Private equity funds managed by Baird Capital have invested in investment consultancy bfinance. Current CEO David Vafai (pictured) will continue to lead bfinance. He will be joined on the board by Andrew Ferguson, managing director at Baird Capital, and CFO Mark Brownlie, as directors.
Also joining the board as chairman is highly experienced financial and investor relations professional Tim Trotter, who founded public relations group Ludgate, co-founded Citywire, the information service for the global fund management industry and is a non-executive chairman at a number of financial services and asset management related blue-chip companies.
The collective expertise and experience of the new board will provide support for bfinance’s further growth, both in the UK and internationally. The consultancy will also benefit from Baird’s resources and specialist track record in supporting the expansion of high-growth businesses, which will help open new networks and markets and enhance bfinance’s ability to attract and retain top industry talent in its core research teams and across its services.
Internationally, bfinance plans to build on its track record in a number of core European markets and on early successes in the US and Australia to further expand its global reach. The consultancy has advised over 300 of the world’s largest and most sophisticated institutional investors, including blue-chip private and public pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, endowment, foundations and family offices from over 25 countries world-wide.
bfinance is recognised as providing award-winning investment advisory solutions to institutional investors globally and was awarded Investment Consultant of the Year at the 2015 and 2013 CIO European Innovation Awards, and Best Investment Consultant in both 2014 and 2013 at the Global Investors Investment Excellence Awards. It specialises in investment implementation, spanning a range of services from investment strategy design, to manager selection, portfolio risk solutions and investment monitoring. A clear differentiator for bfinance is that it maintains no subjective manager buy lists and conducts a review of the universe of managers before implementing its proprietary, in-depth manager due diligence and selection.
Every assignment is modelled and tailored to each individual client’s specific requirements, risk tolerance and return objectives. Increasingly, bfinance’s clients are looking for support beyond manager selection, in areas such as customised portfolio strategy, portfolio design and on-going advisory.
The deal with Baird follows a strong period of successes for bfinance. Recent high-profile mandates for bfinance include advising on a USD1 billion alternative beta strategy programme for a US corporate pension plan, a USD1.2 billion private equity search for Swedish State pension fund AP7, and multiple searches across asset classes on behalf of Australian superannuation funds.
Given the strong projected growth of the global asset management industry there are significant expansion opportunities for bfinance. Global assets under management are estimated at USD64 trillion and this is forecast to increase significantly over the next five years, with pension assets in particular projected to grow by a CAGR of 6.6 per cent to reach USD56.5 trillion by 2020.
As the landscape of asset classes continues to evolve and become more complex, with institutions turning to emerging and more exotic asset classes such as European private debt or African equities, in the search for yield, investment consultants such as bfinance will play a major role in helping to reshape allocations and protect portfolios in volatile markets.
bfinance is headquartered in London and has offices in Amsterdam, Munich, Montreal, Paris and Sydney. To date the company has advised over 300 institutions on more than 700 engagements, involving investments totalling over USD140billion.
Cavendish Corporate Finance LLP advised the shareholders of bfinance on the deal.
