In brief

19 July 2021

American investment giant Goldman Sachs is planning to hire more than employees in India by 2023 as it looks to bolster its operations globally.

The news comes as the company opens its new office in Hyderabad as part of its effort to bolster its global centre for engineering and business innovation in the country.

Goldman Sachs chairman and CEO David Solomon said that the new office will serve as a crucial innovation hub for a range of the company’s businesses and enhance its reputation as a global firm.

Owing to the ongoing pandemic situation in India, Goldman started its Hyderabad operations remotely in March. The new facility currently employees about 250 people.

“By the end of 2021 it is expected that the Hyderabad office will grow to 800 employees of which about 70% employees will be new hires.

“By 2023 the size of Hyderabad office could reach as many as 2,500 employees.” Goldman said in a press statement.

19 July 2021

Fisher Investments has expanded its investment management services to high-net-worth (HNW) investors and families in Ireland with the establishment of a subsidiary, Fisher Investments Ireland.

The development comes close on the heels of the investment adviser’s expansion into Australia this year.

Fisher Investments CEO Damian Ornani said: “The decision to expand into Ireland was a logical step given the success we’ve experienced with our client-first model elsewhere in Europe.

“It’s another milestone in our mission to better the investment universe and help more clients globally.”

Fisher Investments Ireland, which is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland, is currently in the process of hiring candidates for sales, service, and operations roles in Ireland.

Fisher Investments senior executive vice-president of the Private Client Group International Carrianne Coffey said: “We’re honoured to help HNW clients in Ireland reach their financial goals.

19 July 2021

Amundi is reportedly looking to take advantage of Wealth Management Connect scheme and China’s move to attain carbon neutrality by 2060 to boost its assets under management (AUM) in Asia.

The French asset manager aims to grow its AUM by 70% to €500bn in the next four years, according to a report by South China Morning Post.

Amundi Asset Management chairman for Greater China Zhong Xiaofeng told the publication: “China’s market is so huge that it is impossible for any investment manager to miss it.

“The country’s opening up policies to attract foreign investors and its policies to promote environmental, social and governance (ESG) have given confidence to global asset managers to invest in the country.”

Xiaofeng also added that the Covid-19 pandemic has also accelerated the firm’s investment in China.

16 July 2021

Daloopa, a provider of AI-based data extraction services to hedge funds, investment banks, and other financial institutions, has raised $20m in Series A financing to bolster data extraction offerings.

Credit Suisse Asset Management’s NEXT Investors led the funding round with participation from existing investors Nexus Venture Partners, Uncorrelated Ventures, and Hack VC.

To date, Daloopa has raised $24m in funding.

As part of the latest funding round, Credit Suisse Asset Management’s NEXT Investors and Nexus Venture Partners will each assign a member to the firm’s board of directors.

Conventional data extraction methods are considered time-consuming. It is said that more than 30% of a financial analyst’s time is spent on detailed data entry and data cleaning when it can used for value-additive research and analysis.

Daloopa aims to offer efficiency in data extraction through an AI-driven software.

16 July 2021

Santander Holdings, the US holding company of Banco Santander, has reached an agreement to acquire independent fixed-income broker dealer Amherst Pierpont Securities.

The deal, which is valued at approximately $600m (€500m), was carried out through the acquisition of Amherst Pierpont’s parent holding company Pierpont Capital.

Amherst Pierpont specialises in premier fixed-income and structured product franchise.

In 2019, the firm was designated as a primary dealer of US Treasuries by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It is currently one among the only three non-banks to hold that designation.

Amherst Pierpont has approximately 230 employees serving over 1,300 active institutional clients from its headquarters in New York and offices in Chicago, San Francisco, Austin, other US locations and Hong Kong.

Following the transaction, Amherst Pierpont will be part of Santander Corporate & Investment Banking (Santander CIB) global business line.

16 July 2021

Liechtenstein-based private bank LGT has agreed to buy a strategic minority stake in the German digital wealth manager LIQID.

Founded in 2016, LIQID offers professional wealth management investment solutions as well as private equity, venture capital and real estate investments to wealthy private investors.

Earlier this year, LIQID’s client assets crossed the €1bn mark, making it one of Germany’s largest digital wealth managers.

The tie-up will see LGT collaborating with the digital wealth manager to develop the latter’s investment strategy for its wealth management offering.

The LIQID Wealth offering provides comprehensive investment strategies in traditional asset classes and is available to private investors investing €100 000 or more.

The move aims to expand LGT’s investment offering to the LIQID clients.

15 July 2021

Wealth management remains one of the most vulnerable sectors due to COVID-19 as it is closely linked to capital market performance.

Verdict has conducted a poll to assess the local business conditions for wealth management in 2021 amid COVID-19. Analysis of the poll results shows that a majority 54% of the respondents expect better local business conditions compared to 2020. While 33% of the respondents expect a high improvement, 21% expect slight improvement.

Conversely, 33% of the respondents expect the local conditions to worsen in 2021, including 19% who predict the conditions to be a lot worse than 2020 and 14% who expect the conditions to be slightly worse.

15 July 2021

Americana Partners, a Houston-based RIA firm, has proposed to takeover publicly traded financial advisory and mutual fund firm Westwood Holdings Group for $25 a share in cash.

Westwood said it has in total received two unsolicited bids from Americana and is rejecting both as they ‘significantly undervalues Westwood relative to the company’s standalone plan’.

The firm also added that it is not certain about Americana’s ability to finance its acquisition bid.

Westwood president and CEO Brian Casey said: “Our hard work over the past few years, reducing costs and building a pipeline of opportunities, along with the investments we made in technology and other strategic initiatives are paying off for our stockholders as we believe Westwood is now on a more clear path to growth.

“We are very proud of the progress we have made and are even more confident in our ability to carry out our current plan and deliver long-term value for our stockholders.”

Americana made an all-cash offer last month to purchase Westwood, which oversees $15bn in assets, Reuter reported citing people familiar with the development.

14 July 2021

Vanguard has entered into a definitive agreement to buy tech-driven asset manager Just Invest for an unknown sum.

Established in 2016, Just Invest provides tax-managed, tailored wealth management technology including Kaleidoscope, a customisable, direct indexing offer.

The firm oversees around $1bn in assets managed with a ‘direct indexing’ strategy.

Leveraging large-scale data analysis, quantitative algorithms, and risk modelling, it delivers scalable portfolio and tax management through its direct indexing platform.

Just Invest’s capabilities are expected to accelerate Vanguard’s $3trn financial intermediary business that caters to registered investment advisors (RIA), bank, and broker-dealer financial advisers.

The acquisition comes as Vanguard looks to leverage both internal and external talent, resources, and capabilities to rollout solutions that drive better client outcomes.

14 July 2021

Britannia Financial Group has reportedly bought £900m of assets and cash held in client accounts from failed wealth manager Dolfin Financial.

Dolfin, which was recently placed into special administration, was required by regulators to cease its operations in March this year. Regulator restricted the company following concerns about its operations.

Britannia carried out the deal through its brokerage house Britannia Global Markets.

In addition to client assets, the deal would see approximately 20 members of staff of Dolfin’s discretionary investment management team joining Britannia.

Under the agreement, around 280 of Dolfin’s clients are expected to be transferred to the firm.

The clients are being informed individually about the transfer.