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The client, an Australian pension scheme, was under mounting pressure from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), who is responsible for collecting and publishing the performance and costs of superannuation funds.
A Middle-Eastern financial institution was seeking to create a new public equities product for its clients with a multi-manager, Shariah-compliant approach. The objective was to design a multi-manager portfolio and provide an implementation plan for available seed assets as well as further inflows of subsequent assets.
A Canadian pension plan was seeking to refine its approach to investing in global equities. After initial review (with bfinance) revealed both known and unknown biases, priorities included: the regional segmentation of the portfolio, the proportion of passive exposure, the choice of active management styles and the appropriate excess return target.
This investor was making their first allocation to global small-cap equities and willing to consider any investment approach (systematic or discretionary) and any style, with a preference for an unconstrained investment mindset rather than benchmark-relative positioning.
A mid-sized global insurer was seeking to align themselves with ‘best practice’ in incorporating appropriate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors into their investment approach.
The client, a large government-linked investor in South East Asia, was seeking to restructure its exposure to global emerging markets (EM) equities. With its EM equity portfolio entirely invested in passive funds, the client was looking to shift a portion of this exposure to a diversified combination of active strategies.
The client, a Middle Eastern foundation, was looking to enhance the returns of its overall portfolio and chose Private Equity and Infrastructure Equity as suitable asset classes. The client was willing to consider all investment types—direct investments as well as fund of funds—and strategies, whether those featured standalone or combined offerings (Private Equity plus Infrastructure).
The client, a prominent Middle Eastern asset manager, was seeking to invest in Shariah-compliant global and broad regional equity strategies—irrespective of investment style—to play a satellite role within its newly launched global growth fund.
The client, a large Middle Eastern financial institution, was seeking to build a Shariah-compliant global multi-asset class fund with the listed equity sleeve managed by a diversified roster of external fund managers.
The client, a Middle Eastern financial institution, was seeking managers with proven experience investing in Shariah-compliant Saudi equities, necessitating fairly strict requirements on minimum track record (>5 years) and assets under management (>USD 200 million in conventional or Shariah-compliant Saudi equities).
The client, a leading Middle Eastern asset manager, was planning to launch a new fund with the aim of providing investors with a diversified portfolio of income-generating assets.
This investor, an Asian financial institution, recognized that it had a material underweight to Real Estate and wanted to look at appointing a top-tier manager or managers to assist in the diversification of its exposure.
This investor was seeking to improve their approach to monitoring private markets strategies. Their private markets portfolio consisted of three multi-manager funds (Real Estate, Private Debt and diversified Private Markets), with underlying exposure to 64 different strategies. The client had been in all three of these funds for several years by the time they engaged bfinance, but were not satisfied with the existing approach to oversight. They sought more clarity, effective consolidation of data, and qualitative—not just quantitative—insights on the manager partners.
A Belgian corporate was seeking to create a private equity investment unit, making productive use of their strong cash position and bringing potential strategic benefits to the firm.
This Middle Eastern wealth manager sought bfinance’s assistance in building a portfolio of Shariah-compliant private equity secondaries. Although the client was intent on accessing globally focused managers with a tilt towards buyouts, it was also willing to include growth and venture capital investments as smaller allocations.
This US wealth manager sought to update its relatively conservative fixed income portfolio in order to meet the investment target of 3-5% per annum nominal returns—a topic that has become particularly pressing for their team in a climate of inflation and rising interest rates.
This UK pension scheme was seeking to benchmark the fees being paid to more than a dozen managers across 20-plus strategies in public markets, alternatives and private markets given the scheme’s rapid growth in assets under management and increasing diversification.
This investor, a local government pension fund, was looking to invest GBP 45 million in Private Market strategies with high social impact—a new, dedicated impact allocation separate from its broader portfolio.
The client, a Bermuda-based reinsurance company, engaged bfinance to conduct a comprehensive review of global trade finance managers—including those with strategies focused on receivables or supply chain finance—with the goal of investing at least EUR 200 million (and possibly as much as EUR 600 million).
The investor, a German public pension scheme, was conducting a search for a global private equity manager and was in the process of reviewing four finalists ahead of investment. In order to support Operational Due Diligence, they wished to obtain an additional independent review of each manager’s IT/cyber risk profile.
The investor, a German public pension scheme, was conducting a search for a global private equity manager and was in the process of reviewing four finalists ahead of investment. In order to support Operational Due Diligence, they wished to obtain an additional independent review of each manager’s IT/cyber risk profile.
An Asian government fund was significantly expanding its international equity allocation and sought support with manager selection, as well as the implementation of an external fund hosting solution to facilitate effective management and oversight of the US$ 4 billion equity portfolio. This case study focuses on the fund hosting aspect of the engagement.
This French pension fund sought to assess the suitability of the current SAA relative to the objective of delivering a 1% real return over a 15-year horizon. Imminent internal deadlines required an accelerated three-week timeframe for the project. The investor was actively considering a number of key questions including: whether to add illiquid asset classes; whether to increase the overall equity allocation and change its composition (remove low volatility strategy, broaden geographic reach); whether to take more risk in the fixed income allocation (maturities, credit ratings and geographical exposure); whether to use overlays (e.g. repo).
This investor sought to switch from passive strategies towards active management, with the primary driver being the inability to meet their ESG-related objectives through passive strategies.
The investor, a Dutch corporate pension scheme, was seeking outside support to review the operating environments of four finalist managers for two US equity mandates. The client had historically performed site visits as part of its fund selection process but sought specialist support during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This Canadian pension fund, which traditionally uses an internal team for conducting manager searches, had already reviewed several managers in this asset class before enlisting bfinance’s assistance. As an adviser, bfinance worked collaboratively with the client’s team to provide additional resources and scrutiny.
This client, an Australian superannuation fund, was making its first dedicated allocation to small-cap stocks in emerging markets (EM). The mandate was intended to serve as a high alpha component of the pension fund’s overall equity portfolio, hence the client’s aggressive return expectation of at least 3% net per annum above a relevant small-cap equity benchmark.
This UK wealth manager asked for assistance from bfinance to evaluate potential investments in new real estate sub-asset classes or satellite strategies with the aim of improving the efficiency and holistic liquidity management of its real estate portfolio. The wealth manager’s portfolio objectives remained unchanged—as did its aim to ensure greater flexibility to invest in new assets—but it did not want to rely on cash holdings to meet its liquidity needs.
This German endowment fund engaged bfinance to review its current real estate and infrastructure holdings and set out a new strategic direction for the portfolio—one that would complement its existing holdings and grow with the addition of EUR60 million in additional investment.
The client, an Australian superannuation fund, engaged bfinance to identify high-alpha global small-cap equity strategies to complement its existing roster of large- and all-cap managers investing globally across developed and emerging markets.
An international non-life insurer/re-insurer with a growing book of assets sought to identify suitable infrastructure managers as part of their first allocation to private market investments.
The client, an Italian pension fund, was looking to make an inaugural equity investment in an impact equity strategy or a thematic equity strategy focused on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.
This Canadian Defined Contribution pension scheme was making their debut allocation to unlisted infrastructure. The plan’s structure necessitated a focus on open-ended strategies.
This UK-based international property and casualty insurance group was seeking to invest USD140 million with one manager running a US-centric short duration, high yield bond portfolio. The insurer wanted to target BB-rated bonds maturing within five years to achieve a desired level of yield and keep capital charges to a minimum.
This client, a Belgian pension fund, sought bfinance’s help in reviewing the appropriateness of its current strategic asset allocation (SAA) relative to its investment objectives.
This client, a German insurance company, sought bfinance’s assistance to conduct a review of its conservatively invested liquid alternatives portfolio, which deployed assets in low net exposure and market neutral strategies.
This UK pension scheme was seeking to benchmark the fees being paid to more than a dozen managers across 20-plus strategies in public markets, alternatives and private markets given the scheme’s rapid growth in assets under management and increasing diversification.
This investor previously had a TAA overlay on regional equities and bonds but not on international investments. Here, they sought to extend this approach to the international portfolio—and also consider an FX overlay—in order to drive enhanced returns.
This client, a German private sector pension fund, was looking to gain global exposure to a specific real asset: timberland. Since the allocation was the client’s first to this sector, the manager search process involved helping the pension fund build an understanding of the most appropriate ways to gain such an exposure with a view to establishing a longer-term, five- to ten-year investment plan.
This client, a Dutch private pension scheme, asked bfinance to partner with its in-house investment team to assess the fees paid to its external asset managers and negotiate lower rates.
A UK foundation aimed to identify a core multi-manager hedge fund product, targeting cash plus 4-6% and diversification against traditional exposures in their portfolio.
This investor sought market-independent strategies which exhibit very limited equity / credit beta (structurally and empirically)—ideally less than 0.1 in normal and stressed equity markets. This investor sought market-independent strategies which exhibit very limited equity / credit beta (structurally and empirically)—ideally less than 0.1 in normal and stressed equity markets.
The client, a UK endowment fund with strong environmental, social and governance (ESG) credentials, was looking to further diversify its existing infrastructure programme. The endowment’s investment team had identified maritime leasing as a potentially attractive new asset class subsector and wanted to find an investment solution that combined strong and stable returns with solid ESG performance.
The client, a US-based wealth manager, had decided to terminate an existing relationship with an asset management firm due to the departure of a key portfolio manager. The international equity mandate, worth USD50 million, had been allocated previously to an international (non-US) strategy focused on small- and mid-cap listed companies.
This client, an Australian pension scheme, sought assistance to conduct a full value-for-money review of the management fees it was paying for investment services.
A German pension fund was seeking to complement an existing private equity allocation in Asia Pacific (APAC) by dedicating EUR50 million to a new mandate. The client was seeking to invest in a pooled direct fund and had a targeted internal rate of return (IRR) of 10% net.
The client, a South African pension fund, was looking to invest up to USD200 million in private equity with exposure to Emerging Markets and was particularly interested in focusing on opportunities in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. The client’s main objective was to shorten the J-curve by investing in secondaries or making co-investments alongside direct funds and had targeted an internal rate of return (IRR) of 15% net.
This investor was making a first-time allocation to Asian Multi-Strategy hedge funds. With the exception of purely quantitative approaches, the investor was willing to consider all styles of multi-strategy as long as they had at least three years of live track record in the fund and a minimum fund AUM of US$100 million. However, there were a few preferred characteristics, including: strong drawdown (downside risk management) characteristics, diversified multi-asset versus single-asset; more equity market independence; a higher level of liquidity (e.g. quarterly or monthly dealing).
The trustees of a Middle Eastern family office enlisted bfinance’s help to review the internal investment team’s approach to managing assets—the client wanted an independent assessment of the appropriateness of the internal team’s strategic portfolio design (SPD) and to ensure that the fund was not exposed to any outsized market risks.
This Middle Eastern family office engaged bfinance to design an inaugural risk-management framework for its USD 1.2 billion portfolio and, subsequently, to help implement the new structure.
This investor engaged bfinance to benchmark the fees paid to their external investment managers. As part of the value-for-money analysis, bfinance created tailored benchmarks for each manager.
The client, a UK endowment, was looking to allocate GBP 20 million to Impact Real Estate, focusing on affordable housing. Although the client indicated a minimum return requirement of 8% per annum, its management team wanted to consider the full landscape of options.
The client, a European multinational property and casualty (P&C) insurer, was looking to re-tender a multi-billion-dollar, multi-currency fixed income portfolio invested in high-quality, short-duration bonds to new asset managers and reduce associated fees. The challenge was compounded by the client’s numerous existing asset manager relationships, which spanned several major geographies, including Bermuda, Europe, North America and the UK. The client’s paramount objective was to rationalise these investment relationships and work with partners that could offer state-of-the-art insurance expertise across currencies, regions and regulatory jurisdictions; as part of that process, the client was also seeking assistance in identifying and mitigating ESG-related risks.
The client, a US Insurer, was intending to allocate up to USD 50 million to ‘alternative’ real estate sectors in the US through one or more commingled funds. These sectors included residential assets, such as single-family rentals and senior living accommodation; specialist facilities, such as life sciences labs, medical offices, cold storage units and urban logistics properties; and various strategies that straddled these sectors. The investor wanted to achieve double-digit net returns in either an open- or closed-end fund format.
A Saudi Arabian endowment sought to revamp its investment policy statement to reflect its evolving financial goals—and then develop a Shariah-compliant strategic asset allocation (SAA), accompanied by a multi-year deployment plan, to initiate the portfolio implementation process.
The client, UK private pension fund, was recalibrating its approach to value investing given its view that ‘deep value’ had become too cyclical and volatile, with technological disruption and innovation across many industries increasing the prevalence of so-called value traps. The client wanted to explore different approaches to value investing with the aim of replacing an incumbent ‘deep value’ manager, reorienting its allocation, and achieving a target return of at least 2% per annum above its benchmark over a market cycle. A growing emphasis on ESG—and specifically climate-related considerations—was also prompting this client’s inward shift on the value spectrum.
The client, a Dutch private pension fund, was reorganizing and consolidating its equity allocation, moving from a mix of active and enhanced index exposures to a fully passive equity portfolio. The management team was making this shift in tandem with its decision to incorporate ESG considerations more fully into its strategic investment policy. The team anticipated making two allocations, of EUR180 and EUR100 respectively, to pooled funds: one focused on developed markets and one focused on emerging markets.
A European pension fund was seeking to make an inaugural investment in a global, core/core-plus open-ended infrastructure strategy and planned to make a single allocation of EUR 70 million.
bfinance is supporting an Asian pension plan and its gatekeeper in building out a global infrastructure portfolio with an allocation of up to $150 million to fund one or more managers implementing core-plus/value-add strategies spanning OECD countries. The client’s target return is 10% net to complement its existing core holdings.
An Italian pension fund was seeking to allocate EUR 40 million to one or more infrastructure fund of funds managers who could provide diversified exposure to global markets, targeting mid- to high-single-digit returns. This was the investor’s first allocation to diversified infrastructure.
An Italian Pension Scheme seeking to allocate EUR 100mn to a private equity solution that would generate a net IRR above 7% per year, investing across private equity primary fund investments, secondaries and co-investments through a Fund of One.
An Asian institutional investor was seeking to invest US$200 million in a segregated mandate which provided diversified exposure across a range of private markets strategies and assets, including: private equity (>30%), infrastructure (<30%), private credit (<30%) and esoteric strategies (<10%). The objective was to generate substantial yields (target distribution yield 7-9%) as well as relatively high returns (12-14%).
An Asian institutional investor was seeking to invest US$200 million in a segregated mandate which provided diversified exposure across a range of private markets strategies and assets, including: private equity (>30%), infrastructure (<30%), private credit (<30%) and esoteric strategies (<10%). The objective was to generate substantial yields (target distribution yield 7-9%) as well as relatively high returns (12-14%).
An Asian institutional investor was seeking to invest US$200-300 million in segregated fund-of-funds mandate that included exposure to both private equity (>80%) and value-add infrastructure (20%), with a target net return of 16-20% in USD terms. The geographical scope was “global”, but the investor was effectively neutral on region as long as other criteria were met.
An Asian institutional investor was seeking to invest US$200-300 million in segregated fund-of-funds mandate that included exposure to both private equity (>80%) and value-add infrastructure (20%), with a target net return of 16-20% in USD terms. The geographical scope was “global”, but the investor was effectively neutral on region as long as other criteria were met.
A UK LGPS was seeking to invest up to £80 million (US$105 million) in a multi asset credit solution using one manager. Pooled funds were preferred with new launches considered, so long as they met a return target of cash plus 4%-5% p.a. gross of fees.
A Pension Fund in the Benelux region sought a pan-European equity manager for a EUR 55 million mandate that spanned both EU and non-EU equity markets. ESG was the driving force behind this search: the manager being replaced had been unable to comply with the investor’s ESG policy, lacked a centralised approach to ESG and did not have dedicated ESG capabilities.
A financial institution in South East Asia was seeking to restructure its equity portfolio to improve diversification and resilience, which included re-orienting the portfolio from domestic to international stocks. As part of this project, the investor sought to appoint 2-4 global developed market Shariah equity managers for mandates of USD 150-200 million each, with the goal of consistently delivering a 7-9% p.a. ‘return on investment’ (ROI, via realised gains and dividend income).
A UK local government investor appointed bfinance to conduct due diligence before seeding a new fund being launched by one of is incumbent managers. The strategy was the manager’s first fund dedicated purely to US Corporate Senior Direct Lending with an extremely compelling fee discount for investors able to commit at least US$50m by the first close.
A leading UK corporate pension plan was contemplating an investment in a manager’s second infrastructure fund, having already invested in the first. Although the manager was offering an extremely compelling fee discount to first-close investors, the pension fund team was keen to make a considered decision and sought external support for re-underwriting the manager and its strategy.
A UK-based, globally known insurance brand hired bfinance to identify a global equity manager with a clear “quality” focus. The investor held three external managers in its global equity portfolio, split into three distinct style groups: quality, growth and value. Over a five-year holding period, the incumbent quality manager had delivered strong downside protection but, overall, had lagged both the benchmark and peers. The investor decided to re-tender this USD 160 million mandate to identify alternative options.
A leading UK corporate pension plan was contemplating an investment in a manager’s second infrastructure fund, having already invested in the first. Although the manager was offering an extremely compelling fee discount to first-close investors, the pension fund team was keen to make a considered decision and sought external support for re-underwriting the manager and its strategy.
This Wealth Manager sought to identify multiple liquid alternative managers to broaden their existing roster of alternative strategies. These new allocations were expected to provide diversification against their existing managers while also being attractive on a standalone basis.
The investor mandated bfinance to search for an alternative credit strategy with a view to investing c. AUD 50 million through a pooled fund. A typical return expectation for this type of strategy is cash + 4-6%.
A Swiss public pension plan was looking to invest in a mid-market buyout manager. Preferences: >EUR500m fund size, Fund IV onwards. Returns objectives: 10% - 15% net IRR. They were ideally looking for exposure to three continents (US, Asia, Europe), at least three sectors and more than 10-15 companies. Strong ESG credentials were preferred.
The investor sought a comprehensive review of the alternative risk premia manager landscape with a view to investing approximately AUD300m with a single manager via a separately managed account targeting a return of cash plus 4% per annum and a corresponding volatility level of 6-8% p.a. with daily liquidity.
The investor mandated bfinance to search for an alternative credit strategy with a view to investing c. AUD 50 million through a pooled fund. A typical return expectation for this type of strategy is cash + 4-6%.
The investor mandated bfinance to search for an alternative credit strategy with a view to investing c. AUD 50 million through a pooled fund. A typical return expectation for this type of strategy is cash + 4-6%.
This Nordic Family Office sought to identify a minimum of two active global emerging market equity managers, explicitly incorporating ESG considerations, and invest US$280 million split equally.
A Middle Eastern insurance company wished to invest in approximately USD 100 million in Leveraged Loans, with a focus on senior secured debt.
A German pension fund with considerable expertise in real estate lacked expertise in a specific niche market (Nordics) and wanted to unearth strong real estate managers covering that region. The €50m planned investment was doubled by the end of the process. Target return: 8-12%, including cash yield.
An Australian corporate pension plan sought to invest a further AUD 200 million in Global Emerging Market Equity and potentially Asia ex-Japan, through one or multiple mandates.
The UK Local Government Pension Scheme client sought an EMD manager that successfully blended emerging market hard currency (sovereign and corporates) and local currency within a standalone portfolio, with a view to investing £300 million.
This Dutch institutional investor sought to allocate approximately EUR 110m to an enhanced passive commodities strategy targeting a c. 1.5% p.a. outperformance of the BCOM commodities index with a tracking error of not more than 5% p.a.
The investor, a UK public pension fund, aimed to identify renewable energy-focused infrastructure funds and invest $80-100 million. Target return: 8-12%, including cash yield.
This German investor sought to invest EUR 100m starting volume with a target volume of EUR 250m in a multi-factor smart beta strategy.
A Dutch pension fund was entering US high yield debt, reducing its European HY exposure, and sought an appropriate pooled fund for a first EUR 15 million investment. They wished to avoid short-duration strategies and minimise off-benchmark exposure, with an emphasis on sector and security selection.
A Belgian pension plan was seeking an active currency overlay, aiming to passively hedge a diversified portfolio whilst adding c.1% p.a. in excess return. There was also a secondary objective of minimising cash flow rolls.
A UK corporate pension plan sought a comprehensive review of the alternative risk premia manager landscape with a view to investing over £250m with 2 – 3 diversified Alternative Risk Premia (ARP) managers, in aggregate targeting a return of cash plus 3-8% per annum.
A UK foundation aimed to identify a core multi-manager hedge fund product, targeting cash plus 4-6% and diversification against traditional exposures in their portfolio.
In seeking to make their first ever allocation to private debt, this Italian pension plan was keen to cast a wide net in order to achieve returns of 5-8% net of fees.
A UK corporate pension plan was seeking to invest £200 million in infrastructure debt in the UK/Europe, using one or multiple managers. Both pooled funds and SMAs were considered, with an absolute return target of LIBOR/EURIBOR+150-200bps net of fees.
An investor sought exposure to value-add infrastructure equity in Global or North America, generating at least 10% IRR net of fees.
The client engaged bfinance Risk Solutions to provide holistic portfolio risk reporting, following the selection of a group of alternative absolute return managers that were intended to improve portfolio diversification. The investor wished to monitor the risk characteristics of the absolute return strategies in context of the broader portfolio, being conscious that diversification cannot be measured in isolation.
A Canadian foundation with existing exposure to the infrastructure sector sought an unlisted North American infrastructure fund to complement its current holdings.
This Canadian corporate pension fund wanted to replace one of its ‘global ‘equity managers (ACWI ex Canada) and one of its ‘international’ equity managers (ACWI ex US), each of which was managing approximately USD 240 million.
This German institutional investor wished to invest USD 50 million in Municipal Bonds via a fund-of-one. We sought strategies featuring primarily Taxable munis (maximum 20% tax exempt), low exposure to high yield (maximum 5%) and limits on California holdings (maximum 20%). Active management of duration was expected, with a minimum of 6 years.
This Canadian corporate pension fund aimed to invest C$200m in a customised portfolio of hedge funds and alternative risk premia (ARP) exposures. The key aim was to reduce equity risk and provide liquid diversification to the rest of the portfolio, with a target return of cash +4% and volatility of 4-7%.
A Canadian foundation with existing exposure to the infrastructure sector sought an unlisted North American infThis Canadian public pension plan was seeking to redeploy capital being returned from previous private debt investments (with which bfinance had also assisted) in the US and Europe. They hoped to invest with one or two private debt managers in North America or Europe ($50 million per manager), targeting a 7-11% net return.
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