The Irish asset manager records its highest ever volume in investment products in its half-year results.
BCP Asset Management has announced that investment inflows into BCP products were €331m in the first half of 2019, representing a record for any six-month period in the company’s 50-year history.
Investment volumes for BCP’s financial products were in excess of €2.3billion in the last five years.
‘The record growth in our volumes reflects the […] consistency of our investment offerings, and our continued focus on delivering the highest levels of customer service in the market,’ said John Calvert (pictured), BCP’s chief executive officer. ‘We expect to achieve further growth in the coming years driven by a jump in usage of our […] online portal along with the continued quality of our investment solutions.’
The asset manager’s investment portfolio, which includes structured products, but also deposits, commercial property funds and alternative investments, is available to personal investors, but also to pensions, corporates, charities and religious orders.
BCP distributed 15 structured products in the first half of 2019 among investors in Ireland, down from 21 structures in the previous semester, but up from five products in the same period last year, according to SRP data.
Ten of this year’s offering provide access to a hybrid basket – often comprising a mixture of funds and indices. Three products are linked to the Euronext Euro 50 ESG EW Decrement 50 Points Index, which reinvests dividends paid by companies in the index and, on a daily basis, removes an annual fixed dividend of 50 points. The remaining two products are tied to the performance of the Merian Global Equity Absolute Return Fund.
The majority of the company’s products in 1H2019 protect at least 90% of the nominal invested, although three products, the Defensive Kick-out Bond 2, 3 and 4, put full capital-at-risk.
The SRP Ireland database contains 260 live products from BCP AM, which are issued in collaboration with, among others, Bank of Ireland (97), BBVA (eight), BNP Paribas (37), Goldman Sachs (12), Investec (84), and Société Générale (20).
In April, BCP launched its new ‘Vespro’ platform which allows advisers and clients to invest into BCP products entirely online without the need to complete or sign paperwork. The minimum investment amount is reduced to half the normal minimum, where investments are fully completed online (typically reduced to €15,000 from €30,000).