Vontobel

Through its stable ownership and strong financials, the firm takes a patient and long-term stance toward its growth ambitions, which have been characterised by organic growth supplemented with selected acquisitions, like TwentyFour and Vescore in recent years. The firm has successfully evolved and diversified its capabilities and is now organised in six specialist boutiques that collectively cover all major asset classes. The boutiques enjoy a large degree of autonomy in regard to their investment approach and organisation, but with more central control and oversight in areas like risk management. The long-term thinking is also reflected in the firm's approach to product development, which typically takes a patient stance in launching and establishing strategies, leading to limited churn among the firm's fund lineup. Other positives include the high retention among the company's investment staff and the strong alignment of portfolio managers' interests with investors' through personal co-investments in the strategies they manage. While there are pockets of strength, such as the well-established quality-growth equity boutique and the emerging-markets debt franchise, we also think the quality of the boutiques and the strategies within remain uneven or unproven with some requiring further investment, others being reorganised more recently, while others are a mix of strategies that lack cohesion. On top of that, the risk-adjusted performance of the fund lineup is middling with a slight deterioration in recent years. This is partly caused by above-average fee levels. On balance, we see the firm as progressing in the right direction but still behind some of its stronger competitors. The firm retains its Average rating on the Parent Pillar.