Horus Wealth Management Partners Group (Horus) has acquired Finvex Group (Finvex), the independent Belgian consultancy which specialises in the design of advanced investment strategies. The transaction includes all of Finvex's indices business and activities but excludes the participation in Luxembourg based Shelter Investment.
Horus' primary objective is to foster Finvex's capabilities and business such that the seamless continuity is guaranteed, according to Gilles Farrugia (pictured), CEO and co-founding partner of Horus Partners Wealth Management Group (Horus). "Added to this is Horus' ambition to develop and expand Finvex's products and services further. Horus has the objective to integrate the Finvex technology into its asset management mandates and to expand Finvex's distribution capabilities globally," he said. "There will be new Finvex offices in Geneva and Singapore before the year-end."
Finvex has developed a number of indices which are used as underlying for structured products and are issued in collaboration with Societe Generale, with which the company has a strategic partnership. Of these, the Finvex Sustainable & Efficient Europe 30 (FSEURE), which tracks the performance of 30 equally weighted securities made up of constituents of the DJ Sustainable Europe, is the most popular, according to SRP data. Between December 2013 and March 2016 the index - which has been live since July 1, 2011 - collected sales of €465m from 87 structured products (sold across 18 European countries) of which €200m, from 21 structured products in Belgium alone. In its domestic market FSEURE was used in structures from 11 different distributors including AG Insurance, AXA Belgium, BPost Bank, Crelan, Deutsche Bank, Puilaetco Dewaaij and VDK Spaarbank.
The index also achieved healthy volumes in Finland (€76m from 20 products) and Ireland (€50m from 16 products).
Other indices, such as the Finvex Sector Efficient Europe 30 (FSECEUE), with sales of €83m in Belgium and the Finvex Ethical & Efficient Europe 30 (FEEURE), which was mainly seen in Austria and Germany, were also frequently used for structured products while the Finvex Sustainable & Efficient World 30 (RSWLDE) was predominately used in Ireland in 16 structured deposits exclusively distributed via BCP Asset Management.
Another index, the Finvex Sustainable Portfolio Europe (RSEUPER) was used as underlying for Lyxor Ucits ETF Finvex Sustainable Portfolio Europe which, at the end of March 2016, had €6.53m assets under management (AUM).
"Each of the existing Finvex indices will continue to exist under their exact same names, and they will be supported on a sustainable basis with a view to ensuring their continued long-term existence and success," said Farrugia.
Horus is comprised of a group of companies with subsidiaries and operations in Malta, Switzerland, and Singapore. The company, which specialises in investment advisory services to both private and institutional investors, develops in-house quantitative analysis in order to support its clientele through offering a range of investment platforms.
Sarah Ablin has been appointed as the new CEO of Finvex, replacing Benedict Peeters. Ablin will head Finvex from its Brussels office. Prior to joining Finvex she was in charge of the ETF department with Kepler Cheuvreux. In another addition to the team, Xavier Ducros will take up the role of head of products. Ducros joins Finvex from Novarca International where he was a director. Before that he was the European head of structuring at Rabobank in London.
Finvex has resolved to put in place a managing board of which the membership is constituted as follows: André Rolland, currently member of the board and audit committee of AXA Belgium, previously CFO of Euroclear; Michel Gable, chartered accountant and CEO of MGA; Thierry Leger, attorney-at-law, registered at the Paris and Luxembourg bars; and Gilles Farrugia, CEO of Horus.
Click here to view the Finvex indices annual performance report for 2016.
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