Swiss Life Asset Managers

Last updated

Swiss Life Asset Managers
Formerly Rentenanstalt (1857–2004)
Swiss Life (2004–2012)
TypePublic company ( Aktiengesellschaft )
Industry Asset management
Founded2012;10 years ago (2012) (as an independent entity within Swiss Life Holding)
Headquarters General-Guisan-Quai 40, 8002 Zürich, Switzerland
Area served
 Europe
Key people
Stefan Mächler (chief investment officer) [1]
Total assets Increase2.svg CHF 274.4 billion (2020) [2]
Number of employees
2,400 (2020) [2]
Parent Swiss Life

Swiss Life Asset Managers is a Swiss asset management firm. The company manages the assets of its own insurance business as well as assets of institutional customers and offers fixed income, real estate, equity, infrastructure, and investments. [3]

Contents

With a total of 274.4 billion Swiss francs under their management of which 30% are in real estate, [2] the company is among the top 10 worldwide for real estate assets under management. [4] [5] Swiss Life Asset Managers has several subsidiaries which allow its operations to expand into Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Luxembourg.

History

Origins

The activities of Swiss Life Asset Managers originated in the creation of Schweizerische Rentenanstalt in 1857, which would subsequently become the Swiss Life group. [5] [6] In 1858, the company invested in a loan through a mortgage bond for the first time, to pay for their clients’ annuity contracts (future life insurance contracts). This investment activity gradually diversified within the insurance company, which notably invested in railway bonds over the following decades, and then began investing in the field of real estate in 1893. [5] [7]

In 1986 Schweizerische Rentenanstalt launched a new business area offering asset management services for third-party clients. [7] In 2004 the Schweizerische Rentenanstalt is rebranded as Swiss Life. In 2012, Swiss Life created the brand Swiss Life Asset Managers under which all of its asset management activities are combined together. [8]

Acquisitions

The real estate investment activities of Swiss Life Asset Managers mainly grew from the end of the 1990s from successive external growth operations through the acquisition of other companies. In 1999, Rentenanstalt bought out Livit Real Estate Management, which at that time made up one of the main real estate service providers in Switzerland. [9] Over the years, Livit became a 100% branch of Swiss Life Asset Managers but continues to this day to conduct business under its own brand. [10]

In France, Swiss Life Asset Managers acquired the company Viveris REIM in 2011, specialising in real estate investment funds. [11] Three years later, this new acquisition would be incorporated into Swiss Life Asset Managers as Swiss Life REIM, managing 23 funds for a total outstanding amount of 4.5 billion euros. [12] In 2019 the entire French asset management business was fully consolidated into Swiss Life Asset Managers. [13]

Swiss Life Asset Managers arrives onto the German market in 2014 via the acquisition of Corpus Sireo, a company specialising in real estate asset management. [14] In 2018 the company the acquired BEOS, a German business real estate investment company (logistics centres, in particular) who at that time managed assets for a total value of 2.6 billion euros. [15] The two German subsidiaries kept their name and still operate under their own brand until 2021. [7]

In 2016, the company enters the British market with the acquisition of Mayfair Capital, a real estate investment company based in London. [16] At the time of it being bought out, the company's assets under management totalled around a billion British pounds. [17] Mayfair Capital, from then on overseen by Swiss Life Asset Managers, also kept its name and is still operating under its own brand within the group.

In 2019 Swiss Life Asset Managers acquired Fontavis, a Swiss infrastructure investment company specialising in the field of clean energy (hydropower, Wind farms, electric power grids, solar panel installations, and recycling). [18] At the time of its acquisition, the company managed around a billion Swiss francs through three funds. [18] Swiss Life Asset Managers and Fontavis officially merged their infrastructure capabilities in December 2021 and the Fontavis brand ceased to operate. [19]

Finally, in 2021 the company invests in the Nordics by acquiring the $2bn real estate branch of Norwegian asset manager giant NRP. [20] The acquired business area of NRP will in future operate under the Swiss Life Asset Managers brand. The Oslo location will continue to operate with all employees from the real estate business. [21]

Activities

General overview

Swiss Life Asset Managers’ operations consist of investing its clients’ assets in Financial markets, as well as in the field of real estate, infrastructure, fixed income and multi-asset equities. [22]

The company distinguishes between its management operations for insurance companies from its parent company (so-called Proprietary insurance Asset Management, generally referred to by the acronym "PAM") and its management operations for third-party clients (institutional and private investors not insured with Swiss Life), operations referred to using the term Third-Party Asset Management ("TPAM"). [23] At the end of 2020, the assets under the company's management were divided between 175.5 billion Swiss francs managed for Swiss Life (PAM), and 98.9 billion Swiss francs managed for third-party clients (TPAM), totalling 274.4 billion Swiss francs worth of assets under management. [2]

Swiss Life Asset Managers manages a large number of properties in Switzerland, earning the company, and by extension its parent company Swiss Life, the rank of "leading property owner in Switzerland". [5] The company also features among the three biggest property owners in Europe and is the third biggest asset manager in Switzerland for institutional clients. [24]

In 2020, Swiss Life Asset Managers had 2,400 employees, with 88% of them working in the field of real estate. Among them, around 1,100 employees worked in the Livit branch and more than 680 in the Corpus Sireo and BEOS branches in Germany. In France, the company had around 250 collaborators. [25]

In the field of education Swiss Life Asset Managers created the "Swiss Life Study Award", accompanied by a monetary prize, to promote and support students at the end of their degree courses presenting a high quality thesis from their studies in finance. This prize has been awarded each year since 2014 in partnership with the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and the German-language Swiss economic newspaper Finanz und Wirtschaft. [26] In France, Swiss Life Asset Managers funds a research chair at EDHEC's Risk Institute. [27]

PAM and TPAM Management

Swiss Life Asset Managers’ activities in the "PAM" branch consist of managing the total assets for the Swiss Life balance sheet from the payment of clients’ insurance premiums for insurance against specific risks, which incorporates the amounts deposited with a savings goal for life insurance or pension contracts.

Regarding asset management for third parties (TPAM), the company manages investment funds in which institutional investors (banks, insurers, pension funds) and private investors are permitted to invest freely. At the end of 2020, 42% of the total managed assets for third parties by Swiss Life Asset Managers was invested in real estate funds, 21% through various management assignments, 20% in bond fonds, 7% in share funds, 6% in money-market funds, and 4% in infrastructure funds. [23] The real estate assets managed and administrated by the company mostly consist of office and residential buildings, but also business properties, Hotels, medical buildings, Warehouses and industrial buildings, which had a total value of 105 billion Swiss francs at the end of 2020. [23]

In 2018 Swiss Life Asset Managers signed the charter for "Principles for Responsible Investment" from the United Nations (UN PRI), and became a member of the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB). From this date, the company incorporated environmental, social, and governing criteria to its total investment options. [28]

Locations

In geographical terms, the head office for Swiss Life Asset Managers is located in Zurich. Also in Switzerland are the head offices for Livit (Zurich), and Fontavis (Baar). [18] In Germany, Swiss Life Asset Management GmbH is located in Garching bei München (near Munich). [29] The Corpus Sireo head office is located in Cologne and BEOS’ in Berlin. [30] [31] In France, the administrative head office for Swiss Life Asset Managers France is located in Marseille while its teams are mostly located in Paris. [32] This subsidiary came from the 2019 merger between the entities Swiss Life Asset Management (France), specialising in investments in financial markets, and Swiss Life REIM. [33]

In the United Kingdom, Swiss Life Asset Managers is present in London where the head office for its Mayfair Capital branch is located. The company owns a subsidiary in Luxembourg, "Swiss Life Asset Managers Luxembourg", where some of its European law investment funds are located. [34]

Related Research Articles

Fidelity Investments Inc., commonly referred to as Fidelity, earlier as Fidelity Management & Research or FMR, is an American multinational financial services corporation based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in 1946 and is one of the largest asset managers in the world with $4.9 trillion in assets under management as of June 2020 and a combined total customer asset value number of $8.3 trillion. Fidelity Investments operates a brokerage firm, manages a large family of mutual funds, provides fund distribution and investment advice, retirement services, index funds, wealth management, cryptocurrency, securities execution and clearance, asset custody, and life insurance.

Investcorp is a global manager of alternative investment products, for private and institutional clients. Founded in 1982, the firm has offices in New York, London, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Doha, Mumbai and Singapore. Investcorp's principal client base is in the six countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council, but it also has institutional clients in North America, Europe and Asia.

An institutional investor is an entity which 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, REITs, 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).

GIC (Singaporean sovereign wealth fund) Singaporean sovereign wealth fund

GIC Private Limited, formerly known as Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, is a sovereign wealth fund established by the Government of Singapore in 1981 to manage Singapore's foreign reserves. Its mission is to preserve and enhance the international purchasing power of the reserves, with the aim to achieve good long-term returns above global inflation over the investment time horizon of 20 years. With a network of 10 offices in key financial capitals around the world, GIC invests internationally in developed market equities, emerging market equities, nominal bonds and cash, inflation-linked bonds, private equity and real estate.

New York Life Insurance Company American life insurance company

New York Life Insurance Company (NYLIC) is the third-largest life insurance company in the United States, the largest mutual life insurance company in the United States and is ranked #67 on the 2021 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. NYLIC has about $593 billion in total assets under management, and more than $25 billion in surplus and AVR. In 2007, NYLIC achieved the best possible ratings by the four independent rating companies. Other New York Life affiliates provide an array of securities products and services, as well as institutional and retail mutual funds.

Swiss Life

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 269.7 bn of assets under management. Founded in 1867 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 2020 the group declared an adjusted profit from operations of CHF 1.57 billion, a 5% decrease compared to the previous year. Net profit decreased by 13% to CHF 1.05 billion. Swiss Life is one of the twenty companies listed under the Swiss Market Index, as SLHN.

M&G British fund management company

M&G plc is a global investment manager headquartered in the City of London. It invests in and manages a wide range of assets including Equities, Fixed Income and Real Estate. It also manages more esoteric assets within the private finance arena such as Structured Products, Leveraged Finance, Project and Infrastructure Finance. After its de-merger from Prudential plc it has been listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

Alternative investment

An alternative investment is an investment in any asset class excluding stocks, bonds, and cash. The term is a relatively loose one and includes tangible assets such as precious metals, collectibles and some financial assets such as real estate, commodities, private equity, distressed securities, hedge funds, exchange funds, carbon credits, venture capital, film production, financial derivatives, cryptocurrencies, and non-fungible tokens. Investments in real estate, forestry and shipping are also often termed "alternative" despite the ancient use of such real assets to enhance and preserve wealth. Alternative investments are to be contrasted with traditional investments.

Apollo Global Management American private equity firm

Apollo Global Management, Inc. is an American global alternative investment management firm. It invests in credit, private equity, and real assets. As of December 31, 2020, the company had $455.5 billion of assets under management, including $328.6 billion invested in credit, including mezzanine capital, hedge funds, non-performing loans and collateralized loan obligations, $80.7 billion invested in private equity, and $46.2 billion invested in real assets, which includes real estate and infrastructure. The company invests money on behalf of pension funds, financial endowments and sovereign wealth funds, as well as other institutional and individual investors. Since inception in 1990, private equity funds managed by Apollo have produced a 24% internal rate of return (IRR) to investors, net of fees.

The Pictet Group, known as Pictet, is a Swiss multinational private bank and financial services company founded in Switzerland. Headquartered in Geneva, it is one of the largest Swiss banks and primarily offers services in wealth management, asset management, and asset servicing, to private clients and institutions.

PGIM American Investment Management firm

PGIM, Inc. (PGIM), formerly Prudential Investment Management, is the asset management arm of American life insurance company Prudential Financial.

The Edmond de Rothschild Group is a financial institution specialized in private banking and asset management. The group was founded in 1953 by Edmond de Rothschild. Ariane de Rothschild is the President of the board of Edmond de Rothschild S.A. Switzerland since April 2019.

Amundi French asset management firm

Amundi is a French asset management company. With €1.729 trillion of assets under management (AUM) at the end of 2020, it is, after Allianz, the largest asset manager in Europe and one of the 10 biggest investment managers by AUM in the world.

Bank Lombard Odier & Co Swiss Private Bank

The Lombard Odier Group is an independent Swiss banking group based in Geneva. Its operations are organised into three divisions: private banking, asset management, and IT and back and middle office services for other financial institutions. As of 31 December 2020, the bank had client assets of CHF 316 billion, which makes it one of the biggest players in the Swiss private banking sector.

Ardian (company) Private equity investment company

Ardian is a France-based, independent private equity investment company, founded and managed by Dominique Senequier. It is one of the largest European-headquartered private equity funds. The company was originally set up by Dominique Senequier in 1996 as the AXA Group's private equity division, but later gained independence in 2013, and rebranded itself as Ardian. The name Ardian (ar・di・an) was inspired by an ancient European language in which 'hardjan' mean strength, durability, and boldness. Ardian manages assets worth US$114 billion in Europe, North America and Asia, and has fifteen offices. The firm offers a funds of funds, direct funds, infrastructure, private debt and real estate, and manages a direct portfolio of more than 150 companies, including Vinci Park, Luton Airport and SPIE. Its fund of funds segments owns stakes in over 1500 funds. Ardian's 880 investors include institutional investors, funds of funds, government agencies, sovereign funds, family offices, pension funds and insurance companies). The firm has been ranked one of the largest companies by amount raised in equity by Private Equity International, and was named "Company of the Year" 2013 by the readers of Private Equity International.

Lowe is a real estate investment firm based in Los Angeles. Since its founding, the company has acquired, constructed, or managed more than $21 billion in real estate assets. Its subsidiary, Destination Hotels & Resorts, was the third largest hospitality management company in the United States in 2013.

Belvedere Management is a financial services group based in Mauritius that claims to have $16 billion of assets under administration. In March 2015, Offshore Alert described the group as a Ponzi scheme and it is currently under investigation by regulators in South Africa, Mauritius and Guernsey. The allegations remain unproven.

NN Investment Partners Dutch Asset Management Firm

NN Investment Partners is a Netherlands-based asset manager, with headquarters in The Hague and offices in 15 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of NN Group, the biggest Dutch life insurer. NN IP is an active manager for institutional and wholesale investors around the world. It manages €287 billion in assets for clients, integrating Environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) criteria throughout the investment process for the majority of its strategies. NN IP is globally ranked as the 87th biggest asset management firm and the third biggest Dutch asset manager. NN IP offers its services to pension funds, insurers, family offices, independent financial advisers, banks and private individuals; in addition to managing the assets of the NN Group. On the 19th of August 2021 NN announced an agreement to sell its asset manager NN Investment Partners to Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

Axa Investment Managers, is a global investment management firm with offices in over 22 locations worldwide. As of 31 December 2020, it manages over €858 billion in assets on behalf of institutional and retail clients. It operates as the investment arm for Axa, a global insurance and reinsurance company.

abrdn UK based investment company

abrdn plc, formerly Standard Life Aberdeen plc, is a United Kingdom-based global investment company headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

References

  1. ↑ "Group Executive Committee".
  2. 1 2 3 4 "SLAM at a glance" (PDF).
  3. ↑ "Swiss Life Asset Managers". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  4. ↑ "INREV Fund Managers Survey" (PDF). European Association for Investors in Non-Listed Real Estate Vehicles . 2020.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Voyage dans l'ADN du premier propriétaire suisse". Le Temps (in French). 9 April 2021. ISSN   1423-3967 . Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  6. ↑ "Rentenanstalt". Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (in French). Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 A journey through the history of Swiss Life Asset Managers , retrieved 26 August 2021
  8. ↑ "2012 Annual Report" (PDF). 2013.
  9. ↑ "Rentenanstalt". Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (in German). Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  10. ↑ "Swiss Life Asset Managers". Allnews (in French). Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  11. ↑ Immo, Business (6 April 2011). "Swiss Life prend une participation majoritaire dans Viveris Reim". Business Immo – Le site de l'immobilier d'entreprise (in French). Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  12. ↑ Fortune, Gestion de. "Viveris REIM devient Swiss Life REIM (France)". Gestion de Fortune (in French). Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  13. ↑ Fortune, Gestion de. "Fusion de Swiss Life AM et de Swiss Life REIM". Gestion de Fortune (in French). Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  14. ↑ "Swiss Life wächst und kauft zu". Handelszeitung (in German). 13 August 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  15. ↑ "Swiss Life übernimmt deutsche Immobiliengesellschaft BEOS". Handelszeitung (in German). 25 June 2018. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  16. ↑ "Swiss Life Asset Managers to acquire Mayfair Capital". www.spglobal.com. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  17. ↑ "Swiss Life acquiert Mayfair Capital Investment Management". www.zonebourse.com (in French). 10 October 2016. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  18. 1 2 3 "Swiss Life Asset Managers acquiert Fontavis". Bilan (in French). 24 October 2019. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  19. ↑ "Swiss Life Asset Managers und Fontavis rücken bei Infrastrukturanlangen zusammen". FinanzNachrichten.de (in German). Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  20. ↑ Dixon, Gary (20 July 2021). "Christian Ness takes Swiss Life role as NRP sells $2bn property business". TradeWinds . Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  21. ↑ "Swiss Life AM finalise l'acquisition des activités immobilières de Ness, Risan & Partners". Allnews (in French). 1 December 2021. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  22. ↑ "Swiss Life Asset Managers France crée un poste de direction de la gestion d'actifs". Les Echos (in French). 18 June 2019. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  23. 1 2 3 "Full-year results 2020 Investor presentation" (PDF). 2 March 2021.
  24. ↑ "Fund Manager Survey 2021". INREV . 18 May 2021.
  25. ↑ "Les 50 sociétés de gestion qui comptent". www.optionfinance.fr (in French). 30 April 2021. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  26. ↑ Wirtschaft, Finanz und. "Swiss Life prämiert Studienarbeiten". Finanz und Wirtschaft (in German). Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  27. ↑ "EDHEC-Risk and Swiss Life AM France set up a research chair to analyse the role of real estate in investment solutions". www.edhec.edu. 17 October 2018. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  28. ↑ "Swiss Life se lance dans les fonds de placements durables". Le Temps (in French). 17 December 2001. ISSN   1423-3967 . Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  29. ↑ "Swiss Life Asset Management GmbH". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  30. ↑ "Corpus Sireo company profile". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  31. ↑ "Swiss Life finalise l'acquisition de BEOS". www.zonebourse.com (in French). 31 August 2018. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  32. ↑ nouvellespublications. "Swiss Life Asset Managers France nait à Marseille". Les Nouvelles Publications (in French). Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  33. ↑ "Swiss Life Asset Managers France crée un poste de direction de la gestion d'actifs". Les Echos (in French). 18 June 2019. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  34. ↑ Bourse, Zone. "Swiss Life Asset Managers Luxembourg – Société de gestion – Fonds / OPCVM". www.zonebourse.com (in French). Retrieved 26 August 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.