The partnership, involving a minority equity purchase by Pinnacle, ushers in the next phase of growth for the $4 billion Melbourne-based boutique investment manager on the dawn of their 10-year anniversary.

Omega co-founders Andrew Gruskin and Mathew McCrum, together with the Omega team, will retain majority ownership and control of the business.

“We are thrilled to enter into this new phase of Omega’s growth that will be bolstered by our strategic partnership with Pinnacle which brings perfect alignment to our core values and culture” McCrum said.

“Pinnacle has one of the most proven distribution teams, providing a strong boost to Omega’s market profile and penetration, that will help us to use the breadth of our investment experience and capabilities to bring to market a greater range of products and services to new and existing clients. In addition to bolstering Omega’s distribution efforts, Pinnacle will provide strategic, commercial and governance input to the Omega management team,” he said.

“We are seeing strong investor demand for Omega’s smart beta strategies and portfolio solutions and this partnership will accelerate our ability to deliver on that demand. This strategic partnership with Pinnacle brings renewed energy to our business and creates longevity for staff and clients, while continuing to deliver our most important objective of producing outstanding outcomes for our clients.”

Pinnacle Managing Director Ian Macoun said, “We are excited to enter into a new strategic partnership with Omega at a time when factor based, smart beta investing is at a major positive inflection point. Omega will enhance our ability to bring multi-asset smart beta solutions to the market. Omega has a strong reputation for delivering high quality client solutions combined with innovative global investment capabilities off which we are eager to build future investment products.”

Omega Global Investors was advised by Nelson Lam and Glenn Dunn of Berkshire Capital as sell side advisors and Hall & Wilcox as Legal Advisor.

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The late George Vassos

Omega Global Investors (Omega) will host a February tribute to its co-founder and former managing director, Mr George Vassos, and all the money raised will support the Rare Cancers Australia charity.

George passed away in December 2016 from cancer aged just 46 years. He was survived by his wife Shannon and three young daughters. A tribute and celebration of George’s life will be held on 6 February 2018 at the offices of PwC in Melbourne.

Mr Vassos was a co-founder and former managing director of Omega Global Investors, a $4 billion Melbourne-based global investment manager launched in 2008 by Andrew Gruskin, Mathew McCrum and George Vassos.
Mr McCrum said George will be remembered as a committed family man, a trusted mentor and business partner and an important figure in the Australian financial services industry.

“George will be remembered as a loved and valued member of the broader community and as a role model for professionalism and integrity in the funds management sector. This event will commemorate his life’s achievements and celebrate his memory,” said Mr McCrum.

“All funds raised from the tribute will go to support Rare Cancers Australia, a charity close to George’s heart. George believed strongly in bringing people together to make a difference in the community,” said Mr McCrum.
Prior to co-founding Omega, Mr Vassos was employed for several years at Vanguard in Melbourne, where he helped to establish the fund manager’s relationships with financial advisors and others in the financial community. Vanguard has created an internal award in Mr Vassos’s name in recognition of his contribution to the Australian funds management industry. Before Vanguard, Mr Vassos also spent several years employed with the Colonial Group.

Tickets to the tribute are available for $150 per person and bookings can be made here. Guests will enjoy an evening of cocktails and canapes. Two-time Paralympian Kelly Cartwright will speak at the event. A silent auction will be conducted and raffles sold and all proceeds will be donated to Rare Cancers Australia.

SuperEd, the leading digital advice provider, and its Co-Founder, Jeremy Duffield, are also sponsoring the event.  Jeremy was Founding Managing Director of Vanguard Investments Australia when George joined. “I remember George fondly for his effervescence and drive, which helped the firm establish a beachhead in a new market for us. He was great as part of our team. We’re pleased to support this benefit for Rare Cancers Australia in remembrance of George.”

Andrew Gruskin, fellow co-founder, said George’s legacy would be long lasting. “Despite his absence, we are determined to carry forward the legacy and influence of George. The event will honour George, his family and his life.”

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John Moore

Omega Global Investors (Omega) has revealed details of a new equity income investment strategy, to be managed by recent senior hire to the firm, seasoned portfolio manager John Moore.

John is a specialist in structuring and managing strong-performing investment funds targeting after tax returns designed for specific outcomes, including low volatility, low drawdown and consistent income to investors.

“That pretty much describes the brief for the Omega Australian Equity Income Fund strategy,” John said.

“We are on track for an April hard launch. The regular income needs of Australian retirees, who want less worry about their capital and the opportunity for longer-term growth in their retirement savings, is the target market for the Australian Equity Income Fund.”

The strategy aims to deliver income of 4-6 per cent per annum whilst delivering half the volatility of the underlying sharemarket.

Mathew McCrum, Omega co-founder said John’s approach complements a groundswell by investors towards risk-managed, outcomes focused investment solutions.

“John’s proven background managing Australian equities to a defined outcome using various investment and protection overlays dovetails perfectly with our existing Smart Beta Plus capability,” Mathew said.

The strategy will have an effective market exposure of 50%. Our equity income strategy invests in a diversified portfolio of Australian shares allowing us to deliver more income from your shares but also provide protection from market falls.
“In combination the options and shares display quite different risk/return characteristics to other equity income funds,” John said.

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The late George Vassos

The Directors and co-workers at Omega Global Investors (Omega) wish to pay tribute to their beloved friend, co-founder and passionate managing director, Mr George Vassos.

George, aged a young 47, passed away last week following unforeseen medical complications. He is survived by his wife Shannon and three young daughters.

“Positive, warm, personable and smart, our firm is proud of an impressive legacy left by George who will be terribly missed by all of us and a many number of people touched by his life who call him a friend,” said Omega co-founder Mathew McCrum.

“Success is measured in many ways. For us it’s simple. Many of Omega’s valued clients have also become our friends, and this unique measure of trust and mutual success is due in no small part to the work ethic, client focus and grand humour of George.

“Rarely in our industry do you see great integrity, drive and genuine enthusiasm rolled into one human being. George was one such individual.”

Andrew Gruskin, fellow co-founder, said the entrepreneurial spirit that conceived Omega and has driven it to carve out a highly-valued asset management business was built on the core principles of client service, integrity and transparency. “Each of those reflects well on the influence of George,” he said.

“When we launched Omega, we adopted the motto: ‘begin with the end in mind’. This was about the way we sought to manage other people’s money. Of course, none of us anticipated an outcome in 2016 without George playing his usual, larger than life role in it.

“Despite his absence, we are determined to carry forward the legacy and influence of George. The best way we can honour him is to continue being successful on behalf of our clients, the business he co-founded and the young family and wife he has left behind.

“George Vassos is one of the best our industry has produced. He was a role model for professionalism and integrity in a wealth management sector that has a public image for being short on these qualities in recent times.

“We want the industry to know that it does have the capacity to make a positive and meaningful contribution to the greater good of its investors, and that there are great people, like George, working in our sector that hold up these virtues as the ultimate objective of our collective effort.”

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John’s most recent role was with Northward Capital where he was Executive Director/Portfolio Manager for the Northward Equity Income Fund and Ethical Equity Income Fund.

He has specialised in structuring and managing strong performing investment funds that target after tax returns designed for specific outcomes, including low volatility, low drawdown and consistent income to investors.

Mathew McCrum, Omega co-founder said John was a strong cultural fit, complementing Omega’s ‘can-do’ approach applied to co-designing investment products that meet specific client outcomes. This approach has seen Omega recently top $3.2 Billion in funds under management, and growing.

“For a variety of important reasons, we are witnessing a fundamental shift by investors towards the risk-managed, outcomes focused end of the investment management spectrum. John’s background in this space dovetails perfectly for Omega, its existing capability and its ambitions as the pre-eminent provider of smart portfolio design that meets the specific outcomes of its investors.

“We welcome John’s contribution to our growth and investment capability on behalf of our clients,” he said.

John said he was excited be joining the Omega team and that new product lines based on his previous knowledge and experience would help meet underlying investor demand.

“This is a perfect alignment of interest for myself and Omega – the outcomes oriented approach is coming into its own and we have plenty to offer investors straight off the bat.”

John brings to Omega 30 years’ of financial markets experience having been involved in managing teams for over 25 years with four major Investment banks. His global experience in senior roles includes stints in London and Hong Kong. More recently John held senior positions with Macquarie Bank and Citigroup managing a team of derivative professionals within their respective Investment Banking Groups.

John has an extensive derivative background enabling him to originate and structure new products and ideas to meet individual client needs that are implemented in a robust risk management framework. He has worked across multi asset classes which gives him the capability to offer the right products and solutions to both retail and institutional investors.

John has been actively involved in educating clients on how to use derivatives as an overlay and hedging strategy.

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George Vassos

Uniting Financial Services (Uniting) has awarded an AUD $100 Million global credit mandate to Omega Global Investors (Omega) in a further sign that institutional investors are seeking asset management partnerships beyond the ‘one size fits all’ product approach.

Omega has pioneered its coveted ‘investment co-design’ model to deliver client outcomes as its primary focus, supported by investment solutions based on a proprietary *Smart Beta Plus, factor-based investment approach.
Omega managing director George Vassos said the partnership with Uniting Financial Services began as a conversation to improve the fixed income portion of the client’s portfolio, simultaneously observing the ethical and environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards of the Uniting Church.

“We sat down with Uniting’s investment team and said: ‘OK, Omega’s systems and processes can filter out, or in, any number of factors across the ESG spectrum’. So that was a big tick. Next, it was a matter of co-designing the return and risk outcomes desired by the fund, and demonstrating our capacity for actively managing to this overall outcome within the global credit asset class.

“We are pleased to have secured this significant mandate, and we look forward to developing our working partnership with Uniting’s Warren Bird and his team,” Mr Vassos said.

Warren Bird, Executive Director, Treasury & Investments said global credit was a new investable asset class for Uniting, and so the choice of underlying manager demanded careful and specific pre-requisites.

“Omega demonstrated its capability for both partnering with us and also meeting some fairly stringent ESG and ethical hurdles,” Mr Bird said.

“Credit is an important component of our overall portfolio exposure given our need for reliable income and capital preservation. We looked to offshore credit to achieve broader exposure to a wider range of credit risk and return than we could find investing in domestic credit securities.”

Mr Vassos concluded: “This is further vindication for Omega with its motto: begin with the end in mind. This requires not only taking a holistic view of investable markets, but carefully interrogating the underlying factors for the benefit of investors to deliver to stated investment outcomes,”

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George Vassos

The global low interest rate, low yield investment environment has prompted a number of new trends in the way that Australia’s largest institutional investors source and measure professional asset management services.

Omega Global Investors managing director George Vassos says larger investors are increasingly seeking discrete mandates that are co-designed in direct collaboration with investment managers, usually against specific risk parameters and target performance outcomes.

“We see a distinct trend has emerged whereby investment managers and large funds are talking directly to solve and co-create outcomes based solutions, often across multi asset class and risk parameters,” Mr Vassos said.

“This investment co-design trend speaks to a number of systemic industry responses as Australia’s growing asset pool looks for new sources of risk-adjusted portfolio returns. The underlying trend to in-source research and manager selection is part of this shift, and signals a welcome broadening and maturing of the institutional marketplace,” Mr Vassos said.

“A great example for our firm is that many people are surprised to learn we manage $1 billion in growth assets including a global listed infrastructure mandate, the parameters for which were not only based on our outcomes-based, risk controlled management style, but were co-designed around a portfolio of global growth assets at the outset with the client.”
Mr Vassos said the underlying trend was not a threat to traditionally intermediated manager selection processes, but denotes a renewed effort to explore more innovative pathways in the search for superior, risk adjusted return outcomes.

“Strategic partnerships look to remain a permanent fixture as institutional investors also seek to differentiate and diversify their asset allocation processes and we welcome the positive spirit in which the industry has embraced the growing trend,” Mr Vassos said.

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Ms Chai worked previously with AMP in the role of graduate actuarial analyst.

She holds a PhD in Applied Finance and Actuarial Studies. Her hire follows the recently announced appointment by Omega of Scott Lawrence as Head of Investment Solutions.

Mathew McCrum, Co-Founder and Director Investments with Omega, said Celeste will perform an important strategic support function within the investment team.

“Celeste brings strong skills in quantitative research and modelling. As demand for the unique Omega investment capability extends, her contribution to broadening our internal capacity is welcome,” Mr McCrum said.

“Momentum for the Omega partnership approach is building and we are pleased to be able to attract new investment talent to the team,” he said.

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Scott Lawrence, former Managing Director for Parametric Portfolio Associates and principal of his own investment consulting firm, joins Omega in the role of Head of Investment Solutions. Mr Lawrence worked previously in similar roles with Vanguard Investments Australia and other high profile asset management firms.

George Vassos, Omega Managing Director, said Mr Lawrence’s experience and specialist skills honed amongst institutional investor clients speaks to a present and growing opportunity as clients tilt their focus away from off-the-shelf asset solutions.

“The exciting trend is investment co-design formed through direct strategic partnerships,” Mr Vassos said.

“For Omega this means we sit down with any client and look at the full spectrum of outcomes they require from their portfolio. Often clients present existing gaps. This is where Omega will partner to co-design the best solution possible.

“Scott brings strengths in the core disciplines of Australian and International Equities and after tax investing. Myself and the founding partners at Omega look forward to his timely contribution in helping our clients to apply some additional intelligent thinking to their investment needs,” he said.

Mr Lawrence said his work in designing investment strategies to solve complex problems over many years has led him to the single conclusion: investors seek greater control and more focus on their individual requirements.

“Omega is a truly passionate asset management firm addressing this trend. It understands the underlying dynamic within the market where gone are the days of offering a ‘cookie cutter’ investment solution and expecting the client to be content with fewer choices, not more,” Mr Lawrence said.

“I am genuinely passionate about the practical nature of sitting down to solve a client’s needs with an open mind knowing we have unique access to leading edge investments solutions within Omega and a capacity to adapt to deliver to specific outcomes.

Mr Lawrence brings almost 30 years’ industry experience to the role. He earned his Bachelor of Science, Majoring in Pure Mathematics and Mathematics Statistics from the University of Sydney in 1983.

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George Vassos

When it comes to the outlook for bond investing, the Asian story continues to appeal. And the banks are playing a starring role, says George Vassos, Managing Director of specialist fixed income investment manager, Omega Global Investors.

“The Asian outlook is one we have favoured in general for some time, but what has attracted our particular attention is the strong performance in the financials sector, both in itself and also in the way it highlights the headwinds the European and US financials sectors face as they grapple with the recovery, new capital preservation requirements and other issues,” explained Mr Vassos.

“Analysis using our proprietary credit default model shows that despite intensive reforms, most developed world banks have a way to go before they turn the corner. Of course, the Australian banks are the exception to this rule. For various reasons they continue to be among the most profitable in the world, well and truly outstripping most in Europe and the UK. Whether or not that profitability translates to strong returns from a bond investment is of course, another matter.”

Mr Vassos went on to provide more detail about the contrast between the Asia Financials sector and that of Europe and the UK. He also stressed that the Omega ratings process provides different outcomes from that of the traditional ratings houses. This is due to the relatively slow moving nature of the ratings agency methodology – especially when it comes to assessing a fast moving environment which has dramatically changed in shape since events such as the global financial crisis and the surge in growth of the emerging markets’ middle classes.

“An example of this is HDFC Bank from India which we rate higher than Erste Group Bank from Austria. This is despite HDFC being rated lower than Erste by S&P. Our rating is on the back of HDFC having a better capital position and being more profitable. Bear in mind here that the relevant S&P rating was last updated in 2008,” said Mr Vassos.

He also pointed out that not all European banks score poorly, citing Komercni Bank from the Czech Republic as one of Omega’s highest rated banks.

Looking to the US, Mr Vassos called out Citigroup and First Republic, saying “We are happy with the capital position of both, however the poor profitability of Citigroup is cause for concern particularly when there are alternatives like First Republic, which has the same country risk, but is very profitable.”
What all this tells Omega and its investors is that, for the medium term at least, Asian banks are likely to be strong, stable performers. However, that doesn’t mean their European counterparts are out of the game for good.

“We’ll be keeping a close eye on those in the Eurozone and elsewhere because at some point it’s likely that the positive impact of outcomes from Basel III such as beefed up tier one ratios and capital preservation requirements will kick in to their bottom lines,” concluded Mr Vassos. “And we do want to be around to capitalise on it.”

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