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iCapital Network Acquires HedgeFocus Business from Credit Suisse

iCapital Network, a financial technology platform that provides the high-net-worth market with access to alternative investments, and Credit Suisse on Tuesday announced that they have entered into a definitive purchase agreement pursuant to which iCapital has acquired the HedgeFocus business from the Swiss bank.

The HedgeFocus portfolio contains more than 20 hedge fund access vehicles representing approximately US$1.8 billion in assets in a combination of event driven, multi-strategy, directional, relative value and tactical strategies run by well-established managers. With the transfer of assets, iCapital will be responsible for the ongoing administration and servicing of the investments for all existing investors as well as marketing, administration and servicing for new investors subscribing through iCapital.

“This acquisition is a natural extension of our business strategy, helping us expand our footprint in ways that align with the critical investment priorities of the high-net-worth community for access, choice and transparency,” said Lawrence Calcano, Managing Partner of iCapital Network. “By any metric, this is a transformational deal for iCapital and an important milestone in our efforts to equip the independent wealth community with a leading-edge alternative investments solution.”

“This deal is the culmination of a highly collaborative and close working relationship with iCapital Network that dates back to the firm’s inception in 2013,” said Eileen Duff Blalock, Head of Alternative Investments, Private Banking North America at Credit Suisse. “We needed to be extremely thoughtful about who we could entrust these assets to, and, after reviewing the entire landscape carefully, we knew that iCapital was the right decision on behalf of our investors and relationship managers.”

iCapital offers a curated selection of alternative investments, including private equity, credit, real estate, venture capital and hedge funds, to its private network of registered investment advisors, broker-dealers, family offices and individual high-net-worth investors.

“Our investor base of independent wealth advisors, private banks and family offices has increasingly been asking for a full alts solution, which has been our objective from day one,” said Nick Veronis, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of iCapital Network. “The acquisition of HedgeFocus fits seamlessly with that goal and places the firm and our clients squarely at the technological forefront of the alternative investments landscape.”

Neuberger Berman Signs Partnership Agreement with Fideuram

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Neuberger Berman, one of the world’s leading employee-owned investment managers, has signed a partnership agreement with Fideuram – Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking SpA, the top private bank in Italy and one of the leading companies in private banking in Europe. This partnership brings Neuberger Berman’s UCITS fund range to the Fideuram and Sanpaolo Invest networks.

Neuberger Berman’s comprehensive fund range will be made available to more than 5 000 Fideuram and Sanpaolo Invest private bankers and consists of Ireland-domiciled funds investing in equities, fixed income and liquid alternative strategies.

“This is a key milestone in our strategy in Italy which is a very important market for us” says Dik van Lomwel, Head of EMEA and LatAm at Neuberger Berman. He adds, “We have a meaningful collaboration with Intesa Sanpaolo that started last year in May when we established a strategic partnership in private equity.

“We are delighted to be extending that relationship now to become a fund provider to their extensive distribution network. We believe this rewards the quality of our range, with products that can help Fideuram and Sanpaolo Invest private bankers to pursue their clients’ specific goals with solutions aiming to generate income, manage volatility and protect capital.”

Paolo Molesini, CEO, Fideuram – Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking, said, “The partnership agreement with Neuberger Berman allows us to further strengthen the quality of our product range and is an important step in our ongoing search for value both for private bankers and clients. We are delighted to reinforce the relationship with this asset manager which has been selected, as usual, also for the valuable support it offers to our private bankers to help develop the knowledge of the products available to clients.”

Have Investors Lost Their Nerves?

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According to Marion Le Morhedec and Jonathan Baltora, managers of the AXA WF Global Inflation Bonds fund at AXA Investment Managers, central banks’ loss of credibility has been one of the major investment themes since the start of 2016. One of the main indicators has been the fall in inflation breakevens reflecting investor fears that we may be entering a deflation spiral that central banks would be unable to stop. However, the fall in oil prices has massively influenced inflation expectations and drawing the conclusion that central banks have lost credibility because of this is overblown.

“The oil price impact on inflation is significant. We estimate that 80% of inflation volatility may be explained by oil. However, food and oil price fluctuations only have a short-term impact on inflation. Assuming stable oil prices, headline inflation rates will gradually increase towards core inflation rates in the later part of the year.” Scenario the managers consider encouraging for the inflation linked bond market “as inflation expectations have become very sensitive to short term inflation developments. We now expect these to better reflect core inflation dynamics.”

They highlight that the US 10-year inflation breakeven, which is a measure of the average annual inflation over the next decade, is trading 0.7% below the current rate of core inflation. “We believe that this is excessively pessimistic. Since the Lehman fallout, this situation has been seen only twice and resulted in a sharp increase of inflation breakevens. The first time was in the exact aftermath of the Lehman failure and the second time in the darkest hours of the euro area crisis. Those two situations were followed by a strong rise in inflation expectations over the subsequent six months. Interestingly, the current situation in the inflation market is the exact opposite of what happened in 2012. In 2012, markets were pricing higher future inflation than current inflation, suggesting that central banks had lost control, facing the risk of high inflation. On this basis, we have added inflation-sensitive positions to our portfolios especially in the US Treasury inflation protected securities (TIPS) market where we see the greatest opportunities over the coming months based on the simple observation that inflation linked bonds do not really forecast inflation, but are instead attracted to the current core inflation rate. We do not sit in the camp of those thinking that central banks have lost control, but instead believe that a volatile start to 2016 may have led some investors to lose their nerve…”, they conclude.

Latin Private Wealth Management Summit

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Next May 12-13, 2016, at the Trump Ocean Club in Panama City, Panama, marcus evans will host its Annual Latin Private Wealth Management Summit.

The Summit is the premium forum that brings together solution providers with the most recognized single and multi-family offices in LATAM in a private, luxurious venue, destined to create business and debate about solutions for the wealth industry in the region.

Attendants will explore topics and issues within the private wealth industry in the LATAM region. Topics that will be discussed include: Private Equity, Foreign Direct Investments, Family Conflict, etc.

Along with the content, there will be both formal and informal networking opportunities. The formal networking will be one on one meetings (pre scheduled) between investors and decision makers, to learn about new techniques and solutions to face the challenges in Latin America. Between the presentations, round tables and meetings, attendees can also network during coffee breaks, meals and cocktail hours! All of this in a five star resort.

This Summit is directed to CIO’s, VP’s, Directors, Founders, and Investment Leaders from Multi Family Offices, Single Family Offices, and Investment Advisors.

For more information follow this link or contact Deborah Sacal.

Gravitational Pull of Big Brands: Latest Research on Asset Management Brands in Europe

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Macroeconomic uncertainty and unsettled markets drove European investors to choose the fund houses they knew and trusted. The latest Fund Brand 50 analysis of cross-border third-party brands shows no change to the top six groups but the gap between the brand leader, BlackRock, and its nearest rivals is widening. According to research group Fund Buyer Focus, BlackRock outscored its competitors on most of the brand attribute measures evaluated by fund selectors.

The independent study measures asset managers’ relative brand attractiveness across ten brand drivers to provide cross-border, local market and distribution channel rankings. Findings from the study include the increasing role of brand in the fund selection process and the recent migration of buyers to the bigger fund houses. Commenting on this, Diana Mackay, director of Fund Buyer Focus says: “When investor confidence is low, brand naturally becomes more important in the fund-buying process with investors seeking the comfort and perceived stability of larger, familiar names. The ‘safe houses’, and particularly the brand leader, benefited from this trend in extremely choppy markets. The power of brand was also evident in the stickiness of some groups’ positions even though their flagship products were out of favor.”

Outside the top ten rankings, pricing pressures and regulatory changes fueled support for passive providers. iShares and Vanguard had the biggest impact on the cross-border rankings. But it was Vanguard that was the fastest riser – improving its FB50 ranking by 13 places over the year.

Four new groups gained sufficient recognition to enter the top 50 with highest new entrant, last year’s boutique winner Flossbach von Storch, extending its brand reach into new markets and gaining 32nd place. Meanwhile, the US group, T. Rowe Price saw its investment in developing its retail presence realized by increased recognition in multiple markets and 46th position.

But it was not just about the brand giants. At the other end of the asset management scale, boutiques had another good year. The Nordic boutique Lannebo Fonder moved up two places to take the boutique brand crown. Lannebo Fonder’s success reflected a trend in this year’s rankings of investor appetite for generating yield from investing in local specialists.

“Interest in specialist alpha-generating managers remained strong, helping to put new and more established niche managers in the spotlight. But even for these small groups, fund selectors placed great emphasis on the importance of corporate consistency, ranking the stability of the investment management team as the most influential brand driver,” explains Diana Mackay.

Top 10 cross-border groups ranked by Total Brand Score

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About the research

The Fund Brand 50 (FB50) report is sponsored by Broadridge and FERI EuroRating Services. The Fund Buyer Focus FB50 report is an annual study monitoring the influence of brand on third-party fund selection. The study is based on intensive interviews with nearly 1,000 of Europe’s most significant fund selectors in ten key markets. These selectors account for EUR 2.2 trn of third-party assets.

Fund selectors are asked to name their top three suppliers on the basis of ten brand drivers including: appealing investment strategy, client orientation, innovation and solidity. Answers to these and other preference questions are scored using an algorithmic process that produces a ‘Total Brand Score’, on which groups are ranked.

The research is conducted by Fund Buyer Focus, the Berlin-based subsidiary of MackayWilliams LLP (London).

AZ Quest: “We Believe Now Is The Perfect Time To Invest In Brazil”

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Santiago, Chile, will this week receive a visit from Walter Maciel, CEO at AZ Quest, an independent asset management boutique of Brazilian origin which, since April 2015, belongs to the Azimut group. The reason for this visit is simply to explain to Chilean investors why it may now be a good time to re-invest in Brazil. In a road show organized by AZ Andes, Azimut’s Chilean subsidiary, which was established in Santiago in August 2015, Walter Maciel will discuss the long-term opportunities offered by Brazil. In his interview with Funds Society, he reveals some of the keys factors to understanding why now is the right time to invest in Latin America’s largest economy, despite the country’s current economic crisis.

It has been almost one year since Azimut purchased a controlling stake in Quest Investimentos, how has the firm changed? Which products are now offered that were not offered before?

Now at AZ Quest Investimentos, we remain fully independent. Azimut wanted to acquire our expertise in the Brazil and, being an independent asset manager as well, understands the importance of us conducting business as usual, preserving our investment process and retaining our team of professionals, and agreed to preserve that independence as per the contract we signed.

The deal increased our fire power to bring more management capacity, offering other professionals the same conditions pertaining to our deal. Last November we brought Credit Suisse Brazil’s former Credit Head Portfolio Manager and team. In three months we have added a new family of very conservative high grade credit funds and raised close to BRL 500 million.

Your largest funds by asset under management (according to the data available on your website), are the AZ Quest Acoes FIC FIA, the AZ Quest Total Return, and the AZ Quest Yield, would you please explain why have there been more successful than the other ones? Is there any other particular fund that has significantly increased its assets under value?

The credit funds as per the answer above. AZ Quest Acoes is the flagship fund of the long-only all cap family, that includes exclusive mandates for local Institutional Investors and holds around BRL 1 billion of AUM. AZ Quest Acoes has outperformed the Ibovespa Index every single year since inception in June 2005. In 10 years, the fund accumulates 467% net of all fees vs 67% of the Ibovespa.

Do you have any type of interaction with the other Azimut firms in Brasil, AZ Legan and AZ Futurainvest?

We are part of a single project, albeit independent. AZ Futura is now Azimut Brazil WM, a wealth management firm. AZWM is our own distribution arm, offering their individual clients an open platform and with profound knowledge of the Azimut funds (including AZ Quest funds). Our main job is to provide them with a diversified shelf of quality products and their main contribution is to concentrate in our funds and provide us AUM stability.

What is the purpose of this visit to Chile and AZ Andes? Do Chilean Investors have a particular interest for investing in Brazil or any of your funds?

Chilean investors have always had investments in Brazil. Unfortunately, in the last few years the bad economic policies, the greater intervention of state in the macro and sector levels have led Brazil to a major recession and lack of credibility, leading foreign investors, including Chilean, to divest and stay away. We believe this is the perfect time to invest in Brazil.

This past month the real has finally shown a slight recovery against the dollar, as politic turmoil keeps affecting Brazilian economy, are there any signs of improvement?

In the last four recessions in Brazil, since 1980, the investor that was able to enter the market at least three months prior to the inflection of the economy on quarter over quarter basis, made money every single time, in average USD + 60% in 12 months. We believe that inflection will occur by the end of the year.

Furthermore, we believe we are facing the end of both an economic cycle and a political cycle as well. The Brazilian society has changed profoundly. 25 years ago 65% of the people belonged to the informal economy and received transfers from the government. Today, 68% of the people are formalized, holding bank accounts and having access to credit. They pay taxes and demand return of those taxes, decent infra-structure and good public services.

The new cycle will be based on investments and on diminishing the size of the state. There will be a wave of concessions, privatizations, revision of benefits like the social security and no tolerance with corruption on the private or the public sector. We believe the Brazilian investment theme is a long term one.

Is the Fed’s Credibility at Stake?

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The Fed’s dovish turn coming out of its March 15-16 meeting took many market participants by surprise. The Federal Reserve’s median projection for Fed Funds rate increases in 2016 fell from four in December to two, reflecting concerns about the impact of lower global growth and tighter financial market conditions on US GDP and inflation.

The median forecast for core PCE inflation at the end of 2016 remained unchanged at 1.6%, while the forecast for headline PCE fell from 1.6% to 1.2%. Finally, perhaps in recognition of relatively moderate wage inflation, the estimate for longer run median NAIRU (non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment) was reduced to 4.8% from 4.9%.

The Fed took these decisions despite having up to the minute economic and market data that should have, in our view, allayed their concerns about the impact of both global growth and tighter conditions on US GDP and inflation. Recent US GDP, employment and inflation data have remained stable or are somewhat better than December levels, despite lower global growth. Having recovered from the early year sell-off, financial conditions on March 15, the day prior to the release of their statement, remained similar to those observed in December, when the Fed decided to raise rates. After reviewing the available data, one may conclude that either the Federal Reserve has erred in its current decision, and has given up some of its flexibility to raise rates, or that the Fed decided that their December hike was a mistake.

Below, we have highlighted a number of relevant economic and market levels at December 16, following the release of the Fed’s December statement and projections, and on March 15, prior to their release of their March 16 statement and projections.

Neuberger Berman Trust Company Names Richard Gardiner Chief Investment Officer

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Neuberger Berman has announced that Richard Gardiner has joined the firm and is appointed chief investment officer of Neuberger Berman Trust Company, an affiliate of Neuberger Berman. Mr. Gardiner will also lead the firm’s Investment Strategy Group and join the firm’s Asset Allocation Committee.

As part of his role within the $11.4 billion Neuberger Berman Trust Company, Mr. Gardiner will work along with Neuberger Berman’s wealth advisors and trust officers on high-net worth individual and foundation and endowment clients. With oversight of asset allocation, manager selection, and portfolio construction, Mr. Gardiner and the Investment Strategy Group will identify the most appropriate managers and investment strategies across multiple regions to provide the most optimal outcomes for Neuberger Berman clients.

“Richard’s skill set complements and enhances our approach to wealth management and investing, including traditional and alternative investments. His diverse background working in wealth management and in alternative investment strategies for a wide range of clients is a great match for his role as chief investment officer of the Neuberger Berman Trust Company. We are delighted to have him join us in that position as well as leading the firm’s Investment Strategy Group,” said Erik Knutzen, chief investment officer of multi-asset class portfolios at Neuberger Berman.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Gardiner was a consultant at the Reservoir Capital Group and chief investment officer and co-founder of an independent wealth management firm. Earlier, Mr. Gardiner was at Man Investments as head of Arbitrage & Credit and a member of the firm’s Investment Committee. Before joining Man, he was responsible for convertible sales and trading at J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs. Currently, Mr. Gardiner is a board trustee of the Emma Willard School and a member of the school’s Investment Committee and Finance & Audit Committee. Mr. Gardiner graduated cum laude from Yale University and earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Capital Group Opens Amsterdam Office and Hires Country Marketing Manager

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Capital Group, one of the largest and most experienced investment management firms worldwide, has announced the launch of its office in Amsterdam, as well as the appointment of Martin Hofman as Country Marketing Manager for the Benelux and Nordics regions.

Capital Group continues to focus on delivering high-quality long-term investment services to investors and institutions throughout Europe. The launch of the Amsterdam office and appointment of Mr Hofman, alongside other recent investment and business development hires, highlight this commitment.

Speaking at the office opening last night in Amsterdam, Rob Lovelace, Senior Member of Capital Group’s Management Committee and a Portfolio Manager, commented: “Capital Group recognises the importance of enhancing its relationships on a global, regional and local basis, in order to build upon its long-standing heritage. Our Dutch office is the latest in a series of new European offices we have opened over the past two years and is an essential part of our ambition to deliver long-term, reliable asset management services for Dutch, and European, investors, as well as expanding our global footprint.”

Mr Hofman will be based in the Amsterdam office and joins Feike Goudsmit and Marnix van den Berge, who respectively lead Capital Group’s business development activities in the Benelux institutional and financial intermediaries markets.He will play a key role in expanding Capital Group’s services in the Benelux and Nordics regions.

Mr Hofman joins Capital Group from Columbia Threadneedle Investments, where he began as Regional Marketing Manager for the Benelux and Nordics regions in 2008. Since 2014, he has been responsible for leading the institutional marketing activities in the EMEA region, including strategy planning, and development and execution of regional and global campaigns.

Capital Group has also continued to expand on its European operations by making several new appointments in the past year. These include the appointments of Christophe Braun in January 2016 and Julie Dickson in December 2015 as investment specialists in the London office.

Capital Group currently has sales branches in eight locations across Europe: Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Geneva, London, Luxemburg, Madrid, Milan and Zurich.

Unravelling the Bond Market Impact of the ECB’s Latest Policy Measures

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The bond market’s response to the European Central Bank’s (ECB) latest easing measures was immediate and broadly positive, but the implications for the real economy are harder to gauge.

The market’s immediate reaction to the latest easing measures announced by the ECB on 10 March was, in some respects, counter-intuitive. Most investors will be used to seeing government bond yields fall in the wake of greater-than-expected policy easing, but in this instance, 5-year and 10-year Bund yields rose steeply.

This is because Bund yields had already been driven to extremely low levels during January and February’s firmly ‘risk-off’ market tone. The ECB’s latest support measures cheered markets, and resulted in some of the ‘safety premium’ embedded in Bund valuations being reduced.

A boost for bond bulls

Indeed, there is little doubt that the latest steps from ECB President Mario Draghi are positive for financial markets. The first phase of ECB asset purchases, in early 2015, focused on buying government debt. This pushed government bond prices up and nudged investors into riskier assets to replace the lost yield.

The fact that risk assets – currently non-banking investment grade corporate bonds – are now included in the expanded €80 billion-a-month asset purchase scheme, means that the ECB is driving down the cost of risk more directly. We expect investment grade corporate bonds will continue to perform strongly from here. Credit spreads should narrow, and investors will reach for higher-yielding corporate assets. This impact has also been positive for equity markets, because the cost of capital has improved.

Will the changes make a “real” difference?

The implications for the real economy are less clear-cut. A high proportion of the liquidity which should have entered the US economy through its own QE schemes became ensnared in the banking system, and the velocity of money didn’t appreciably pick up. There was no real spike in lending, and regulatory changes meant that the mortgage market remained somewhat impaired. Of course, if QE had never been implemented, then the condition of the US economy could have been far worse.

In our view, the likelihood of the ECB achieving its vaunted 2% inflation target, even within five years, is low. The output gap, which bears down on both worker and company pricing power, is too significant for prices to improve to the 2% target growth rate. Economic growth – currently forecast to be around 1.4% in 2016 – is insufficient to close this output gap quickly. The ECB, in our view, will need to do more.

The waiting game

This, then, begs the question of why Mario Draghi followed up the latest policy announcements with the suggestion that further rate cuts are “unlikely”. The euro, having fallen after the deposit rate was reduced, rose as soon as Mr Draghi made the comment. However, we see his observation as largely practical. Running a negative interest rate policy is unlikely to work in the long term, as it would encourage investors to hoard cash. Excessively negative rates mean that even the cost of insuring cash deposits ‘in-house’ could be less significant than the cost of depositing funds with the ECB.

However the ECB proceeds from here, it seems unlikely that the deposit rate will be the tool that they reach for. For now, we believe that the amended policy environment has bolstered existing support for risk-asset markets and settled simmering nerves. Patience will be required to see quite how effective the measures will be for stimulating more economic growth.

Column by Schroders’ Gareth Isaac