A weekly update on issues important to the Investment Management industry
Barring some extraordinary circumstance, in one week Hillary Clinton will be elected the 44th president of the United States. Her election will mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but since this blog is called RIA Valuation Insights, we’ll narrow the focus of this outlook on her upcoming term as president to the possible impact on the investment management community.
Banks looking to diversify their revenue stream with investment management fee income would be well advised to study TriState Capital’s acquisition-fueled buildout of its RIA, Chartwell. The Pittsburgh depository started with an internal wealth management arm, bought $7.5 billion wealth manager Chartwell Investment Partners in early 2014, picked up the $2.5 billion Killen Group in late 2015, and last week announced the acquisition of a $4.0 billion domestic fixed income platform strategy from Aberdeen Asset Management.
Maybe the recent trend has nothing on Rocky Balboa or Gordon Bombay, but the past few months have been promising for most publicly traded RIAs. Relatively stable market conditions and better than expected earnings are the likely culprits for the group’s “comeback,” which has the overall index up 13% since February.
Just a few days ago, the largest publicly traded hedge fund, Och-Ziff Capital Management Group, agreed to pay $413 million to settle federal charges that it disbursed more than $100 million in bribes to African government officials. Even before this announcement, the hedge fund industry was in quite the slump.
After a steady build up since the end of the credit crisis, it appears that 2016 is going to be marked as the year when the venture capital industry lost momentum, although not for a lack of investors. The birth rate of new unicorns has slowed considerably since their 2015 baby-boom, even as the VC market remains dominated by tremendous inflows of capital in late-stage companies. Money has continued to pour in as riskier VC investments are still expected to outperform listed alternatives due to volatile public markets, higher multiples, low interest rates, and the less-than-stellar performance of the global economy. The source of new capital has changed, however, as the venture industry saw a marked increase in nontraditional investors – including pension plans, hedge funds and mutual funds.
Earlier this month, Mercer Capital had the pleasure of helping sponsor the Southern Capital Conference, an annual gathering of venture capital and private equity GPs, as well as the LPs who invest with them. If you believe everything you read about this segment of the investment community, you might expect a fair amount of groaning from the General Partners, with private equity managers under pressure to improve performance, negotiate fees, and increase transparency. The reality was very different.
On balance, 2016 could be a record year for asset manager transactions both in terms of deal count and collective volume. While this may be a stretch given the number of distressed sales during the financial crisis, a continuation of the current trend is certainly achievable.
When firms of similar size join forces to get a bigger footprint, solve leadership issues, stop advisors from competing with each other, etc. – realizing those benefits is the easy part. The hard work happens because different firms have different histories, and different histories create different cultures. Blending cultures can be awkward, as in MOEs (mergers of equals). This guest post, by Jeff Davis, provides a checklist of dos and don’ts for MOEs that will ring true in the investment management community.
Unfavorable IPO market conditions have led many companies to alternative exits such as M&A, but a growing number of venture capital firms have also turned towards another source for cheap cash: debt.
Focus Financial Partners started preparing documents to file an initial public offering. While it may seem like a good idea on paper, we have many questions about the Focus IPO including: why now, how much, and how is this not a roll-up?
By now you’ve probably read the SEC’s proposed rules on Adviser Business Continuity and Transition Plans. Most of the proposed rule simply codifies a reasonable standard for practice management at an RIA. Certain of the proposal’s requirements, such as IT management and being able to conduct business and communicate with staff and clients in the event of a natural disaster, are likely to be met with turn-key solutions from vendors. Of more interest is how the requirement for a “transition plan” in the event of the death or incapacitation of an advisory firm owner will be implemented.
We have written at length about bearish signs in the RIA space, and valuation metrics seem to generally reflect a reduced growth outlook. We wonder, though, if things are really that bad. While, we suspect there is, over all, some phantom fee compression in the industry as assets are allocated to passive instruments and active managers who charge more don’t get the RFP they once would have, the other two themes focus on demographics and market outlook which are not, necessarily, bearish for the investment management space.
Management calls are usually, for the most part, fairly mundane. It’s usually not a good sign for a call to be “interesting”, and this quarter we picked up on several “interesting” themes.
Recently, SEC Chair Mary Jo White gave a keynote speech to attendees of the SEC’s and Rock Center’s Silicon Valley Initiative, an event bringing together regulators, academics and entrepreneurs to discuss issues affecting venture capital and private equity within Silicon Valley. Although the audience may have been targeted, White’s speech provides insight into the SEC’s concern over the lack of transparency, governance and oversight in the PE and VC industries.
Often branded as an industry bellwether for its size and breadth of services, BlackRock has been as solid as the name would imply given the recent fallout in asset manager valuations. How has it found an opportunity despite industry headwinds and the sideways market?
Piggybacking off our post from a couple of weeks back, the downward trend in asset manager pricing has persisted for another quarter, no matter how you slice it. Publicly traded trust banks, alt managers, mutual funds, and traditional RIAs are all down over the last year, with hedge funds and PE firms leading the plunge.
Last week, Affiliated Managers Group (ticker: AMG) announced the completion of its investment in three alternative asset managers – Capula Investment Management LLP, Mount Lucas Management LP, and Capeview Capital LLP. This post discusses this transaction against the dim alternative asset management market environment.
Brexit’s full impact on the market is still to be determined, but a quick review of asset manager pricing reveals a valuation gap with the broader equity market that opened over the past twelve months, got much worse in June, and even accelerated over the past week. Sifting through the noise at quarter end, we pose, if market valuations in the industry are getting a haircut, what does that mean?
Black swan events and the very nature of the asset management business illustrate the importance of contingent consideration in RIA acquisitions for prospective buyers. The volatility associated with equity managers means AUM and financial performance can swing widely with market conditions, so doubling down on a one-time payment for an RIA can be extremely risky, particularly at high valuations. Of course, the market can just as easily pivot in the buyer’s favor after the deal closes, but gaining Board approval for such gambles is an exercise in futility if insurance is available in the form of contingent consideration.
As mutual fund flows continue to favor passive strategies, some active fund managers are beginning to look to alternative asset classes to augment returns and generate sustainable alpha. Since open-end funds need to calculate NAV on a daily basis, the inclusion of illiquid venture capital investments in liquid funds shines a brighter spotlight on fair value measurement.
In an industry characterized by constant pressure to adapt to market conditions and offer highly specialized client service, many financial advisors still spend a significant portion of their time acquiring new clients rather than collaborating with other professionals. According to Philip Palaveev in his recent book The Ensemble Practice, the majority of financial advisory practices still function as “solos,” or one individual against the entire market. This practice is inherently problematic in its lack of sustainability and the problems it poses for an owner who desires to leave a legacy post-retirement.
Our quarterly summary of analyst calls is as revealing as usual, as pacemakers in the asset management sector review this quarter’s performance and how it may shape the year ahead. Madeleine Harrigan highlights four RIA market trends discussed by expert analysts.
The closest we get to detective work at Mercer Capital is when we’re jointly retained to resolve a shareholder disagreement over a buy-out. Whether we’ve been court-appointed or mutually chosen by the parties to do the project, we’ve done enough of these over the years to learn that the process matters as much as the outcome. In this post, we discuss our process for handling such engagements.
Despite talented people, carefully developed business plans, and the best of intentions, not every partnership goes well, and some of those that don’t go well don’t end well either. When a partner leaves an investment management practice, the potential for a major dispute over the buy-out usually looms. Internally, at our firm, we sometimes refer to these situations as “business divorces”, even though the consequent acrimony often exceeds that of a marital dissolution. Here are a few mistakes we’ve seen others make, in the hopes that you read this and don’t do the same.
