Hambros Bank was founded by a Dane in 1839 and its finance and investment banking heritage is squarely Anglo-Scandinavian.
In the past 25 years in particular, the company has since gone through tremendous change with the Hambro family gradually taking a back seat to set up various other ventures (JO Hambro & Sons, JO Hambro Capital Management, JO Hambro Investment Management, Firecrest Hambro, etc.).
Hambros Bank now exists solely as the private banking arm of French giant Société Générale in the UK, Channel Islands and Gibraltar, and has been since its acquisition in 1998.
Through all this, the company’s head office has always been in London and from there it retains a great deal of autonomy while also being able to leverage off its parent company’s vast resources. When it comes to running private client portfolios, the firm combines to its advantage an independent decision-making process while having a global investment committee structure.
Global gathering
Eric Verleyen, chief investment officer of the company now known as Société Générale Private Banking (SGPB) Hambros, explains in more detail: “Every two months, on the private banking side, we have a global investment committee meeting which involves all the CIOs from across the businesses, from Asia, Switzerland, UK and so on.
“We have a group strategist alongside asset class experts with an economist who introduces the macro scenario.
“This is debated among all the CIOs and we then decide the asset allocation strategy we want to use for the coming three to six months.”
Strategy is not decided just from the macro picture but also from a bottom-up discussion because, as Verleyen points out, “if you only react to the macro, political picture we are going through it is difficult to manage money”.
Local activity
The asset allocation debate may be had globally but its implementation is managed at a local, SGPB Hambros level. When Verleyen returns to the UK, he will meet with his team of portfolio managers and investment professionals to discuss those investments that are suitable for their own specific strategies. These will include tactical discussions over how to translate thoughts into investment decisions.
“We may think, for example, that the US is doing okay, or at least we do not see a fiscal cliff coming, so we think the US will grow next year.
"But where do we want to put the money? We like oil and gas so are developing a list of equities we would like to hold to reflect
this view.”
Verleyen’s team runs both advisory and discretionary investment portfolios, running around £2.5bn in assets that contributes to the £10bn of assets if all the banking capabilities are included.
The investment decisions for SGPB Hambros are ultimately taken from the Channel Islands, which is where is Stephen LeLievre and Adrian Lihou are based. From Guernsey, Lihou looks after discretionary and advisory investment services in the Channel Islands, while LeLievre, based in Jersey, is head of advisory managed business.
Verleyen promoted LeLievre to this role six months ago to … continue on page 2
