Here’s a brief conversation with a European fund management services business with deep roots in Germany. Adding organisations and reach over the years, it has got its sights on other markets.
For asset managers seeking to connect their wares with the
European and wider world’s fund-buying community, there are a lot
of firms saying they can hold clients’ hands. But in this market,
experience is often the edge.
A business that doesn’t necessarily have the shiniest of brand
names, Universal
Investment, is a player that has been operating for decades.
The group, which continues to ink a number of M&A deals,
administers just shy of €1 trillion ($1.11 trillion) of assets.
And it is growing.
“We started out in Germany in the biggest market in Europe for
raising assets and moved these onshore markets into offshore.
That makes us unique as providers,” Keith Milne, CEO for
Universal Investment Ireland, told this publication recently.
Milne is based in Dublin.
This year, the business secured “significant” investment from CPP
Investments and continues its partnership with Montagu, the
private equity investor. CPP Investments is part of the Canadian
Pension Plan. In 2022, Universal Investment bought European Fund
Administration in Luxembourg. In May 2021 the firm won approval
from the Central Bank of Ireland to complete the acquisition of
Irish fund management company Metzler Ireland. This was part of
its plans to become a large European management company, or
“ManCo.”
“Our M&A approach is based on three pillars: extending our
product portfolio, entering new markets, and enhancing our
business in our core markets. Scalability remains a crucial
factor for the latter two pillars. With the current market
environment characterised by rising costs, especially driven by
regulatory demands, it is of the utmost importance to have the
critical mass to be able to invest in expertise, digital
transformation, and automation,” Milne said.
Universal Investment, founded all the way back in 1968, launched
its first white-label fund in West Germany, as it then was, in
1970. This is very much a “Europe”-based business, although it
has eyes further afield.
“We are such a well-known brand in the DACH region [Germany,
Austria and Switzerland] and it gives our partners and clients a
broader reach, and under one roof,” Milne said. Last year’s
Luxembourg business deal enables Universal Investment to push its
presence into the French and Swedish markets, he said.
Universal Investment, Milne said, is the largest fund services
provider in the German-speaking world.
Besides work in these European Union member state countries –
Ireland and Luxembourg are both major hubs for UCITS funds – the
organisation has a representative and sales office in the
UK.
“This is a pan-European offering – we have lots of experience,
stability and reach,” he said.
“If you have managers looking to set up in Ireland we will
support distribution…much more than our competitors can really
do,” Milne continued. Although certain other distribution firms
can offer a sort of “chaperone” service, they don’t have
their own asset management expertise that clients like to draw
on, he said.
