Asia Partners on CNBC - “We don't look for unicorns, we look for rhinoceroses”

Nick Nash of Asia Partners says his private equity firms looks for humble, quiet, underappreciated companies to invest in. He describes these as "rhinoceroses" instead of "unicorns," which is what start-ups valued at more than $1 billion are called.

Link to Interview: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/11/13/we-dont-look-for-unicorns-we-look-for-rhinoceroses-asia-partners.html

20 unicorns will emerge in Southeast Asia by 2030, predicts Asia Partners’ Nick Nash

It’s a “golden age” for aspiring unicorns in Southeast Asia, according to Nick Nash, co-founder of growth equity investment firm Asia Partners. At current levels of affluence, the region is in a sweet spot – the same zone that China and Japan were at when a majority of their tech companies went public.

Nash was formerly the group president of internet company Sea, which runs gaming platform Garena, ecommerce site Shopee, and payments platform AirPay. He stepped down from the role in December 2018, after the Singapore-based firm’s October 2017 trade debut on the New York Stock Exchange. He went on to launch Asia Partners in January this year.

Delivering the keynote address at the 2019 Tech in Asia Conference in Jakarta, Nash said that at present, Southeast Asia’ current zone of per capita income sits between China and India. At this zone, discretionary income increases exponentially – around six times – when income doubles, creating an opportunity for businesses looking to scale.

He added that most of the tech companies in China went public in or around that “zone of affluence” – a point where spendable income grows from 5% to 15% of total income – which occurred in the country between 2003 and 2013. Korea and Japan experienced a similar trajectory.

The same phenomenon could explain why it was challenging to build a large-scale business in India, despite its vast population potential of 1.3 billion. “On average, each of them only earns US$2,000 a year, and only US$100 of that is discretionary,” Nash said.

He observed that every Chinese tech company that listed in the last 25 years did it in four steps. “They laid the table with telecommunications. [Then] they had a first generation of web companies, a second generation that was a little bit more specialized, and a third generation of very mobile- oriented companies that were also very offline-enabled.”

By studying the Chinese playbook, Nash predicts that 20 more unicorns will emerge from the region in the next decade, coming from sectors across online-to-offline, online health, social/chat, ecommerce logistics, and online travel, among others.

Playing to home court advantages

Southeast Asia’s complexities could be part of its home court advantage “because if something is complicated, at least we [Southeast Asians] can understand and navigate it,” Nash noted.

Local companies have prospered and even outdone their global competitors in some instances, thanks to their understanding of local markets as well as mastery of the supply chain and cross- border interactions.

“You’ve got six major economies, and all of them have a different gift,” Nash pointed out. Companies can go regional by capitalizing on each country’s relative strengths: the size of Thailand and Indonesia’s gross domestic product and population, Singapore’s accessibility global capital markets and abundance of technical talent – an advantage that Vietnam also has.

Many of today’s tech startups have another edge that their predecessors didn’t: their founders are alumni of companies that are already regional. The 10 pan-regional “academies” like Gojek, Garena, Grab, Lazada, Facebook and Google etc. – have collectively produced over 20,000 “graduates,” and 10% of them have gone on to put up their own businesses.

Armed with experience in navigating Southeast Asian markets, members of a growing Lazada mafia are setting up shop in the region. The experience of building a company from nothing to unicorn status imparts valuable lessons, such as how to be more operationally efficient, former executives told Tech in Asia. This alumni network could also open doors for potential investment deals down the line.

Unlike previous generations in which entrepreneurs generally met people in a university setting or through family networks and consultancies, the current crop of founders can pull together their peers from regional companies like Grab and Gojek – peers who already know how to build a regional business.

In the last few years, a rising number of Indonesians have been studying in other Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia and Thailand, but this practice can be encouraged on a larger scale, Nash said.

China’s tech boom was fueled by a dramatic upskilling of its workforce – 11 times as many Chinese students are pursuing undergraduate degrees in the US today than two decades ago. The ongoing trade war and military tensions between the US and China presents an opportunity for Southeast Asia to take advantage of a “low-hanging fruit” – to obtain engineering and specialized professional degrees abroad. “A lot of people who used to go to America from China – those seats are now empty,” Nash adds.

A missed opportunity

Though over 200 investment firms – including family offices – in the region back companies that seek seed funding and over 26 firms invest in series A and B rounds, only about three companies are looking to plow in between US$20 million to US$100 million in series C or D rounds, Nash revealed.

But that stage is the crucial bottleneck that stands between businesses struggling to scale and those that rise to unicorn status.

Investors like Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings are putting more resources into earlier-stage fundings. Last month, Vertex Venture Holdings – Temasek’s venture capital arm – raised US$290 million for a new fund that targets growth-stage companies. The Vertex Growth Fund is expected to invest between US$10 million to US$15 million per startup.

Temasek has also launched a US$50 million joint venture fund focused on logistics and invested in at least one seed-stage startup.

The investment firm, however, remains “very focused” on the segment of “aspiring unicorns” valued between US$100 million to US$1 billion, Rohit Sipahimalani, joint head of Temasek's portfolio strategy and risk group, told the Straits Times earlier this month.

“There’s an old joke that it’s easier to raise US$400 million or US$4 million in Southeast Asia than it is to raise US$40 million,” Nash said.

According to Nash’s calculations, US and China are doing about 700 and 130 of those deals, respectively, every year. He added that in Indonesia, such deals happen at a frequency of 0.0039 per million citizens annually, which means it’s 600 times harder to raise a series C and D in Indonesia than it is in the US.

But less money is being allocated into such funding, even when taken in dollar terms. “[North] America puts 0.12 basis points of its gross domestic product into those deals every year. Indonesia is putting 0.5 basis points of its gross domestic product annually,” he added.

Nash urged investors to rethink the way they look at Indonesia. It’s a market where commercial real estate has the same risk-return ratio as the tech sector, and yet the former receives much more capital than the latter.

Capital market activity is telling: in the 1990s, Indonesia was a “very active” user of the US capital market, Nash said. From 1990 to 2000, Indonesian firms raised about US$9 billion in capital markets, and a quarter of that came from the US – more than the money raised from Chinese companies.

Yet from 2001 to today, there hasn’t been a single Indonesian IPO in the US. “There’s no legal or structural reason for that. Indonesia remains the fourth-most important country on the planet and the top two in terms of growth, yet the Chinese have continued to tap into the US market for growth and we haven’t,” Nash added.

It’s a more dismal picture when the tech sector in Indonesia is singled out. “In the 1990s, 55% of the capital they raised came from the American stock market. But in the 2000s, none of them did.”

https://www.techinasia.com/20-unicorns-emerge-southeast-asia-2030-predicts-asia-partners-nick-nash

Gideon Nieuwoudt appointed as an independent non-executive director of the Board of Remgro

CHANGES TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF REMGRO (the "Board")

In compliance with paragraph 3.59 of the JSE Limited Listings Requirements, the following information is disclosed:

Retirement of a non-executive director and the lead independent non-executive director

The Board hereby announces the retirement of Dr Edwin de la Harpe Hertzog as co deputy Chairman and non-executive director of the Board and Mr Gerrit Thomas Ferreira as the lead independent non- executive director of the Board with effect from the close of Remgro's next Annual General Meeting on 28 November 2019.

Dr Hertzog currently acts as co deputy Chairman with Mr Josua Malherbe. The Remgro Board Charter will be amended to indicate that there will only be one deputy Chairman.

The Board wishes to thank Dr Hertzog and Mr Ferreira for their valuable contributions over many years.

Change in function of a director

Ms Sonja Emilia Ncumisa de Bruyn who has served as an independent non-executive director on the Board since 2015, will succeed Mr Ferreira as the lead independent non-executive director of the Board when Mr Ferreira retires.

Appointment of a non-executive director, an independent non- executive director and an alternate independent non-executive director

The Board has approved the appointments of Mr Paul Johannes Neethling as a non-executive director and Mr Gideon Gabriel Nieuwoudt as an independent non-executive director of the Board with effect from the close of Remgro's next Annual General Meeting on 28 November 2019.

Mr Neethling was an Investment Executive in the corporate finance division of Remgro Management Services Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Remgro and serves as an alternate director to Mr Jan Jonathan Durand on the Board of RCL Foods Limited. He holds a BCom (Hons) degree in Financial and Investment Management from the University of Stellenbosch, and has acquired extensive business experience through a number of other directorships.

Mr Nieuwoudt is the founder and managing partner of Southern Right Capital UK Limited. He serves as an independent advisor on Stanlib Multi-Manager's Alternative Assets Investment Committee, is a non- executive director of Empiric Managed Capital Advisors and Accumulus Emerging Managers Fund and Accumulus Fund. Previously, he served as director of Alternative Investment Solutions at Edmont de Rothschild Capital Holdings, London and managing partner and portfolio manager at Silver Creek Capital UK LLP. He is a CFA Charter holder and holds a BCom degree in Mathematics from the University of Stellenbosch.

Furthermore, Mr Paul Kenneth Harris has indicated his intention to retire as an independent non-executive director from the Board in 2020. By way of succession, the Board has approved the appointment of Mr Lelo Rantloane as an alternate independent non-executive director to Mr Harris with effect from the close of Remgro's next Annual General Meeting on 28 November 2019.

Mr Rantloane holds a BSc (Hons) degree from the University of Cape Town and is the founding CEO of Ata Capital. He is currently a director of Rain Group Holdings Proprietary Limited, Southern African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, SLG Proprietary Limited, Masana Petroleum Solutions Proprietary Limited, Imbewu Capital Partners Proprietary Limited and a trustee of the Click Foundation. Prior to this he was Head of Debt Capital Markets at Deutsche Bank AG, Johannesburg. He began his career with Rand Merchant Bank Limited and was appointed Executive Assistant to the CEOs of FirstRand Limited and FirstRand Bank Limited.

Rajiv Jain Discusses Portfolio Management (Podcast)

GQG Partners Chairman and Chief Investment Officer Rajiv Jain speaks with Barry Ritholtz on Bloomberg Radio about portfolio construction, investment focus, and deciding when to sell.

Listen to the podcast here >

GQG Partners Celebrates Three Years of Strong Growth and Executing Long-Term Vision

FORT LAUDERDALE — June 3, 2019 — GQG Partners LLC (GQG Partners) recently celebrated the three-year anniversary of its founding. As the firm surpasses more than US$22.5 billion in regulatory assets under management, its co-founders reflect on the past three years:

RAJIV JAIN, GQG Partners’ co-founder and Chairman & Chief Investment Officer
“The most exciting thing to me is seeing the cornerstones of our long-term vision settle into place. Our culture and commitment to client alignment is resonating with some of the most sophisticated consultants and institutions all over the world, which has been very gratifying.”

TIM CARVER, GQG Partners’ co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
“We’re so proud of the quality of our team, of the quality investors we’ve attracted, and of the performance we’ve been able to deliver. I couldn’t have dreamed of a better beginning to our journey and am looking forward to the years to come.”

GQG Partners commenced operations in 2016 under the leadership of prominent investor Rajiv Jain and business leader Tim Carver. The two shared a long-term vision of building a highly client-aligned investment boutique that would outlive them as founders. Mr. Jain and Mr. Carver split investment management and business management responsibilities along CIO and CEO operating lines. Mr. Jain is Chairman and the controlling shareholder.

As a boutique investment firm, GQG Partners remains deeply committed to client-alignment. “From day one we’ve viewed ourselves as co-investors with our clients. Our core values as a firm have focused on client alignment and investment excellence. Being an employee-owned company empowers us to build around those values,” states Mr. Carver. GQG’s co-founders have the vast majority of their net worth invested in the business and funds managed by GQG. The firm has further aligned GQG employees with clients through a compensation program that ensures nearly all employees are invested in GQG strategies. “I believe having skin in the game is critical, full stop,” says Mr. Jain.

Regulatory assets under management at the firm have grown to over US$22.5 billion in four investment strategies — Global Equity, International Equity, Emerging Markets Equity, and US Equity — through a combination of separately managed accounts, private funds, collective trusts, and mutual funds (and their international equivalents).

GQG Partners now has 56 associates across offices in Fort Lauderdale (firm headquarters), New York City, Seattle, and Sydney. Seven of those associates join Mr. Jain and Mr. Carver as equity owners in GQG Partners, a number the firm intends to expand. “It has always been my vision that we would have broad ownership among our team. At the same time, I believe equity should be issued to colleagues whose commitment and talent help us build something distinctive in the market — people whose vision reaches beyond today, who are committed to building a truly enduring institution,” states Mr. Jain.

What is next for GQG Partners in crossing the three-year threshold? “We have laid a solid foundation and have built a great team. But we’re operating in a dynamic market. The change in the asset management landscape that we are experiencing today is greater than any time I can remember. I believe the commitment, intensity, quality and nimbleness of our team provides us a tremendous strategic advantage in this environment. We will continue to make investments in our people and will always strive to enhance the client experience at GQG. We are looking forward to what lies ahead for the firm, our employees and most importantly, our clients,” states Mr. Carver.

Incus Capital awarded the 2018 Speciality Finance Lender of the Year in Europe.

The Spanish asset-based lender enjoyed a spectacular fundraising success in 2018, announcing a first and final close of its European Credit Fund III on €500 million. According to the firm, it was not really a formal fundraising at all in the conventional sense. “We went with what people were willing to support without a formal fundraising so the deal team were not interrupted,” Incus managing partner Andrew Newton told PDI. “There was no road show or pitch.”

Newton says the firm has achieved a “mid-teens” rate of return on its two previous funds, which closed on €130 million and €270 million. The firm – which targets areas such as real estate, infrastructure and leasing – has grown from its Madrid roots into offices in Lisbon, Paris and Milan.

Speaking of the outlook for 2019, Newton says: “There are lending strategies that we have been priced out of – not because we cannot compete – but because we feel that the risk adjusted return does not make sense.”

https://www.privatedebtinvestor.com/print-editions/march-2019-issue/pdi-annual-awards-2018-europe-winners/

Emerging Markets Upstart Nears $15B Two Years After Opening Doors

GQG Partners CEO Tim Carver spoke to FundFire about GQG’s rapid asset growth since its founding, dedication to client alignment, early pursuit of consultants, and focus on building infrastructure to stay ahead of growth.

Copyright 2018, Money-Media Inc. All rights reserved. Redistributed with permission. Unauthorized copying or redistribution prohibited by law.

Incus Capital Announces Closing of €500m European Credit Fund III

Incus Capital (“Incus”), the Madrid based specialty credit firm, strengthens its position amongst Europe´s leading asset-backed credit investors with the recent close of its €500 million European Credit Fund III. The firm also announces further expansion in Southern Europe with opening of Milan office.

Incus´ latest fundraise almost doubled the €270 million it collected for the final close of its second credit fund in 2016. Fund III attracted capital commitments from a broad range of institutional investors, including leading public and private pension funds, insurance companies, and family offices. Over 50% of the capital came from investors in the USA and Canada, with the balance coming from Europe. The capital secured for the Fund III raise brings Incus´ assets under management to €1 billion.

“We are delighted to have raised Fund III in such a short period of time and would like to take the opportunity to thank both our long-standing backers and first-time investors” said partner Martin Pommier. “We found ourselves needing to raise Fund III much sooner than anticipated since Fund II is fully committed well ahead of the end of its investment period. Given the strong re-up rate from existing investors and the addition of high-quality new investors, we were able to hold just one main close to reach our €500 million target. This is in large part due to our consistent track record, but also the fact that many investors are more comfortable with the asset class and want exposure to our specialty credit strategy.”

This result follows a very active year for Incus, with significant funds deployed on new transactions and active disposals on previous investments from Fund I and Fund II. Notable realisations during 2017 and 2018 have included the sale of four Spanish Retail Centers and a Spanish Photovoltaic facility. More recently Incus concluded the sale of a large Portuguese Mortgage Portfolio that had been purchased from GE Capital in 2016. All realisations were well above the 1.5x cash multiple target for the funds.

Incus has become a leading specialty credit franchise across Europe by providing flexible credit solutions to mid-market companies. “Specialty credit is becoming more understood in the market and we are finding ourselves very well positioned for winning business in our core jurisdictions of Spain, Portugal, France and Italy” says Managing Partner Andrew Newton. “Our market niche remains very clear and the team is focused on sourcing and managing asset-backed investments that meet our fund returns and underwriting standards. Our pipeline of opportunities and our deal team is stronger than ever.”

Incus has invested over €800 million in asset-backed transactions since inception in 2012. The majority of these transactions have occurred in Spain but the firm has also been busy closing deals in the rest of its core markets. Following the opening of the Paris office in summer 2017, the firm inked its first French transaction in May 2018 – a €50 million financing to a leading Real Estate developer and asset manager. “There is a clear need for Incus product in France but we remain very selective” said Managing Director for France Sebastien Kessas. “We are focused on providing the same product in France that we have been providing to mid-market companies in Iberia for years. There is good awareness of the Incus name in the market now and we will look to build on the success of this recent transaction”.

The firm has recently announced the next phase of its expansion plans with the opening of a Milan office. Joining Incus is fixed income veteran Corrado Giovanelli as the Managing Director for Italy. Corrado has over 25 years of experience, primarily in fixed income and was most recently Head of Global Market sales at Credit Suisse for Italy. “We continue to expand the depth and the breadth of our deal team” said Andrew Newton. “We are delighted that Corrado has joined our team and are excited about the prospects of furthering our business in Italy. I am confident that his deep industry knowledge, expertise, networks and ability to deliver will prove invaluable as we continue to grow our platform.” Incus Capital arranged and funded a €55 million Bond Offering for the Autostrada Pedemontana Veneta in Italy during 2017.

About Incus Capital

Incus Capital is a Madrid based Specialty Credit investment firm with offices in Madrid, Lisbon, Paris and Italy. The firm focuses on providing flexible credit solutions to mid-market companies in Europe. The investment strategy includes a strong focus on downside protection and asset-backed collateral. Target investment sizes are between €5 million and €100 million. Incus Capital has €1 billion of assets under management and has invested over €800 million in more than 40 transactions across various sectors since inception in 2012.

About Corrado Giovanelli

Corrado is a Managing Director and Head of Italy at Incus Capital with over 25 years of experience in the financial markets, primarily in fixed income trading and sales. From 2010-2018 he was Head of Global Market sales at Credit Suisse for Italy. Prior to 2010, Corrado held several senior fixed income positions at Nomura, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan in London, Milan and New York. He has been involved in multiple complex transactions in Italy with banks, insurance companies, asset managers and government related entities. Corrado holds a degree in Economics with major in Finance from Bocconi University (Italy).

About Sebastien Kessas

Sebastien is a Managing Director and Head of France and Benelux at Incus Capital with more than 20 years of experience in the financial markets. Prior to joining Incus, he worked at Natixis Asset Management as an Advisor to senior management. From 2002 to 2016, Sebastien worked in the fixed Income department of Morgan Stanley, more recently as a Managing Director and Country Head of France. In his various roles, he has been involved in a number of complex and strategic credit restructuring and deleveraging transactions for French and Benelux institutions. Sebastien holds a BA and a Master Degree in Financial Markets (DESS 203) from University Paris Dauphine (France).

GQG Partners Raises Over US$5 Billion One Year After Its Launch

News from our partner GQG:

One year after its founding, GQG Partners LLC announces that it now oversees client assets in excess of US$5.3 billion, a display of remarkable growth.

GQG Chairman and Chief Investment Officer Rajiv Jain’s passion for equity investing led him to establish the firm in June 2016. Strong client alignment is one of the principles on which the firm was founded.

“Managing another person’s wealth is a privilege and an honor. We fundamentally believe that the best way to ensure long-term client focus is to invest our own capital in the same strategies, right beside our clients’ assets,” said Mr. Jain, who has invested a large majority of his personal net worth into GQG Partners’ strategies. “We also invested meaningfully into the business right from the beginning to build a world-class institutional platform and assemble a team of senior experts, with a diversity of thoughts and experiences.”

More than 100 institutional clients across the globe have already invested in GQG Partners’ strategies. There has been a strong response from people who have followed Mr. Jain’s hands-on approach for years, many of them have never previously invested with him before.

An Experienced Portfolio Manager at the Helm

GQG’s exceptional growth is a testament to the track record of Mr. Jain, who is extremely well-versed in the inherent volatility of emerging markets, over the past two decades. His in-depth understanding of emerging markets is rooted in the unique approach that he and his diverse team of analysts apply to investment selection.

“We create a portfolio of companies that we believe have long-term growth prospects which aren’t strongly correlated to macroeconomic conditions,” explained Mr. Jain. “Our approach is rooted in adaptability and independent thought, allowing us to navigate inflection points over the long term.”

GQG teamed up with Goldman Sachs Asset Management to launch the Goldman Sachs GQG Partners International Opportunities Fund (GSIHX) in December 2016. The Fund’s strategy involves investing in a concentrated group of high-quality companies across developed and emerging markets. The Fund, which is sub-advised by GQG and distributed by Goldman Sachs, seeks to outperform comparable international funds over a full market cycle while taking less risk. Additional information about the Fund can be found at:

https://www.gsam.com/content/gsam/us/en/individual/products/fund-finder/gs-gqgpartners-international-opportunities-fund.html.

At the same time, GQG Partners launched its own GQG Partners Emerging Markets Equity Fund (GQGIX), which seeks long-term capital appreciation in the emerging markets. More information about the Fund is available at:

https://gqgpartners.com/products/us-mutual-funds/.

In Europe, GQG Partners launched the GQG Partners Emerging Markets Equity Fund (GGQEMAU:ID), a sub-fund of GQG Global UCITS ICAV, an Irish UCITS structure, in February 2017. The European Fund seeks to deliver attractive, benchmark-agnostic returns over the course of a full market cycle by investing in high-quality, large-cap companies in emerging markets.

The UCITS Fund has crossed the US$100 million AUM threshold and is quickly approaching US$150 million as of this writing, creating high expectations for future growth in Europe. More information about the Fund is available at:

https://gqgpartners.com/products/ucits-funds/.

Mr. Jain joined GQG Partners in June 2016 after having worked for Vontobel Asset Management since November 1994. Under Mr. Jain’s investment leadership, Vontobel Asset Management grew from less than US$400 million in assets under management in 2002 to nearly US$50 billion in assets under management in 2016. Mr. Jain served as Co-Chief Executive Officer of Vontobel beginning in July 2014, and Chief Investment Officer and Head of Equities since February 2002. Mr. Jain was the sole Portfolio Manager of Vontobel’s International Equities and Emerging Markets Equities products since 2002 and 1997, respectively, and served as lead Portfolio Manager of the Global Equities product beginning in 2002 until his departure in March 2016.

About GQG Partners

GQG Partners LLC is a boutique investment management firm focused on global and emerging markets equities. We rely on a team of traditional and non-traditional analysts—who possess backgrounds in fields such as investigative journalism and forensic accounting—to challenge the short-term projections and backward-looking dogma that often dominate market discourse.

Headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida USA, we strive for excellence at all levels of our organization through a commitment to in-depth knowledge of the markets as well as independent thinking, continual growth, and giving back to investors and our community. For more information, please visit www.gqgpartners.com.

Atomico Closes Fund IV: $765m for Europe’s Most Ambitious Founders

News from our partner, Atomico:

Today we are proud to announce our new fund. At $765m Atomico IV is one of the largest venture capital funds ever raised in Europe and will enable us to do more of what we love: work with the most ambitious founders who combine disruptive technology with the vision to build global category winners.

We’ll continue to invest in companies, from Series A onwards, that have achieved product market fit and are ready to scale. You can read our manifesto that guides every decision we make here.

Raising a fund of this size is testament to the growing confidence in European tech – which we have championed from the start – and our unique approach to partnering with founders to help them build successful companies and accelerate growth. When we invest in a company, we give everything we have, not just capital.

That’s because we’ve been there and done it, which means we have a deep respect for our founders and are humbled to be part of building their companies. We’ve always had strong founder DNA and a laser focus on growth acceleration, and today we are a team of over 40 people – including founders and executives with deep operational expertise from the world’s fastest growing companies, such as Facebook, Google, LastMinute.com, Skype, Spotify, Uber and Virgin. We use that experience to coach and push entrepreneurs, hard, in areas where they need help the most, like user growth, hiring and retaining the best talent, market-entry and partnerships, or marketing and communications.

We’re excited that we’re now in a position to invest one of Europe’s largest funds and deploy Europe’s most experienced venture team to partner with even more superstar founders. As our State of European Tech 2016 report shows, the European ecosystem and the pipeline of new talent has never been healthier. Today there are 4.7 million professional developers in Europe and more than 20% of European MBA graduates are going into tech. In 2016 over 150 cities hosted 50 or more tech meet-ups, and in total $14B was invested across 2800+ rounds. In the past 12 months most of these rounds were at seed and series A, and the conversion rate to later stage is still relatively low. Atomico IV will help to redress this balance by backing companies at the point they are ready to go global – at Series A and beyond, for the whole journey.

Since we launched Atomico in 2006, we’ve partnered with some incredible companies – such as Klarna, Rovio, Supercell, The Climate Corporation, GoEuro and Skype, and in the last few months we’ve invested in growing companies spanning a range of sectors and tech hubs – Pipedrive, Bitmovin, Scandit, Lilium and Uniplaces to name a few. Over the coming months we’ll be spending even more time meeting ambitious founders who are using disruptive technology to change industries and the way we live – we can’t wait to partner with them.

Institutional Investor Hedge Fund Rising Stars

Gideon Nieuwoudt, Silver Creek Capital Management
Hedge fund executives in the U.K. say Gideon Nieuwoudt knows everyone who is anyone in the City and beyond. Nieuwoudt, 36, moved to London in January 2000, after graduating from ­Stellenbosch University in South Africa. He worked for several years as a consultant in the hedge fund practice of investment advisory firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide (now Towers Watson), in both London and New York. In 2007 he moved to the fund-of-hedge-funds industry, joining Geneva-­based Union ­Bancaire Privée as deputy global head of research. In mid-2008 he joined Seattle-­based Silver Creek Capital Management as partner and head of the ­London office. Nieuwoudt, co–portfolio manager for Silver Creek’s flagship core strategies fund, has spearheaded the firm’s non-U.S. ambitions and in the past two years helped win ­Silver Creek $1.2 billion in new capital ­commitments.

Original Link: https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b14zpnwvf03yyr/hedge-fund-rising-stars-gideon-nieuwoudt

Financial News 40 Under 40 Rising Stars of Hedge Funds

Former colleagues credit Nieuwoudt for questioning the credibility of Bernard Madoff, now convicted of fraud, during his time as head of European and Asia research for Union Bancaire Privée Alternative Investments. More recently Nieuwoudt’s analytical approach has helped him drive the expansion of Silver Creek, which has $6bn of assets under management, beyond the US.

A native South African, Nieuwoudt says the best piece of advice he has been given is to “have roots and wings”. He intends to play golf and watch sport when he retires and is currently reading up on controversial South African cricketer Herschelle Gibbs.

Original Article

Inside a Swiss Bank, Madoff Warnings

LONDON -- Swiss bank Union Bancaire Privé kept hundreds of millions of dollars of its wealthy clients' money in Bernard Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme despite warnings from its own research team, according to people familiar with the matter.

While others in the investment community had questioned Mr. Madoff's strategy and chosen to stay away, the instance offers a sign that red flags were raised within one of the large institutions that actually invested with Mr. Madoff.

Union Bancaire Privé, known as UBP and one of the largest investors in hedge funds globally, was part of an international network of so-called feeder funds that channeled money into Mr. Madoff's investment firm. The Geneva-based bank has said it has about $700 million in Madoff-related investments through its funds-of-funds and client portfolios.

By early 2007, though, UBP's research department had raised various concerns about Mr. Madoff's business, and later recommended that he be stricken from a list of fund managers approved for its clients' investments, according to people familiar with the matter and internal emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

UBP executive Christophe Bernard, top, was among officers in an discussion recommending against investing with Bernard Madoff.

The people say that some of the bank's most senior executives were aware of the concerns and discussed them. It is unclear how the matter was resolved, but UBP ultimately left hundreds of millions of dollars of its clients' money with Mr. Madoff.

UBP has told clients it was the victim of a "massive fraud," and that it conducted due diligence, including visits with Mr. Madoff and various principals. A UBP spokesman Tuesday said: "We make no further comment at this stage, as the U.S. government is currently investigating the Madoff case."

In an email exchange during February and March 2008 reviewed by the Journal, UBP's then-deputy head of research, Gideon Nieuwoudt, listed a number of worries, including the lack of even basic information such as how much Mr. Madoff had in assets, how many feeder funds there were, and how the investment strategy worked.

In one email, Mr. Nieuwoudt said he had spoken to more than 100 funds that invest or had invested with Madoff, but none of them could explain how the strategy produced such consistent returns. "It all seems very opaque," wrote Mr. Nieuwoudt, who had previously worked for a hedge-fund consultant.

Mr. Nieuwoudt recommended in the email that Mr. Madoff be taken off UBP's list of approved funds, which included more than 200 asset managers that had cleared UBP's screening process.

Among those included in the email discussion were at least two members of UBP's executive committee: Christophe Bernard, who headed the asset-management business, and Michael de Picciotto, head of the bank's treasury. Mr. de Picciotto is a nephew of the bank's founder, who also plays an active role in the alternative-investment business.

The concerns were also discussed during at least one investment-committee meeting, according to people familiar with the matter.

The UBP spokesman said Messrs. de Picciotto and Bernard weren't available for comment. Mr. Nieuwoudt left UBP last year to join another firm.

UBP has said it took comfort from the fact that Mr. Madoff's firm was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission, among other factors.

In recent weeks, the bank has said it is reducing the number of funds on its approved list and is tightening its procedures for screening managers. For example, it is requiring all of its managers to use independent administrators, which help guard against fraud by serving as a third party responsible for confirming that a manager has the assets it says it does.

UBP invested with Mr. Madoff via four different feeder funds, including one run by Fairfield Greenwich Group of New York, one of the main conduits for investors in Mr. Madoff's funds. By early 2008, Mr. Madoff was among UBP's top five holdings, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.

Aside from its investments in Fairfield, UBP had close ties to the firm, providing advisory and other services to the management company of Fairfield's fund-of-funds division. Beyond that, three Fairfield funds invested in UBP's own Madoff feeder fund, called M-Invest Ltd., according to a person familiar with Fairfield.

As of October, the three funds had a total of about $200 million invested with UBP's M-Invest, this person said. The de Picciotto family originally created M-Invest as a way to invest family money with Mr. Madoff and later opened it to others.

Original Article: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123188437723478727