C&A is a multinational chain of retail clothing stores that originated in the Netherlands. It now has European head offices in Vilvoorde, Belgium, and Düsseldorf, Germany. The company operates approximately 1,300 stores in Europe and approximately 300 stores in Brazil, as well as websites for online shopping. It also licenses the C&A name for stores in Mexico and China, which are under different ownership. C&A's brands include Angelo Litrico, Avanti, Clockhouse, Here+There, Palomino, Rodeo, Westbury, Yessica, Yessica Pure, and Your Sixth Sense.
Brenninkmeijer is a Roman Catholic Dutch, German and Swiss family of manufacturers, which own an international chain of clothing stores. Originally the family came from Tecklenburger Land (Westphalia), selling linen in Friesland in the Netherlands. In 1840 two members of the family founded C&A company in Sneek. Their descendants discovered the potential of the stock of produced ready-made garment. Today, the family owns the Cofra Holding AG, based in Switzerland which in turn controls the C&A fashion business, a private equity company, a real estate fund and two banks. The company focuses its efforts on real estate, sustainable energy and financial services.
An institutional investor is an entity that pools money to purchase securities, real property, and other investment assets or originate loans. Institutional investors include commercial banks, central banks, credit unions, government-linked companies, insurers, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, charities, hedge funds, real estate investment trusts, investment advisors, endowments, and mutual funds. Operating companies which invest excess capital in these types of assets may also be included in the term. Activist institutional investors may also influence corporate governance by exercising voting rights in their investments. In 2019, the world's top 500 asset managers collectively managed $104.4 trillion in Assets under Management (AuM).
Aegon Ltd. is a Dutch public company for life insurance, pensions and asset management. It is headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and has 26,000 employees as of July 21, 2020. Aegon is listed on the Euronext Amsterdam and is a constituent of the AEX index. It operates a direct bank under the brand name "Knab" in the Netherlands. In October 2022, it was announced that AEGON's Dutch operations would be acquired by ASR. To the extent they had the AEGON trade name, it will become ASR; Knab and TKP will keep their names.
AllianceBernstein Holding L.P.(AB) is a global asset management firm providing investment management and research services worldwide to institutional, high-net-worth and retail investors.
Vicinity Centres ASX: VCX, previously known as Federation Centres and Centro Properties Group, is an Australian Real Estate Investment Trust specialising in the ownership and management of Australian shopping centres. As at December 2021, it had stakes in 60 shopping centres. It is headquartered at Chadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne.
HSBC Bank Bermuda Limited, previously the Bank of Bermuda Limited, is a financial services company in Bermuda providing retail and corporate banking, investment, custody and fund administration services to international and local clients. In 2004 the HSBC Group acquired the Bank of Bermuda, which has since become a focus for certain fund management and private banking activities. The bank sold much of its Cayman operations in 2014, and disposed its private banking operations at the end of April 2016. The three remaining divisions are retail banking wealth management, commercial banking and global banking and markets. These three businesses represent over 90% of total revenues.
The Swiss Life Group is the largest life insurance company of Switzerland and one of Europe’s leading comprehensive life and pensions and financial services providers, with approximately CHF 255.7 bn of assets under management. Founded in 1857 in Zurich as the Schweizerische Lebensversicherungs und Rentenanstalt cooperative, the company entered the Swiss stock market in 1997 and adopted its current name in 2002. In 2023 the group declared an adjusted profit from operations of CHF 1.50 billion, a 1% increase compared to the previous year. Net profit increased by 8% to CHF 1.11 billion. Swiss Life is one of the twenty companies listed under the Swiss Market Index, as SLHN.
Allianz Global Investors, is a global investment management firm with offices in over 20 locations worldwide. It is owned by the global financial services group Allianz. Employing nearly 3,000, it manages over EUR 500 billion in assets on behalf of institutional, retail clients and also of Allianz itself. AGI became known for one of the biggest fraud cases in which its Structured Alpha fund lost over 6 billion dollars in the 2020 market sell-off. As the risk profile of the fund was missold to the investors it led to charges against the company and its managers.
Robeco is an originally Dutch asset management firm, since 2013 part of Orix, founded in 1929 as the Rotterdamsch Beleggings Consortium. As of 2014, the company had €246 billion of assets under management. It was acquired in 2001 by the Rabobank Groep and sold in 2013 to ORIX Corporation.
Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. is an American multinational independent investment bank and financial services company offering investment banking, financial advisory services, capital markets services, asset management, wealth management, and related products and services worldwide. The company, which once occupied the One World Financial Center building in Manhattan, now bases its operations at 85 Broad Street in New York City.
PGIM, Inc. (PGIM), formerly known as Prudential Investment Management, functions as the asset management arm of Prudential Financial, an American life insurance company.
Sanlam is a South African financial services group headquartered in Bellville, Western Cape, South Africa. Sanlam is one of the largest insurance company in Africa. It is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Namibian Stock Exchange and the A2X. Established in 1918 as a life insurance company, Sanlam Group has developed into a diversified financial services business. Its five business clusters comprise Sanlam Personal Finance, Sanlam Emerging Markets, Sanlam Investments, Sanlam Corporate and Santam.
GAM Investments is an independent, pure play asset management group headquartered in Zurich. The Group sells to a wide range of client segments such as institutions, wholesale intermediaries, financial advisers, and private investors. The Group’s investment management business is complemented by a private labelling unit which provides outsourcing for third-party asset managers.
An investment fund is a way of investing money alongside other investors in order to benefit from the inherent advantages of working as part of a group such as reducing the risks of the investment by a significant percentage. These advantages include an ability to:
Dominic Shorthouse is a British private investor, founder of private equity business Englefield Capital LLP and a former partner at Warburg Pincus. His notable investments include the creation of the UK terrestrial TV channel Channel 5 and Cognita, a UK-based private schools operator. He is a member of the advisory board of ManoCap, which invests in post-conflict African states, and a member of the Advisory Board of Lennox Investment Management, investing in prime Central London residential property.
Bregal Sagemount is a private equity firm based in New York City.
Steinhoff International was a multinational holding company that was dual listed in Germany and South Africa. It was officially liquidated on 13 October 2023. Its holdings were in the retail sector, primarily in furniture and household goods, and included a 43,8% stake in South Africa's Pepkor group. The company operated in Europe, Africa, Asia, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. It was well known for an accounting scandal which led to criminal charges against its former chief executive, Markus Jooste.
LetterOne Holdings S.A. (LetterOne) is an international investment business based in Luxembourg. With long-term investments in the telecoms, technology, healthcare, and energy sectors, the firm has four main units: L1 Health, L1 Technology, L1 Retail, and L1 Energy, all of which are supported by L1 Treasury Services, which manages the group's liquidity. LetterOne was set up LetterOne in 2013 as part of a broader new investment vehicle using the proceeds from the sale of TNK-BP. LetterOne had $26.8 billion in equity at the end of 2021. Co-founders Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven stepped down from the company in early March 2022, after the EU imposed sanctions on them in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The board now includes Mervyn Davies, Jonathan Muir, Franz Humer, Richard R. Burt, and Wulf von Schimmelmann, with Davies serving as chairman and Muir as CEO. Among major investments in 2023 were Turkcell, Qvantel, VEON, Wintershall Dea, DIA and Holland & Barrett.
The DWS Group commonly referred to as DWS, is a German asset management company. It previously operated as part of Deutsche Bank until 2018 where it became a separate entity through an initial public offering on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. It is currently headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany and is a constituent member of the SDAX index.
