MAPFRE and Abante have strengthened their strategic alliance to create a leading independent platform for financial advice and product distribution in the Spanish market, with the insurance group increasing its stake in Abante from 10 to 20 per cent, via a capital increase.
In the agreement signed between the two partners in September 2019, a three-year period had been stipulated for this option; MAPFRE and Abante decided to implement it in advance, precisely because of the good progress of the alliance.
Over these 16 months, MAPFRE and Abante have cemented a strategic relationship in asset management, and have made good progress in joint development for the design, creation and distribution of new financial products. The resources provided by MAPFRE will be allocated in full to the development of this alliance and will allow Abante to take on new growth opportunities. During this period, Abante has already reached an agreement to integrate the management company 360ºCorA and the EAF (financial advisory firm) C2 Asesores.
In addition, both companies have launched two alternative funds. These include MAPFRE Infraestructuras FCR, a fund worth EUR300 million managed by Abante, which invests in funds from Macquarie, Australia’s world-leading infrastructure firm, and MAPFRE Private Equity FCR, a fund worth at least EUR250 million, advised by Altamar.
Both partners are also contemplating opportunities to internationalise Abante’s private banking model in Latin America, where MAPFRE is a leader in the Non-Life segment.
José Luis Jiménez, Group Chief Investment Officer at MAPFRE (sitting on the right of the photograph), says that the decision to double the stake in Abante is “a practical demonstration of how satisfied we are with the performance of this alliance. Together we add more; we place great hopes for the growth capacity that each partner can achieve as it will allow us to jointly develop our asset management and consulting arms and deliver unbeatable quality service to our clients.”
Santiago Satrústegui, President of Abante, says: “This year marks Abante’s 20th anniversary and if there is one thing we can feel satisfied with is not so much our financial results, but the qualitative aspects we’ve created in our company — we have a scalable business model, a very differential value proposition and our partnership culture is the essence of the Abante brand as a market benchmark.
“In addition, having an open capital structure enables us, on the one hand, to give our teams a professional career path and to be able to integrate other partners and teams from other entities that want to leverage and participate in this powerful platform for asset management and independent financial advice. On the other hand, it allows us to have the backing of an institutional partner such as MAPFRE, which is essential to accelerate our growth and corporate development. A year and a half after the agreement, we are reinforced in the exciting path that this alliance has taken.”
MAPFRE is a global insurance company that is active worldwide. A leading company on the Spanish market, it is the largest Spanish insurer in the world, the third largest insurance group in Latin America and it is in sixth position in terms of Non-Life ranking in Europe by premium volume. MAPFRE has over 34,000 employees and in 2019, it had revenues of nearly EUR28.5 billion euros, and a net profit totalling EUR609 million. In asset management, MAPFRE AM, the group’s main asset manager, manages more than 40 billion in assets, being the leading independent asset manager in Spain.
ABANTE ASESORES is a financial group specialising in financial consulting and asset management, geared to the long-term interests of clients. Abante manages and provides consulting services for assets nearing EUR8 billion euros, from a total of 8,000 clients. The Abante Asesores group, formed in 2002, is currently made up of six companies: an investment services company, two financial advisory companies (Abante was the first registered financial advisory companies in Spain), a collective investment scheme management company, a pension fund management company and an insurance intermediary. It has eight offices (Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Valladolid, Seville, Málaga, Pamplona and Logroño).
