Weekly Fund Distribution Notes – 08 April 2025
27th May 2025
The Rose Garden speech left economists puzzled and penguins in shock. Liberation day turned into liquidation day(s) in an astonishing act of self-harm. Leaving aside all the turbulence, as always we cover interesting mandate and fund selector news this week. Also, pressure on private equity increases. Nonetheless, in spite of all the challenges, there are also opportunities.
Although I am extremely tempted to comment about last week’s White House absurdities and the consequences, we will stay focused on European fund distribution news, insights and opinions. In terms of mandates, Schroders Capital has partnered with tech giant Apple to launch a China renewable energy strategy, with the iconic tech giant seeding the Schroders China renewables fund with USD 100 million in a move to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. Well, that’s a name drop indeed and it may well trigger more European impact managers to head to Cupertino. They may even meet a delegation of penguins making the trip (sorry, I just couldn’t resist that one).
Going on with mandates, GAM continues to outsource investment mandates. They ended a 20-year tie-up with Fermat Capital and handed the mandate for the EUR 2.3 billion GAM Star Cat Bond fund to Swiss Re’s investment arm – just one week after handing over the mandate for its EMD fund to Gramercy Funds Management. The UK arm of the Dutch insurance group Aegon launched 2 externally managed LTAFs, with BlackRock and JPMorgan Asset Management picked as advisors. The two LTAFs, together with one launched previously (managed by Aegon itself), shall provide exposure to private markets for the 700,000 savers in the EUR 14 billion Universal Balanced Collection fund. In France, Natixis launched a new ELTIF run by its affiliate Vega Investment Solutions.
In terms of selector news, the Dutch pension manager MN has announced several job changes. Martijn Vijver has been promoted to external fixed income lead, heading up a team of 10. Brian Frieser, formerly senior portfolio manager, has been appointed as lead for equities. Thomas Verschuuren, previously head of product strategy & investment solutions, has been named manager one portfolio. In this role, he will head the strategy, products, and responsible investment teams within the fiduciary advice unit. Lars van Dort, previously head of equity, has been appointed as head of equity & real assets, according to Citywire Selector. Up in the North, Nordea’s veteran selector Fredrik Tyche has left Nordea to join insurance firm PRI Pensionsgaranti.
“Luckily my private assets are stable” was a bit of a running joke in plenty of Financial Times reader comments during the last couple of days. Well, obviously, that’s an illusion. Just because volatility isn’t visible, it does not mean that it isn’t there. Yesterday, the FT reported that large pensions and endowments are seeking ways to exit their investments. Many large investors are speaking to advisors and considering options to sell their stakes in funds at discounts on second-hand markets, top industry bankers told the Financial Times.
The FT quoted another advisor as saying that “everyone was hopeful the private machine would restart. But now the pressure is very real.” Another top banker was quoted as saying “most people don’t want to sell below 80 per cent of a fund’s net asset value or less, but this time could be different.” Well, that reminds us of our very favourite quote from 2023: “No one wants to be the schmuck who sells PE at a 30% discount” – Man’s former CEO Luke Ellis.
Last but not least, following a substantial asset flight to Europe (at the expense of US exposure), many investors have moved to the sidelines again. Nonetheless, we largely agree with Giorgio Carlino, investment executive at Mediolanum International during a Citywire panel in Dublin last week: “It will bring Europe together .. there will be opportunity in different parts of the world, being underweight US but overweight Europe and Emerging Markets.”
Anyway, as a notorious optimist, I think we may even be witnessing the beginning of the end of dumb populism. America is much more than that Maga thing. It is home to the world’s biggest economy, global leadership in tech, science etc and a lot of intellectual capacity.
