Mediolanum International Funds Ltd (MIFL) announces three new equity mandate totalling over a billion euro with European investment boutique firms – Cadence, Intermede and RWC.
Furio Pietribiasi, CEO of Mediolanum International Funds Limited, said, “Our objective remains clear. We want at least one third of all our assets managed externally, around €10 billion, to be allocated to boutique managers within the next five years.”
MIFL is the Irish asset management company of the Mediolanum Banking Group with over €47 billion assets under management as of the end of December 2020.
MIFL will provide all three firms access to its distribution platform in Italy, Spain and Germany. The new partnerships will help bolster MIFL’s unique multi manager structure, onboarding additional outstanding capabilities that enhance MIFL’s investment solutions.
The agreement with Cadence Investment Partners LLP, the Edinburgh based independent investment boutique funded in 2014, will see MIFL allocating €130 million in the boutique’s flagship Asia strategy.
Jason McCay, Managing Partner at Cadence Investment Partners said, “Having access to Mediolanum’s distribution platform through this agreement will enable us to continue to focus on our strength as a business, which is putting portfolio management first.”
McCay continued, “Our strategy is well positioned to capture the immense opportunity in Asia as the region looks set to become the engine of global growth for decades to come.”
Cadence is a long-term investor focused on intrinsic value investing within high quality businesses, capable of translating the growth of Asia into superior returns.
The development also sees MIFL partnering with Intermede, a London-based independent boutique established in 2014. MIFL will be allocating €700 million in the firm’s Global Equity strategy through a sub-advisory mandate.
Barry Dargan, Portfolio Manager and CEO at Intermede Investment Partners, said, “This Sub advisory agreement opens up new horizons for us.”
Intermede’s research-intensive, fundamental, bottom-up investment philosophy has led to a high-quality growth focused strategy with a concentrated portfolio (40-50 holdings) and a strong active share.
Dargan continued, “Our corporate culture is also closely aligned with Mediolanum in that we are optimally configured to minimise external distractions so the investment team can focus on company research, with appropriate team size and portfolio concentration.”
MIFL is also allocating approximately €300 million into RWC Partners, investing €60 million in their emerging markets strategy and seeding a mandate of €240 million euro in their new Global Equity Income Strategy managed by a team who recently joined RWC.
With offices across the globe, RWC Partners is an independent asset management organisation founded in 2000 offering a range of equity products and currently managing assets of €20 billion.
Nick Clay, Lead Portfolio Manager at RWC Partners commented: “We look forward to building a strong long-term partnership with MIFL as we embark on our journey at RWC. We have successfully achieved long term capital growth and sustainable income from our portfolio of global securities and through this partnership will now be able to bring this success to MIFL’s clients.”
Pietribiasi concluded, “All three new Partners are highly specialised players with exceptional track records. This is the result of the extensive work of our experienced and capable research team, which allows us to bring some brand-new talent and capabilities to our clients, which might not be accessible otherwise.”
“Our flexibility and solid infrastructure have proven to be instrumental in supporting start-ups founded by very small teams, as well as more established managers like RWC, which is an entrepreneurial organisation made up of different teams of high performing investment professionals”.
