Nick Clay’s new global equity income mandate at RWC has received a £205m injection from Mediolanum International Funds as part of a new equity mandate in its multi-manager range.
Mediolanum IF announced three new equity mandates with RWC and fellow UK boutiques Cadence and Intermede worth over €1bn (£860m).
The Dublin-based firm, which is the asset management platform of Mediolanum Banking Group, will provide all three firms access to its distribution network in Italy, Spain and Germany.
Nick Clay RWC fund receives over £205m in seed capital
Under the arrangement RWC will receive €300m (£258.3m), with €240m (£206.6m) going toward Clay’s (pictured) Global Equity Income strategy. The remaining €60m (£51.7m) will be funnelled into John Malloy’s $2bn Global Emerging Markets Sicav.
Clay stunned the industry when he announced he was swapping Newton Investment Management for RWC last March after more than 20 years at the BNY Investment Management subsidiary.
See also: Nick Clay joining RWC highlights pull of boutique fund groups
In November, Clay and a trio of managers who followed him from Newton IM launched the RWC Global Equity Income fund, touted as a near identical strategy to his former Newton fund. According to Trustnet, the fund had £78.1m in assets as at 19 March.
Commenting on the deal with Mediolanum IF, Clay said: “We look forward to building a strong long-term partnership with MIFL as we embark on our journey at RWC.
“We have successfully achieved long-term capital growth and sustainable income from our portfolio of global securities and through this partnership will now be able to bring this success to Mediolanum IF’s clients.”
Intermede global equity strategy wins £603.1m mandate
The bulk of the €1bn from Mediolanum IF will go toward London boutique Intermede, with €700m (£603.1m) being ploughed into its Global Equity strategy via a sub-advisory mandate. A further €130m (£112m) will go toward Edinburgh manager Cadence’s flagship Asia strategy. Both firms were launched in 2014.
The trio of partnerships form part of Mediolanum’s objective to have a third of its assets, around €10bn, to be managed by specialist boutique managers across the globe in the next five years. Earlier this month it announced two equity mandates with US boutiques SGA and NZS Capital.
Mediolanum IF CEO Furio Pietribiasi said all three new partners are “highly specialised players with exceptional track records”.
“We are delighted of our new partnerships with Cadence, Intermede and RWC,” Pietribiasi said.
“Our flexibility and solid infrastructure have proven to be instrumental in supporting start-ups founded by very small teams, as well as more established managers like RWC, which is an entrepreneurial organisation made up of different teams of high performing investment professionals.”
Mediolanum’s aggressive hiring strategy during Covid
Unlike other asset managers Mediolanum IF has been aggressively hiring during the pandemic. By the end of October 2020, it had appointed 37 people, including top IT man Barry Noonan and ex-Ignis Asset Management North American equities boss Terry Ewing, bringing its total headcount to 140.
Though known mainly for its multi-manager solutions, Pietribiasi told Portfolio Adviser the firm was looking to expand its in-house fund management capabilities in equities and fixed income.
Mediolanum IF had over €47bn (£40.5bn) in assets under management at the end of December.
See also: How has the Covid crisis impacted recruitment at DFMs?
