While Sarasin’s AuMA climbed from GBP15.1 billion to GBP17.2 billion over the course of 2020, the strong momentum has continued over the course of 2021 – with AuMA reaching in excess of GBP20 billion.

Despite a volatile year for investment markets due to the Covid-19 pandemic, all areas of the Sarasin & Partners business grew AuMA in 2020, leading to an overall revenue increase of 9 per cent to GBP64.9 million and operating profits up 22 per cent to GBP33.8 million. The Charities division delivered a 7 per cent rise in AuMA over the period, maintaining its position as a market leader in the not-for-profit and charities sector in the UK. Elsewhere, the Private Client division ended the year with a 15 per cent jump in AuMA, to GBP4.7 billion. This was driven by a combination of investment performance and net inflows. The retail and institutional divisions were also buoyed by the strengthening of distribution capabilities – with the business notably building out its institutional presence in North America.

The growth in AuMA follows a stellar year in terms of investment performance for Sarasin & Partners’ thematic global equity and multi-asset ranges. Managing Partner Guy Matthews explains: “Much of our focus in the last year has been on delivering for clients during the volatility caused by the pandemic – as well as Brexit and the US elections. The investment teams across the business have worked hard to position portfolios to weather the storm, while ensuring clients were well informed.”

Sarasin’s pioneering global thematic approach to investing, which has underpinned the group’s equity selection process since 1996, looks to capitalise on long-term secular megatrends shaping the global economy – such as ageing, digitalisation, automation, evolving consumption and climate change. It is also committed to responsible stewardship principles, including embedded ESG analysis and active ownership. By tapping into long-term growth trends, the group’s solutions are better able to weather short-term shocks, such as those witnessed in 2020.

Sarasin & Partners’ balanced multi-asset portfolios particularly helped navigate clients through the turbulence created by the coronavirus crisis, with a number of solutions building on already robust track records. The launch of a dedicated Tomorrow’s World strategy, complementing thematic strategies such as the Digital Opportunities fund, demonstrated Sarasin & Partners’ continued commitment to innovating and developing strategies aligned with long-term structural changes in society, which can deliver enduring performance.

Sarasin’s positive results can also be attributed to the continued focus on its core UK offering. The decision to close the Dublin branch strengthens this position and allows the group to focus on its UK-based strategies, with recent strategic initiatives including the investment in digital transformation and a brand refresh.

In a year where all companies had to re-evaluate business models and supply chains, Sarasin & Partners’ renowned focus on responsible investment and stewardship was pivotal. Sarasin & Partners continued to play an active role engaging with the companies it invests in on behalf of clients, with a focus on long-term value drivers. In addition, the group participated in policy outreach, particularly around climate change, which has seen increased attention in the last year and leading up to COP26.

Matthews adds: “Our purpose is to grow and protect capital for our clients in a way that is aligned with a sustainable society. An important part of this is holding ourselves to the same high standards to which we hold investee companies. Following a stringent review process, we were delighted to be recognised for our commitment to stewardship by the Financial Reporting Council, which recently named us as an official signatory to the revised UK Stewardship Code.”

Against the backdrop of a challenging year, the business also took steps to prioritise the health and wellbeing of its staff, while continuing to deliver outstanding client service and maintaining full operational continuity within the business and across its service providers.

In recognition of Sarasin & Partners’ continued commitment to client service excellence, the group won a PAM Award earlier this year for Client Service Quality – High Net Worth, and was also recognised at the Citywire Adviser Choice Awards, where the group won the award for Best Availability of Sustainable Investment Strategies. In September, Sarasin & Partners’ activities were acknowledged by Charity Times, winning their Charity Investment Management award. 

Matthews adds: “After navigating through one of the most turbulent periods in history, we are determined to build on what has brought us success – the continued investment in our people and technology, as well as the further development of innovative solutions, which will help to secure a sustainable future and deliver enduring value for our clients.”

“After nearly three decades, SEI continues to stand out in a crowded OCIO and fiduciary management marketplace due to our focus on delivering results, evolving our services and building a broad infrastructure,” says Paul Klauder, Executive Vice President of SEI and Global Head of SEI’s Institutional Group. “We leverage companywide capabilities and expertise to provide comprehensive and flexible solutions that address clients’ needs. Our investment in technology, depth of resources and overall client experience are why we continue to be the provider of choice for more than 440 institutional investors.”

SEI’s growth as a provider of outsourced investment management this year comes from new client conversions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, as the company continues to invest in developing its overall capabilities for institutional investors around the globe. Since January 2020, SEI’s institutional business has added over USD9.1 billion in new assets globally. Among SEI’s institutional clients added in 2021 are Greater Philadelphia YMCA and Real Estate Council of Ontario.

“Amid a shifting institutional investment landscape, institutional asset owners, investment committees and other fiduciary decision-makers need to solve increasingly complex challenges that go far beyond traditional fiduciary management services,” says Ian Love, Head of SEI’s Institutional Group, EMEA and Asia. “We are excited to build upon our momentum and continue to engage with clients, leveraging our differentiated solutions, strong sponsor support, capacity to provide sustainability screens, end-game ability, and breadth of experience as a fiduciary manager. As the landscape evolves, we will continue expanding our capabilities and providing the solutions and support that address each client’s unique needs.”
 

Reported ADV represents volumes traded across the group’s entire liquidity network, including TrueFXTM and Integral OCXTM, in aggregate.
 
Integral’s global trading network has been designed to meet the execution needs of the widest variety of FX market participants, including banks, brokers, asset managers, and hedge funds. Our clients leverage the deep and diverse FX liquidity available through our platforms and have the choice to trade any execution style required, all within an integrated environment. Integral Reports Average Daily Volumes of USD44 billion in July 2021.

The increase, driven mainly by net inflows from private clients (CHF 2.0 billion) and favourable market conditions, was also boosted by a solid asset management performance for funds and mandates.
 
Revenues were stable at CHF562.1 million (+0.9 per cent) in the first half of 2021, up slightly from CHF557.0 million a year earlier. This was achieved despite the deterioration in net interest margins (-CHF29.1 million) which was offset by a rise in income from fees and commissions as a result of high levels of client trading activity and steady inflows into our mandates.
 
Operating expenses increased slightly, from CHF360.9 million at the end of June 2020 to CHF 372.7 million at the end of June 2021 (+3.3 per cent) following the investments made in our front office and investment teams over the period. Net profits amounted to CHF100.2 million, compared with the previous year’s figure of CHF107.6 million (-6.8 per cent).
 
The Tier 1 ratio of 25.3 per cent at the end of June 2021 reflects the quality of the Bank’s balance sheet and its ability to continue its development both in Switzerland and abroad.  
 
“The stability of our income base and the ongoing growth in assets under management reflects a good balance across our revenue streams and, more importantly, our ability to offer our clients sustainable returns in all market conditions. As well as recently announced acquisitions, we have also made senior team hires, continuously strengthening our investment expertise and fuelling our growth strategy in key markets,” says UBP’s CEO, Guy de Picciotto.
 

On 30 June, 2021, CI completed the previously announced acquisition of Dowling & Yahnke, LLC, adding USD7.1 billion of wealth management assets.

CI also reported preliminary net sales results for the second quarter. The results represented CI’s first quarter of positive asset management segment net sales since the third quarter of 2017 and the strongest quarterly result since the third quarter of 2015.

“This is an exciting development for CI, having posted the best quarter for net sales in our Canadian retail business since 2015,” says Kurt MacAlpine, CI Chief Executive Officer. “We believe these results reflect the many enhancements we have made over the last 18 months as part of our strategic priority to modernise our asset management business. We are well positioned for continued sales growth due to these changes, which include the development of an integrated global investment platform, the introduction of timely new products and other improvements to our product lineup, and a new data-driven approach to marketing and distribution.”

BSO has experienced a 116 per cent increase in demand for its cloud solutions, hosting suites and managed services as the pandemic forced entire businesses online overnight. With this demand increase, BSO has seen its portfolio grow, with newly acquired partners and customers such as digital asset firm Bequant and Cryptostruct, an infrastructure for crypto traders.
 
“It’s an impossible choice for data-dependent businesses today,” says Michael Ourabah, CEO of BSO. “Often, businesses are forced to choose between the best technology or the best service, bespoke solutions or out-of-the-box products, global reach or local knowledge. Since our successful growth, we want to focus on expanding to deliver mission-critical digital infrastructure available for every business, and deliver it without compromise.  Digital transformation is no longer an agenda item or a boardroom priority. It is an imperative that, if not addressed, represents lost revenue, now.”
 
BSO has introduced a campaign highlighting the importance of mission-critical infrastructure during these difficult market conditions with the aim of addressing the intensifying role of connectivity post-pandemic, and driving increased transparency in an industry shrouded by complexity. BSO is also launching a new brand focused on being ‘built for better’ – a position hailed by its clients resulting in a 98 per cent  retention rate, highlighting BSO’s commitment to deliver without compromise.

“With the pandemic, our world has moved from being data-intensive to data-dependent,” says Anna Flach, Global Marketing Director, BSO.
 
“Frictionless web experiences, fast and critically reliable access to services, smooth customer interactions and business continuity used to be hallmarks for success but are now imperatives for doing business. Whilst the world is rapidly changing, BSO has gone through a significant growth journey and our visual identity needed to reflect this tectonic shift. Today, we’re more than a telco provider. We’re building the next generation of infrastructure. The new brand identity embodies BSO’s vision of a future where every business has the infrastructure critical to its mission.”

Founded in 2012 and building on the 200-year-old banking heritage of the Stern family, J Stern & Co is a specialist investment management business running a small number of differentiated investment strategies on a global basis. Its services are targeted at institutions, charities, wealth managers, family offices, entrepreneurs and trustees.  

The firm’s most established strategy is World Stars Global Equity, a concentrated large and mega-cap global equity strategy. World Stars invests in 20-30 high quality, sustainable global companies with enduring competitive advantages and a long runway of growth. The strategy has consistently outperformed the MSCI World over the last five years. The firm also manages a Multi-Asset Income strategy and an Emerging Markets Bond strategy.   

The ethos of the business is built around investing in long-term quality and value following the principles espoused by the Stern family for over 60 years. The firm’s investment approach is based on intensive, fundamental in-house research and active engagement with companies.  

ESG is fully integrated across both the equities and credit investment teams, and there is a deep-rooted belief in the correlation between ESG, sustainability and above-average, long-term investment returns.  

Clients of the firm benefit from a strong alignment of interest with the Stern family and partners who own about 25 per cent of the assets under management.  

The growth of the firm has accelerated in recent years, based on its strong investment performance, and by broadening the investment offering to include funds as well as segregated accounts. In 2019 it launched the World Stars Global Equity Fund via a Luxembourg UCITS vehicle and a Multi-Asset Income Fund via a Luxembourg RAIF. The World Stars Global Equity Fund had as at 30/4/21 assets under management of USD167 million. 

Jérôme Stern, Managing Partner of J Stern & Co, says: “We are delighted to have reached this milestone for our business. The strategies we have successfully managed since launching in London in 2012 follow the same principles the Stern family has applied over three generations, and we look forward to continuing this growth.”  

Christopher Rossbach, CIO and manager of the World Stars Global Equity Fund, says: “We believe a long-term approach, focusing on quality and value, and based on rigorous fundamental analysis and active ownership, is clearly the best way to invest. This has been borne out time and again, both since the inception of J Stern & Co and over the past two hundred years of the Stern family.” 

During the 12-month period, all implementations were completed remotely due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. Bloomberg’s Buy-Side Solutions include its Asset & Investment Manager (AIM) and PORT Enterprise solutions, which enable investors to more efficiently navigate volatile markets and an evolving global regulatory environment, and are used by some of the world’s largest asset managers, hedge funds, insurance companies, pension funds and government agencies.

Clients were onboarded across the Americas, EMEA and APAC, and include Lombard Odier Asset Management, Union Investment, Global X Japan and Harvest Fund Management, among others.

Bloomberg’s global implementation teams worked in partnership with client firms to establish the necessary connectivity and integration, overcoming challenges presented by the remote work environment. Clients experienced a seamless transition to Bloomberg’s Buy-Side Solutions with minimal impact to their workflows.

“As the buy-side continues to navigate the broad impact of the disruption caused by Covid-19, resilient technology solutions and operating models are crucial,” says Ian Peckett, Global Head of Buy-Side Solutions at Bloomberg. “During the last year, we have provided our clients with extensive support to help them manage the implementation process remotely. Our team is committed to providing buy-side clients with efficient and effective solutions that enable them to make well-informed investment decisions, regardless of the current global challenges.”

Bloomberg’s Buy-Side Solutions deliver a streamlined enterprise experience for the entire investment lifecycle. Clients have access to a wide range of solutions which encompass research and portfolio management to order and execution management, and post-trade and operations, all supported by advanced risk and performance along with data management and infrastructure. As unprecedented market conditions continue to impact buy-side firms, Bloomberg has continued to support buy-side clients globally across the investment process through efficient workflows and optimised operational capabilities.
 

Read the full story at Hedgeweek…

Despite the economic impacts of Covid-19 in 2020, the number of listings the firm’s Cayman Islands listing team managed increased by 6 per cent, and impressively the team listed 54% of all BSL / MM CLOs listed on the CSX. 

In 2020, 505 listings were recorded on the CSX with specialist debt securities, including CLOs, representing the largest proportion of new listings.  This growth in new business reflects the CSX’s ability to provide a proportionate regulatory environment for the streamlined and cost efficient listing of a wide range of securities for a variety of issuers and jurisdictions. These figures reinforce the CSX’s position as a leading platform for CLOs with a recorded total of 57 CLO issuers listed (an increase from 54 in 2019), comprising BSL/MM new issuances, refinancing and resets.  

Scott Macdonald, partner and global head of finance, says: “We are incredibly proud to be the number one listing agent on the CSX for 2020. Throughout 2020, we continued to demonstrate our capabilities as the go-to Cayman Islands listing agent with the expertise and abilities to provide innovative, novel and responsive services and solutions.”

The Group’s global listings team is an acknowledged leader in listing services with specialist teams based in its Cayman Islands, Dublin, Hong Kong, Jersey, London and Luxembourg offices.