Family Office
Natixis plans to buy hedged equity manager Gateway
Who's that? Why, it's French-owned IXIS, sporting yet another new
moniker. Natixis Global Asset Management -- IXIS Asset Management
Advisors Group until a few days ago -- has agreed to purchase
hedge-fund manager Gateway Investment Advisers. Natixis GAM says
the addition of Gateway to its stable of asset-management
affiliates enhances its overall investment offerings and makes it
a bigger player in the emerging retirement-income space.
Natixis GAM is a unit of Paris-based Natixis, an asset-management
and investment-banking group co-owned by Banque Populaire and
Caisse d'Epargne.
Fifteenth U.S. affiliate
"Gateway enjoys a highly competitive long-term track record based
on a well-tested risk management methodology," says Pierre
Servant, CEO of Natixis GAM. "We expect demand for its style of
risk-adjusted investment products to be strong and growing,
particularly in the rapidly expanding retirement market."
Best known for its risk-adjusted approach to investing, Gateway
attempts to capture the majority of the higher returns associated
with equity market investments while exposing investors to
significantly less risk and volatility than other equity
investments. It invests in a diversified common-stock portfolio
and manage risk and volatility downward by selling cash-settled
index call options and purchasing index put options.
Gateway's CEO Patrick Rogers sees the tie-in with Natxis GAM as a
way to reach more investors. "We have been very impressed with
the consistently high level of achievement so many of the other
NATIXIS affiliates have compiled in the course of their
affiliation."
In keeping with its "multi-boutique business model," Natixis GAM
says that Gateway will continue to "operate as an autonomous
organization," retaining its brand and maintaining its base in
Cincinnati, Ohio. Gateway's investment team will also stay
put.
Paris- and Boston-based Natixis GAM and its U.S. affiliates
managed $808 billion on 31 March 2007.
Gateway, which was founded in 1977 and adopted a hedging approach
in 1987, managed $7.5 billion on the same date. -FWR
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