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AssetCo’s Peter McKellar discusses his plans for the company

David Stevenson, 19/08/2021

AIM-listed AssetCo has not exactly been dawdling when it comes to getting things done. In a short space of time, they’ve taken a position in listed asset manager River and Mercantile, acquired a majority stake in Rize ETF, bought Scottish firm Saracen Fund Managers outright and also taken a 30 percent stake in wealth manager Parmenion. 

What’s the plan for this ambitious vehicle run by city legend Martin Gilbert and his close compatriot Peter McKellar, the CEO of the firm?

Having spoken to the CEO of Saracen Fund Managers Graham Campbell, he bemoaned that a lot of the major wealth managers don’t really give time to the smaller players out there, a view that Mr McKellar has some sympathy with, up to a point.

“If you're running one of the larger platforms, or one of the larger wealth managers, liquidity's important with respect to funds that you're advising clients to go into. Therefore, there's going to be a predilection to maybe not go into some of those smaller funds,” Mr McKellar told Fundeye.

With respect to the acquisition of the Scottish boutique asset manager, Mr McKellar described the firm as an ‘undervalued opportunity’ which would benefit from greater distribution. 

One area that AssetCo can aid asset managers is with distribution as the company recently hired Gary Collins from Columbia Threadneedle to head up the division. Mr Collins brings with him a wealth of experience which AssetCo can use to aid those firms it has acquired, most notably Saracens but also Rise ETF.

Part of the reasoning for acquiring an ETF provider is what Mr McKellar describes as the ‘democratization’ of investment. He said that there’s a move away from institutional investors towards individuals.

“We're building a broad church of capabilities,” Mr McKellar said, which will include a variety of asset classes, styles and strategies. However, he was keen to stress that the company is not looking to build a generalist asset manager, moreover it is taking into account the structural changes that are taking place in asset and wealth management and looking to benefit from those.

Private markets

Given that Mr McKellar was previously head of private markets at Standard Life Aberdeen, this is also an area of interest for AssetCo. However, he notes that not just the assets within private markets are elevated but so are the managers involved in this segment of the industry.

“We do have a desire to move into private markets but we're going to do so wisely and we’ll look at lifting teams or working with teams rather than acquiring managers,” he said in relation to that particular space.

Part of the desire to move into private markets is the low return environment which is also a driver to look at alternative asset classes as well.

One thing is certain, that AssetCo is not finished with its mission of acquiring companies that this well-seasoned management team believe will do well in today’s fragmented market. Having already taken positions in active and passive asset managers, it will be interesting to see what the firm does in the wealth management space.

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