CDC Ixis offshoot sets out to lure the wealthy

With plush new quarters on the rue de Berri, tucked behind the Champs Elysées, CDC Ixis has wasted no time launching its new European distribution model for the high net worth market, reports Yuri Bender. CDC Ixis Capital Partners, a specialist wealth management offshoot of the E300bn French funds house, has commenced a three-pronged European distribution strategy for its new range of institutional-style products. The company’s leading lights, head of portfolio management Albert Cobti and chairman Christoph Brulé, were both formerly balanced institutional managers at local Paris rival BNP Paribas. Their blueprint involves bringing pension fund-style disciplines to the top end of the retail market. The innovative strategy combines index funds, balanced funds and multi-style investments, using some input from external managers. Long-term strategic allocation, tactical day-to-day allocations and monitoring portfolio structure through screening Beta measures of sensitivity of funds to the index, form the key parts of the investment process. Crucial to this system is the new firm’s independence from the strategic committee of CDC Ixis Asset Management. “We have our own input into investment decision making, so we can sometimes overweight or underweight some assets of the central asset management committee,” stressed Mr Cobti. “Otherwise, we would have stayed a department, not a subsidiary.” Mr Cobti uses 50 per cent CDC Ixis funds in his portfolios, currently worth E700m, and contracts out the remainder to 15 external managers. Distribution is being built up through existing distributors used by CDC Ixis Asset Management, direct sales to clients and the establishment of partnerships. These include external distributors in Switzerland such as Pictet, and French banks including the Caisses d’Epargnes group, a major shareholder in CDC Ixis. “We decided to create a new company with a new model for high net worth asset management,” said Mr Cobti. “These people need to be more professional in terms of asset management rather than follow a pure private banking approach.” To demonstrate this indepedence of purpose, the subsidiary has upmarket, separate quarters on the rue de Berri, tucked behind the Champs Elysees, while the parent company is housed near fellow funds giant Crédit Agricole in Montparnasse.