Weekly Fund Distribution Notes – 04 March 2025

26th March 2025

Some major mandate news, also with the ever increasing transatlantic political gap starting to make an impact. HQ Trust and Pictet Wealth talking private markets. Some fund selector moves. Apollo’s private credit ETF has arrived but have they squared the circle? Last but not least, abrdn getting its vowels back.

Let’s kick off with some mandate news. In the UK, SJP has appointed Royal London Asset Management to run a GBP 4.6 billion multi-asset mandate, taking over from Columbia Threadneedle. Also in the UK, SSGA has been dropped as the manager of GBP 28 billion on behalf of the People’s Pension following a review of the UK pension fund’s responsible investment policy. Instead, People’s Pension has appointed Amundi and Invesco to run two mandates worth GBP 20 billion and GBP 8 billion respectively. Mark Condron, chair of trustees for the People’s Pension, stated that the move “represented a choice to prioritise sustainability, active stewardship and long-term value creation”.

The Financial Times also quoted Dan Mikulskis, CIO of People’s Partnership, as saying that “increasing difference in the positioning of US versus European asset managers is a huge story and makes it easier to decide which players are most aligned with the scheme’s objectives.”

Well, this leads me to an important point, which goes beyond purely ESG-related matters. We have covered the increasing transatlantic ESG gap many times since summer 2022, when it first became undeniable. Last week, without knowing what was to come from the White House on Friday and yesterday, we already addressed the rather puzzling times and the need (or hope) for proper leadership in the context of the last Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter. Don’t assume that the current shift of paradigm won’t affect perspectives in European fund distribution. The only question is to what extent. Humans are humans. There is plenty of great literature available on how subconscious elements beat the most factual assessments in B2B decision making.

Citywire Selector featured an interview shedding some light onto how the German multi family office giant HQ Trust selects private asset funds. Citywire also published an interview with César Pérez Ruiz, CIO at Pictet Wealth Management, on evergreen and open-ended private markets funds as well as on how Pictet’s private clients access private markets. In terms of the earlier, evergreen and OE private markets funds, he concludes like we always did: “Evergreen funds only have perceived liquidity. There’ll be an issue when people rush for their money back. It’s either liquid or it’s not.”

In terms of other fund buyer news, Davy in Ireland named Emma Morgan as new investment head for the firm’s EUR 5 billion Select Platform. Prior to Davy, Morgan spent over a decade as a portfolio manager and investment consultant at Morningstar Wealth in London and she formed part of the multi-manager team at AIB’ Dublin offices. In Germany, “40 Under” 40 selector Sascha Hasterok is to leave Frankfurter Bankgesellschaft.

What else? Apollo’s private credit ETF arrived and the firm claims to have squared the circle. SSGA and Apollo have finally launched SPDR SSGA Apollo IG Public & Private Credit ETF. The launch, however, triggered a lot of scepticism and question marks from many analysts. In fact, the details are puzzling. If we read it correctly, Apollo promises to buy back the private credit investments at State Street’s request, but only up to a daily limit they won’t disclose, at a price they get to set themselves. As Morningstar points out, there are many issues with this structure, all of which comes down to the fact that Apollo appears to be the valuation provider, originator, buyer, and seller of the fund’s private credit investments, which may potentially constitute more than 35% of this ETF’s portfolio.

Last but not least, abrdn is getting its vowels back. The firm announced that it is to rebrand itself back to Aberdeen, less than four years after it changed its name to abrdn which trigged an enormous, and remarkably long-lasting mocking that even resulted in the firm’s CIO complaining about “corporate bullying” last year. Anyway, it is always better to correct than to stick with a bad idea.