Asset Management

Single family offices in the US and Europe were largely well prepared to ride out the financial crisis of 2008 and the subsequent difficult market environment, making very few strategic changes to their asset allocation.

That’s according to new research by American investment advisory firm Cambridge Associates, which surveyed 40 single family offices in the US and Europe in 2011.

Banks in Switzerland could lose as much as CHF50 billion (€40.7 billion) in assets under management as a result of a tax crackdown by the UK and Germany, says a new study.

According to management consulting firm Booz & Co, wealth managers in Switzerland will also lose CHF1.1 billion in revenues, as clients with the two European countries withdraw their money before the tax treaties come into effect in 2013.

Family offices that are considering adding the renminbi to their portfolio need to see it as a long-term investment, rather than a chance to make a quick buck, according to a banker.

With the ongoing internationalisation of the renminbi, also known as the Chinese yuan, and China’s aim to make it a reserve currency, Geoff Lunt, investment director of Asian fixed income at HSBC, said he thinks a “time will come when everyone will have to have a Chinese bond in their portfolio”.

The founder of the London Entrepreneurial Exchange is joining Signia Wealth, the wealth management boutique announced today (6 October).

Shalini Khemka has been appointed as a managing director with responsibility for developing Signia’s private equity arm and organising the group’s expansion efforts.

She will work closely with Nathalie Dauriac-Stoebe, chief executive of Signia Wealth, and Spencer Moulton, director of the management firm’s private equity division, the group said.

Family offices are increasingly outsourcing the function of the chief investment officer, as they aim to monitor more efficiently their growing focus on hedge funds, according to a top investment expert.

Switzerland may have renewed its reputation as a safe haven for investors in the last few years, but rich Asians are increasingly keeping their money in local financial institutions as the Alpine nation’s appeal as an offshore centre diminishes for these investors.

At a time when wealthy Europeans are pulling offshore accounts from Switzerland, the news that Asians are keeping more of their money at home looks set to further undermine Switzerland as an offshore financial centre.

There is a universal tried and tested way to make money from setting up a company. Build it up, make revenues and profits, and then possibly sell it, or part of it, to other investors. It might take a while to get going, but it works. Just ask the thousands of family businesses that FO’s sister publication Campden FB writes about every year.

Citigroup’s appointment in early February of a head for its North American global family office business is further evidence of banks building up their super-rich units and recruiting talent from single family offices to grow their businesses.

Billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli’s new asset manager, Northill Capital, is set to complete its first deal from a potential $1 billion war chest, according to a report in Financial News.  

John Little, who joined Northill last year after being vice-chairman of asset management company BNY Mellon, told Financial News: “Northill has $1bn from the family to deploy, in seed capital or equity capital. That is a target, it could be more, it could be less.”

Investment firm Talisman Global Asset Management announced on 8 February that it is expanding its investor base to include external clients, besides managing operations of its core investor, the William Pears Group.

The London-based investment firm was first established in 1998 as the asset management arm of the Pears family – one of the UK's wealthiest families with an estimated fortune of £1.5 billion. But it will now offer its investment services to external clients including family offices, endowments and foundations.

The UK-based Institute for Family Business has recommended that the rules governing creation of a family business trust be simplified so that families can plan their succession successfully.

According to IFB, family businesses use trusts to ensure stable management of the business, especially when handing over control to the next generation.

Cargill, the world's largest agricultural commodities trader, will sell its shares in fertiliser company Mosaic, in a move designed to ensure the company remains 100% privately owned.  

Founded nearly 150 years ago, the Minnesota-based company is still controlled by around 80 members of the Cargill and MacMillan families. The company said in a statement that the Mosaic transaction would help it accomplish the objective of "maintaining its status as a private company".