The Irish structured investments specialist firm has increased its offering and market share after a year of success and challenges
BlackBee Investments delivered a strong performance in 2018 leveraging its established presence as one of the leading distributors in the Irish market with a 40% market share. The increasing number of products in its catalogue and the growing sales volume - €220m in 2018 - have resulted in the Irish firm’s nomination as the ‘Best Distributor, Ireland,’ an award that was presented at SRP's 16th Structured Products & Derivatives Conference on February 6 in London.
“The year was challenging for markets but we saw a substantial increase in our structured retail products sales, and large growth in the number of financial advisors promoting our products. We also grew staff by 25% over the year,” Donie Daly (pictured), sales director of BlackBee Investments tells SRP.
At a market level, Daly points at the return of extreme volatility in markets as one of the highlights of 2018 which has been driven by signs of a global economic slowdown, concerns about monetary policy, political dysfunction, inflation fears and worries about increased regulation in the technology sector.
According to SRP data, autocalls, reverse convertible and uncapped call structures have been the most popular in Ireland accounting for a 26%, 24% and 18% market share, respectively. The firm’s Gold Twin-Win 14 delivered the highest annualised performance in the year to September 30 2018. The product linked to a basket of shares comprising Agnico Eagle Mines, Newcrest Mining and Royal Gold, expired on its first observation date paying out a coupon of 5.5%.
“At Blackbee our investment approach is based on methodology, research and investment skills,” says Donie, adding that the company continues to capitalise on its ability to create innovative and flexible investment instruments that represent an attractive alternative to direct investments.
“We explain complexity and make the right decisions at the right time,” says Daly. “Blackbee’s obligation to clients is not to make forecasts but to explain economic events, place them in context and build investment ideas around the likely winners. We are the trusted partner of financial advisors, institutions, charities and private clients.”
The Irish provider has marketed over 250 products in the last four years, and has over €300m in assets invested on behalf of its 3,000+ clients.
“We see a huge demand for products that can deliver fixed or variable levels of income from a variety of asset classes,” says Daly. “We can structure these by giving our clients access to products based on strong credit quality.
“We see continued strong demand for innovative structured investment products due to the uncertainty present in equity markets. Taking a structured approach can reduce the risk of market timing, capital losses, and volatility. We see further growth in assets such as property, land and metals which are uncorrelated to financial assets, which can improve portfolio diversification and hedge inflation.”