Gottex Fund Management has completed the acquisition of a majority interest in Frontier Investment Management, a UK multi-asset investment management firm.
Michael Azlen, founder and chief executive of Frontier, will retain a substantial equity interest in Frontier, which has USD550m in assets under management. He will continue to lead the Frontier business, and joins Gottex as a senior executive in its multi-asset business.
The Frontier acquisition will allow the combined group to provide a range of liquid multi-asset products, based on the established endowment style model used by the leading US university “super endowments”. In addition, Frontier’s liquid and UK regulated investment products combined with Gottex’s existing active approach to macro markets will allow the combined firm to offer products globally, with plans for regulated US and pan-European liquid multi-asset products under consideration.
Bill Landes, global chief investment officer of Gottex multi-asset business, says: “Alternatives oriented multi-asset investing is an area of enormous strategic potential for the asset management industry given the very moderate outlook for government bond portfolios and the ongoing volatility in equity markets. We firmly believe that liquid multi-asset portfolios with a substantial allocation to alternatives will generally do better than the standard 60/40 balanced portfolio, which is why the combination of Gottex and Frontier in the multi asset space offers such exciting opportunities.”
Michael Azlen (pictured), founder and chief executive of Frontier, says: “We are pleased to complete this transaction and look forward to joining forces with Gottex. Collectively, we believe we have a strong team of highly regarded multi-asset professionals capable of delivering advanced liquid multi-asset products which go beyond standard balanced portfolios to provide investors with solutions better able to navigate the current trading environment.”
