Digital Assets Report

Newsletter

Like this article?

Sign up to our free newsletter

Lyxor Asset Management – Best Managed Accounts Platform

Related Topics

Lyxor’s Managed Account Platform is the industry’s largest individual commingled managed account platform. With approximately 100 managers running a diverse range of hedge fund strategies, the Lyxor MAP is committed to providing its investors – fund-of-funds, pension funds, insurance companies – with access to a universe of best-in-class talent. 

Total AUM on the single managed account business is approximately USD11billion (as of end 2012). As well as accessing managers on the commingled platform, investors are also able to leverage the Lyxor Dedicated Managed Account Platforms (D-MAPs), for bespoke segregated solutions.

One of the reasons for Lyxor’s continued success is its ability to understand what investors need and tweak the platform accordingly. To that end, there are a number of key initiatives under way for 2013 according to Stefan Keller (pictured), Head of MAP Research & External Relations at Lyxor.

The most noticeable of these was the launch at the beginning of 2013 of the “S” share class: a super-institutional share class.

“This is a value proposition for our institutional investors who want to access a hedge fund through a managed account format for the same Total Expense Ratio as the benchmark fund,” says Keller.

Lyxor has always been a pioneer in the hedge fund industry in terms of liquidity and transparency; its MyLyxorMAP website provides investors with a next generation online portal to effectively track their exposures and monitor their portfolio through a dynamic interface.

“The next step is to be a “crusader” for attractive fees. This is what we have been pushing forward with the launch of the “S” share class. We’ve reached agreement with more than 30 managers on the platform already to offer the same fees as the benchmark fund, and we have a further 30 existing managers in the pipeline.”

As opposed to the commingled platform, where the minimum investment is USD100,000, minimum investment for this S share class solution is USD5million (depending on the fund).

Lyxor is also launching a transparency project. The aim here is to provide aggregated position reports, with a lag, to clients investing in a basket of managed accounts.

“Basically it will provide a basket of exposures across all funds that they are invested in and give the investor a look-through capability, which they might need to monitor their capital costs under Solvency II, for example. This is of particular interest for institutional investors.

“We have this capability already, internally, but following discussions with our clients we understood that they too needed that transparency capability for regulatory and enhanced risk management reasons.”

Finally, another key project firmly on the agenda for 2013 is the establishment of an early stage manager platform.

As Keller explains: “We have registered an increasing appetite for investing in early stage managers. Just like the S class offering, we look at the MAP and decide how and where we can tweak it to satisfy our investors. With slightly lower liquidity, but accompanying lower fees, we will apply our existing business model for established managers to emerging managers.”

On winning the award, Lionel Paquin, head of Lyxor MAP, says: “We would like to thank hedgeweek’s readers for giving us the Best Managed Account Platform Award for the fourth consecutive year. We see in that Award a further confirmation of our strategy and we would like to share the success with our investors and partners.”

Like this article? Sign up to our free newsletter

Most Popular

Further Reading

Featured