is not sure about what it should do, it is impossible for anyone else to predict what the Fed will do with any accuracy.
While the Fed’s moves (or ‘none moves’) have occupied the lion’s share of the column inches in recent weeks, it is the muted tone of global economic data that is perhaps most vexing. The Lehman crisis took place well over seven years ago, and yet signs of a traditional cyclical recovery remain very hard to find. If anything, the current concern in markets is overcapacity in China and what that will mean not only for commodities and energy producers but also industrial profitability in general. Whilst we do not expect an economic recession, it is clear that life for a number of global industries is very difficult and likely to get worse. Talk of a recession in industrial profits may sound alarmist, but is probably not too wide of the mark if you happen to be a maker of mining equipment or agricultural equipment, areas where there is significant global oversupply. If you produce a commoditised, undifferentiated product – such as steel plate, for example – life is incredibly tough and companies are failing.
Why has global growth been so subdued? One explanation is that while QE has created the conditions (i.e. near-zero interest rates) for companies to invest, it only makes sense for companies to invest if they think that there is demand for what they will then produce. Post crisis, that demand has been notable by its absence, outside of emerging markets. Of course, as has been discussed ad infinitum, emerging markets are now under significant pressure (particularly the ones that have built their economies to feed Chinese demand for commodities) meaning that the global consumption outlook is muted at best. In that context, it is perhaps not surprising that companies have chosen to cut costs and use spare cash to pay dividends (or special dividends) and latterly they have used financial engineering (such as share buybacks) to support their share prices. In a world where organic growth is hard to find, it makes much more sense to buy back shares than committing to expensive, long-term projects involving huge amounts of capital expenditure and uncertain pay-offs – as many mining companies have found to their cost.
A lack of corporate confidence to invest is only part of the story. When oil prices slumped, we expected the consumer to benefit from a ‘cheap energy’ dividend, but this simply has not emerged in the way that we expected. Why is this? Rather like corporations, which are reluctant to spend on large-scale investment projects, we believe that many consumers are simply thankful to have a job in the post-crisis world and are therefore banking the gains they have made from low energy prices. Perhaps more significantly, and despite tightening labour markets in countries such as the US and UK, wage gains have been very modest. We should also not forget that a generation of people who left school or college in the late ‘noughties’ will have grown up without ever knowing the cheap and abundant finance that was available pre-Lehman. Leveraged consumption is not returning in the US or elsewhere and this will have a material impact on the level of GDP growth we will see next year and in the coming years. To put this another way, the unholy trinity of tighter regulation, higher legal costs and tougher capital requirements will mean that retail banks will increasingly look like utilities in the future.
What does this mean for investors? In our estimation, organic growth will be hard to find and that perhaps explains the recent pick-up in M&A. Companies that have already shrunk their cost bases and used financial engineering to lift their share price have few other options left in the locker. Indeed, increased M&A and the fact that companies have become more creative with their balance sheets has driven the recent deterioration in credit fundamentals in the US.
The fact that growth is likely to be subdued means that interest rates will be lower for longer. Indeed, the terminal fed funds rate for this cycle could be as low as 2%. On paper, this is positive for bonds but it is hard to get excited about government bonds given where yields are and the fact that the Fed will be raising rates. European high yield does however look interesting, given a meaningful yield spread over government bonds and the fact that the asset class is usually a beneficiary of M&A, unlike investment grade.
A low discount rate is in theory a major positive for equities but all the issues discussed above suggest that economic growth – and therefore earnings – are likely to be weaker than they would have been if some of the excess global productive capacity had been burnt off. We think that a selective approach in equities will pay off, particularly as Chinese growth concerns are unlikely to abate any time soon. We also think that investors will focus more on valuations and fundamentals as global liquidity continues to ebb, and in that world investors should be ready for more stock-specific disappointments. In future, the Fed will not be underwriting equity markets and despite the likelihood of further action by the ECB, there will no longer be a rising tide of global QE that lifts all boats.
Mark Burgess is CIO EMEA and Global Head of Equities at Columbia Threadneedle Investments.
. The Key to Pioneer Investments’ Income Strategies: Diversify Different
Demographic challenges, increased regulation, and the Public Debt Mountain, are fueling investor demand for assets that provide income; thus converting income strategies into the most affordable way to cope with mortgage payments or health insurance, and supplement public pensions.
This market trend is increasingly clear to the team at Pioneer Investments, which presented the panel, ‘A Need for Income in Today’s Economic Environment’ at the investment seminar “Embrace New Sources of Return”, which was held in Miami. Both Adam MacNulty, CFA, Senior Client Portfolio Manager of Pioneer Funds – Global Multi-Asset Target Income, and Piergaetano Iaccarino, Head of Thematic Equity and Portfolio Manager of Pioneer Funds – Global Equity Target Income shared their expert views in the series of panelist questions.
Despite the increased demand for income, Pioneer Investments believes that many investors’ conservative portfolio exposures may not be positioned to cope with the income need.
“We believe that investors face multiple concerns over time, but on top of the list is the need to generate income on a sustainable basis. In our opinion secular trends, such as an ageing demographic, public debt and increased regulation, which by definition are beyond the realm of the economic cycle, will shape the outlook and behavior of investors, by continuing to drive the demand for income,” company experts point out.
In the current environment of low interest rates and low returns of sovereign debt making it more difficult to draw income from traditional assets, Adam Mac Nulty, recommended looking beyond traditional sources, such as the U.S. stock market, the European stock market or U.S. Treasuries. In their search for sustainable income, the company intends to explore the U.S. high yield market, European high dividend equities, or REITs.
The key is to maintain a low volatility target, between 5 and 10%, and at the same time diversify among poorly correlated assets to keep the risk toward the downside. The Global Multi-Asset Income Target strategy seeks to deliver these goals.
Meanwhile, Piergaetano Iaccarino, also pointed out that one of the keys to attracting income to the portfolio is to be flexible in asset allocation. Thus, the Pioneer Investments team effectively attenuates falls in volatile markets.
In Global Equity Target Income fund’s case, Iaccarino explained that its portfolio has 80% of core positions and 20% of tactical positions which vary according to the strategy’s requirements and market conditions. Thus, the expert from Pioneer achieves flexibility and dynamism, which are crucial in finding assets that provide income. This portfolio construction enables potential for high income in a stable portfolio.
Photo: 55Laney69. Safra Sarasin Acquires Leumi Luxembourg Unit
Banque J. Safra Sarasin has announced the acquisition of Bank Leumi Luxembourg’s private banking business, in a bid to expand its private banking presence in the region.
As a result of the transaction, Safra Sarasin will take over responsibility for Bank Leumi Luxembourg’s clients and relationship managers. Services of Bank Leumi had been tailored to Ultra High Net Worth and High Net Worth clients.
The agreement comes as a number of Israeli banks have announced their withdrawal from European private bank operations, due to, among others, profitability and fiscal compliance concerns. This includes Israel Discount Bank, which sold its Swiss unit to Hyposwiss private bank Genvève earlier this week.
Just as their international counterparts, the move to sell Israeli private banking units was also reinforced by the global crackdown on tax evasion. Last year, Bank Leumi had already settled with US authorities to pay a $400m fine for helping US account holders to evade taxes.
Jacob J. Safra, Vice Chairman of J. Safra Sarasin Group, commented: “This acquisition underlines our position as a consolidator in the European private banking market. Our capital strength and family ownership provides great flexibility to do such transactions. Bank Leumi’s Luxembourg business sits ideally within our strategic focus, providing tailor made solutions to clients.”
The acquisition is expected to be completed during the course of the first quarter of 2016, subject to regulatory clearance. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Regulation allowing retiring defined contribution (DC) savers in the United Kingdom to invest their DC pots, not only to buy an annuity, will help underpin the growth of platforms in this evolving market, according to the latest Cerulli Associates’ European Defined Contribution 2015 report.
At least 60% of the fund platforms from the United Kingdom, Germany, and Sweden surveyed by Cerulli had more than half of their assets under administration (AUA) from DC pensions. This was nearly double the proportion (33%) of platforms surveyed that had more than half of their AUA from defined benefit (DB).
Cerulli found most asset managers surveyed are targeting platforms to some degree, to sell funds variously to UK and German DC savers this year. In the United Kingdom platforms are rivalled by consultants as asset managers’ most popular DC distribution channel, whereas in Germany insurers are comfortably the favorite channel.
Platform providers Cerulli spoke to for the report said that clients were attracted to the flexibility and clarity on charges. In the near term it will be the more financially literate investor and their financial advisors who use them. Over time platforms will need to develop products and services if they are to appeal to a wider clientele.
“According to one research manager at a UK platform provider, some 75% to 80% of fund managers’ new business flows are coming via platforms,” says David Walker, director of European institutional research at Cerulli and the author of the report. “Therefore managers need to seriously consider listing their funds on them,” he adds.
Platforms should not ignore the “institutional” end of the UK DC industry, where platforms can be used to help design DC default funds, for example. Platform providers should take note that, according to Cerulli research for this report, managers expect default funds to use non-mainstream investments more in future. If this happens, platforms may have to relax current strictures they have regarding fund dealing terms.
“It will challenge default fund designers, out to 2017, to fit more non-mainstream assets into defaults, but managers expect it,” says Walker. “But Europe’s DC fund platform industry will either need to give ground on frequent dealing stipulations, or risk thwarting asset managers’ default design expectations with regard to alternative assets,” he adds.
Foto: Historias Visuales, Flickr, Creative Commons. El crecimiento mundial será anémico en 2016 y 2017 pese al petróleo barato, los tipos bajos y el menor lastre emergente
Mark E. DeVaul, portfolio manager of North America Value Fund and a member of the Nordea’s investment team (through the firm The London Company), explains in this interview with Funds Society how to be a good value investor in these high volatile markets. Recent additions to the portfolio have come from multiple sectors including Consumer Discretionary, Industrials, and Consumer Staples.
US equities have experienced a strong rally in recent years. Investing with a value perspective requires discounts to be found. Is this possible in a more expensive stock market scenario?
US stocks have been strong since the bottom of the market back in March of 2009. Valuations have improved and the US economy is in much better condition compared to the depths of the great recession. It is more difficult to find great investing ideas today vs. 5-6 years ago, but we are still finding them. We attempt to purchase strong companies when they are trading at a roughly 30-40% discount to our estimate of intrinsic value. We calculate intrinsic value using a process we call Balance Sheet Optimization. Our goal is to build the investment thesis for each holding around the strength of the company’s balance sheet and not rely on future growth.
What return potential are you currently detecting for your portfolios, taking into account market prices? Has the safety margin tightened compared with before?
We don’t have a specific return goal each year. Our goal is to outperform the broader market over full market cycles (5-6 years) while maintaining more attractive risk characteristics (better downside capture, lower beta, lower standard deviation). Yes, the discount to intrinsic value is lower today vs. a few years ago.
Value management is characterised by patience and long-term convictions… Do you believe it is possible to maintain a buy&hold management approach in view of the current high volatility?
We believe it is an advantage to follow a buy and hold approach. Many investors have a very short time horizon. We think time is one of the few remaining market inefficiencies. We look at each company as if we were going to buy the whole firm. Our average holding period is five years. We build diversified portfolios of 30-35 holdings. Each holding is meaningful and can drive value to shareholders over a multi-year holding period.
In this regard, have you made any changes to your management approach as a consequence of the market volatility in recent years?
No, we have not made any changes to our investment approach because of recent volatility.
As regards sectors or companies in which you are currently detecting value, which sectors are you concentrating on?
We build our portfolios following a bottom up approach and pay little attention to sector weights. Our goal is to have a strong margin of safety in each holding. Recent additions to the portfolio have come from multiple sectors including Consumer Discretionary, Industrials, and Consumer Staples.
What impact could the Fed’s decision to raise interest rates have on your portfolios? Could the volatility that has been created be useful in any way?
The Fed’s timing of interest rate increases will not have much of an impact on our portfolio. We are aware of the risk and on the margin have stayed away from some of the sectors that investors may view more like bonds because of the high dividend yields (REITs, Telecom, Utilities). If rates begin to move higher, we take that into consideration as part of our balance sheet optimization approach in determining intrinsic value.
To what extent do you take into account macro considerations when it comes to making your investment decisions?
Our process is 100% bottom up so there is limited impact from macro considerations. That said, we are aware of what is going on at the macro level and try to avoid major headwinds when possible.
I imagine that you invest bearing in mind the fundamentals of the company. Do you think the exposure of US companies to China and other EMs will impact their fundamentals?
Exposure to China and other EMs may have some impact. In our large cap portfolio, roughly 30% of sales from the companies in the portfolio are generated outside the US. So we recognize there is some impact. However, the impact is fairly limited as we attempt to buy companies with very little growth expectations priced into the shares.
. Erste Asset Management Acquires Investiční Společnost České Spořitelny
On 18 November 2015 the Czech subsidiary Investiční Společnost České Spořitelny (ISCS) was merged into Erste Asset Management GmbH (EAM). This move will turn the wholly-owned subsidiary of EAM, which manages assets worth 7.9 billion euros, as of September 2015, into a branch office. “Starting with this step EAM continues to improve the product quality and expands the product range offered on the Czech market” said the firm on a press release.
Local expertise will still be actively used
The former Czech subsidiary is now legally a part of EAM, but will retain its registered office in Prague. ISCS will use the umbrella brand of EAM with immediate effect. “The merger will not change much for our Czech colleagues, because we will continue to rely on our local expertise and even hand over responsibilities to our colleagues regarding the whole EAM, for instance our equity management,” as Heinz Bednar, CEO of Erste Asset Management, explains. “We have worked towards this merger for more than a year, and we are now happy to have reached this step. At this point we can also show on a formal level what we are and have been: a strong team, regardless of the location.”
Investment area will be expanded
In preparation for the merger EAM already re-structured its investment area in March. Štěpán Mikolášek will be the head of the newly created equity management team of Erste Asset Management and thus be in charge of all equity activities across the entire Erste Asset Management holding. “The repositioning has created one single, cross-border team of equity specialists to which all experts will contribute their know-how regardless of where they are based,” Bednar points out.
Martin Řezáč, CEO of the Czech ISCS, sees a chance to strengthen the local service: ”The merger allows us to focus more strongly on the clients’ local interests. The common brand highlights our international company profile in the investment area.”
