Alfred Berg's Nordic CEO brings Asian timing to the Nordics
Vincent Trouillard-Perrot spent many years in the Far East observing the markets. Now the Nordic CEO of Alfred Berg is back in Europe with a strategy he says will increase client fortunes.
Vincent Trouillard-Perrot spent many years in the Far East observing the markets. Now the Nordic CEO of Alfred Berg is back in Europe with a strategy he says will increase client fortunes.
Vincent Trouillard-Perrot's appointment to head Alfred Berg after some 15 years in the Far East brought with it two key opportunities: one personal (being closer to family in Europe) and the other professional (the opportunity to develop a business nearing its 150th anniversary). And those years in Asia are helping.
"In Asia, there is a fantastic energy from investors, from everywhere," the new CEO says. "I compare that to the American Dream: always the feeling that everyone has a dream of developing themselves to something better. I have felt this in Asia all these year. I would like to bring this positive energy to the Nordics."
One of the business-cultural tenets that he is looking to instil on the Nordic scene today is the Asian approach to the time-to-market question.
"Time-to-market is something that is absolutely relevant to Asian people. It is part of their DNA. The turnover, the number of new strategies that all asset managers and private bankers are launching every month is absolutely amazing.
"I don't say that we should systematically launch new strategies because it's not always good for the investors. But bringing this time-to-market culture to Alfred Berg is something that is important."
Speedier time-to-market means clients can benefit in a challenging macro or regulatory environment, for example, where influenced by regulatory changes such as Basel III or Solvency II. Alfred Berg has moved on from being known primarily as an equities house to offering both equities and fixed income.
But it needs to keep moving and providing new solutions in areas such as high yield and low volatility equity strategies. Improved time-to-market facilitates such changes, Trouillard-Perrot (pictured) says.
Strong choices
The focus on time-to-market does not automatically lead to bringing in new managers to oversee portfolios or strategies being launched into the market, he adds. One of his first actions was to identify among existing strategies which ones were considered strong both in terms of performance and commercial viability.
Some may have been considered too small to have a future, but more importantly the process identified products that were being under-marketed. Thus the approach has partly been about ensuring existing products are sufficiently pushed in the market before looking to launch new ones.
Subsequently, thoughts turned to developing new products based on existing managers.
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