The largest publicly traded hedge fund announced Friday that it had purchased Aalto, a US and European-based property manager with $1.7bn funds under management.
The Aalto acquisition comes alongside the launch of Man Group’s Global Private Markets arm, which the firm says will provide investors with opportunities across real estate, credit and infrastructure. The Man GPM strategies will be run in long duration funds to offer clients a stable source of revenues, the hedge fund added.
Aalto will “form a central component” of the new private markets venture, Man Group has said, “providing a core platform upon which the firm can develop this new offering for clients” and allowing its parent company to further tap into the US market.
The existing Aalto management team will continue under the leadership of business co-founders Petteri Barman and Mikko Syrjänen who will also be serving as joint heads of Man GPM’s Real Assets department.
The launch and acquisition coincided with the release of the firm’s Q3 figures, which showed a quarter on quarter increase of funds under management of 6% to $80.7bn.
The firm’s flagship fund range AHL, which over the years has made use of artificial intelligence investment strategies, returned weaker results over the period and contributed to a $0.5bn reduction in FUM.
Nonetheless, the group saw positive investment movement of $2.5bn, ultimately resulting in $1.3bn in net inflows during what Man CEO Luke Ellis called “a difficult market environment,” particularly for the trend following AHL strategies.
Man Group also confirmed that it would be launching a $100m share repurchase programme over the next 12 months.
