Universal-Investment, the third-largest management company in Luxembourg, said on Tuesday that it has been appointed as the management company for the Luxembourg fund portfolio of Switzerland’s Fisch Asset Management. Increasing costs and regulatory requirements are mentioned as reasons for the transfer.
The Fisch Umbrella Fund, with a volume of approximately 4.5 billion euro, bundles 13 UCITS sub-funds which include corporate bond, convertible bond and absolute return funds, with a focus on active management based on holistic credit analysis.
“We are delighted that Fisch Asset Management has entrusted us with managing its entire portfolio of UCITS funds,” said Katja Müller (pictured), Chief Customer Officer at Universal-Investment.
The funds were transferred to Universal-Investment Luxembourg’s fund service platform with effect from 1 January 2022. RBC Investor Services Bank remains responsible for fund administration as well as for custody and the transfer agent function.
Fisch dissolves its Luxembourg ManCo
With this transfer Fisch Asset Management is dissolving its own Luxembourg-based ManCo.
“In view of the steadily increasing costs, this decision is entirely in line with our systematic focus on our core asset management competencies,” said Angela Eder, Head Products at Fisch Asset Management.
“We are convinced that, by cooperating with strong partners such as Universal-Investment, we are building a solid foundation to achieve our growth goals.”
Emerging Markets Fund coming up
Fisch is already planning to issue an additional emerging markets fund with Universal-Investment during the second quarter of 2022. Fisch Asset Management was managing 11.6 billion Swiss france, or approximately 11.2 billion euro, with its strategies at the start of the year and continues to grow.
“In the face of increasing regulatory requirements, more and more asset managers pose the ‘make or buy’ question. In many cases, as here, transferring to a specialised fund services platform and ManCo such as Universal-Investment is an attractive option,” said Müller.
Universal-Investment, with headquarters in Frankfurt, has been active in Luxembourg for over 20 years and, according to PWC, is both the largest third-party ManCo and the largest third-party AIFM in the Grand Duchy. It manages more than 105 billion euro.