iM Square, the sole European investment and development platform dedicated to asset management, has reported positive results from its first whole year of operations.
Following a first fundraising for nearly EUR100 million led by its three founding shareholders, Amundi, Eurazeo and the Dassault Groupe/La Maison, iM Square undertook two major investments in 2016, by entering the capital of Dolan McEniry Capital Management and Polen Capital.
These two investments have enabled iM Square to record a strong performance of 21.8 per cent at the close of its first year of activity.
iM Square is currently in discussions with several North American institutional investors in order to complete a second fundraising for EUR200 million before the end of the second quarter 2017. In total, EUR400 million should be raised in the next two to three years, and this fresh money will enable iM Square to acquire stakes in between five to seven asset managers in the US and Europe.
iM Square acquired a French asset management company in 2016, creating the first distribution platform of the group, iM Global Partner. On 28 March 2017, iM Global Partner Europe became the first French asset manager to benefit from the first provisions to come out of the AMF and AFG working group, known as "FROG" aimed at easing the transfer of fund management activities for foreign asset managers.
From 3 April 2017, this distribution platform will be strengthened by the arrival of Julien Froger who will become head of sales. The hire of a head of risk will be announced shortly. The distribution team, based in Paris, will be responsible for marketing the funds of the asset managers within iM Square’s portfolio to leading European distributors and institutional investors. iM Global Partner aims to reach between 500 million and EUR1 billion of inflows in three years.
Philippe Couvrecelle, iM Square president, says: “Our business model has now been tried and tested. We are fully operational and ready to take on the next step in our development. Just as we launched iM Global Partner, we wish to launch a distribution platform in the US in 2018. We will continue to invest in entrepreneurial asset managers in the US and in Europe, which have distinctive and successful management styles.”
