Louise Watson
Natixis Investment Managers (Natixis IM) has announced it has expanded its Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) allowing it to promote to retail clients. With the expanded licence the leading global asset manager has the opportunity to bring the capabilities of its Expert Collective of more than 15 investment managers to Australian financial advisers and retail investors.
The retail AFSL marks a new stage in Natixis IM’s expansion in the Australian market. As of 1 September, Natixis IM now incorporates the distribution team of local affiliate IML, more than doubling the number of staff it employs in Australia.
Natixis IM is ranked as the world’s 17th largest asset manager[1] with more than US$1.2 trillion assets under management globally.
Country Head Australia and New Zealand for Natixis IM, Louise Watson, said the retail AFSL is an important milestone for Natixis IM in Australia.
“Financial advisers play a crucial role in steering Australians towards better financial futures. We want to help advisers better serve Australians by bringing greater diversity to the market to ensure investors have more choice in how they achieve their financial goals.
“Our point of difference is our global Expert Collective of high performing active managers that delivers more than 200 strategies across different asset classes including global large, small and medium cap equities, global fixed income, sustainable investing, real estate and private assets.”
Ms Watson said client demand for Natixis IM’s innovative solutions is strong.
“One of the biggest drivers of extending our licence is the inbound interest we are receiving from financial advisers. Australian investors are still highly concentrated in Australian equities and property, which is a tiny part of the global investment landscape. If Australians diversify their investments into other markets and asset classes it can give them more resilient investment portfolios which perform better over the long-term.”
Fabrice Chemouny, Head of International Distribution, Natixis IM commented; “Expanding our existing Australian Financial Services Licence to include retail investors is an exciting development which reflects our strong commitment to Australia. Natixis IM has already built a good foundation among Australian institutional investors, and we are now looking forward to delivering our world-class strategies and client-focused service to financial advisors and individual investors.”
Ms Watson said, “We have a firm wide initiative to ensure that our whole team are focused on the client and what is important to them. We seek to understand their challenges and help clients to solve them with the very best of our global Expert Collective.”
Australian retail investors can currently access strategies from local affiliate IML, as well as global investment managers Loomis Sayles and Vaughan Nelson[2]. Natixis Investment Managers’ global “Expert Collective” offers more than 200 different investment strategies, from 15+ active asset managers, across asset classes, styles, and vehicles.
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