ABN Amro Asset Management’s eight-person Australian equities team under George Clapham is close to finalising a deal under which it will own 60 per cent of a spun-out business.
As the merger of Fortis Investments and ABN Amro AM proceeds globally, Clapham’s team (which currently manages $5.5 billion in Australian equities) will become known as Fortis Investment Partners. Current ABN Amro AM Australia chief executive, Ian Manton-Hall, will head an entity renamed Fortis Investments Australia, which will ‘own’ the Australian equity clients and continue to perform sales, client service and operations. The three fund managers to receive the most equity are Clapham, senior analyst Mark Nathan and senior portfolio manager Neil Boyd-Clark, however all eight analysts, portfolio managers and dealers in the team will receive an allocation. Manton-Hall said a final shareholder and delegation agreement would be signed with the Australian equities team by the end of the first quarter. “;We believe that this new arrangement further strengthens the alignment of interests between the company, the investment team and our clients,”; he said.
Future Fund chief investment officer Ben Samild said that FY24 has been a great year for alpha creation, thanks to strong returns in equities and, unusually, across multiple hedge fund strategies all at the same time. He reflected the past few years have been “a difficult time to be an asset owner and to generate positive returns for risk assets” but the Future Fund is tracking well of its long-term mandate.
Simon Hoyle and Darcy SongSeptember 4, 2024
