Corestone is a giant among independent Swiss asset managers. The lion’s share of its business however is generated outside the alpine country. That though is about to change, as finews.com can reveal.
While the asset manager’s business size dwarfs most of its Swiss rivals, its market focus up until now has been well beyond the country’s borders, namely in the Netherlands, where its former business roots are based.
In Zurich, the Aquila platform with ties to numerous small- and medium-sized companies, managed some 12 billion Swiss francs ($12.1 billion) in assets last year. The well-known equities specialist Fisch Asset Management breached the 10-billion-franc mark in 2017 for the first time after 23 years, while the globally active Schwyzer Reuss Private Group last year topped 29 billion francs.
They were all however outpaced by Corestone, which drew in some 36 billion francs in institutional monies. Corestone who? Other than to its clients and business contacts, the Zug-based remains a largely unknown quantity despite its size. This may be since it targets a specific customer base – and until fairly recently belonged to the Dutch fund house Robeco – namely Dutch pension funds. They form some 95 percent of Corestone’s institutional clients.
Not Driven by Robeco
This will now change, Corestone head Martin Mlynár assured finews.com. «We plan to expand our share of the Swiss market and have hired experts to that end.»
And Corestone is already taking concrete steps. The management under CEO Mlynár has already bought the concern off Robeco, and with the divorce now complete, will allow the fund researcher and portfolio building specialist to shake up the asset market in Switzerland.
«Previously we functioned like Robeco’s automobile gearbox», the CEO said of the previous links. «With the management-buyout we have gained independence from the mother house, although we keep in close contact.
Free for New Markets
So the Corestone team has now freed up its hands to focus on other markets and is looking to expand through staff hiring in Switzerland and Scandinavia, and through partnerships in Italy and Germany.
In contrast to the «mature» pension-fund market in the Netherlands, where the number of funds has shrunk from 900 to 300 over the past decade, the Swiss pension-fund landscape is far more fragmented, according to Mlynár.
«We reckon that with all the ongoing discussions, there will be changes in the pensions market», he said. Corestone believes that in the future it will make more sense for such funds to buy in specialist services – and the Zug firm is positioning itself here with outsourced CIO services.
Big in Switzerland
Corestone will thus become more more helvetic, although Mlynár has been in the country since the turn of the century, and founded Corestone in 2007.
The decision to go for Switzerland has several grounds, like the countless banks, who are important in wholesale business, the fact the alpine country offered an opening to the markets of southern Europe, and the fragmented state of the market. «In the Netherlands, a small number of large concerns dominate the market, and this is less so here», he explained.
