French investment groups create European leader in incubation of active funds, NewAlpha AM

Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva

Opalesque wrote in April that there may be a merger between two large French seeding platforms: NewAlpha, which has been seeding alternative fund managers for seven years, and NExT AM, a business specialized in seeding emerging long-only managers.

This possible merger was being discussed by OFI AM, an investment group with €54.5bn ($73.6bn) in AuM, of which NewAlpha is a fully-owned subsidiary, and La Française, an investment group with €37bn ($50bn) in AuM, of which NExT AM is a fully-owned subsidiary.

La Française and OFI AM confirmed their partnership last month. Their partnership creates a new European leader in the fund incubation business. According to a joint annoucement, it gathers:

• 49 realised investments,
• €1.3m of committed seed money
• 26 active partnerships,
• €6.2m of assets managed by 260 associates at partner managers

La Française and NExT AM own 40% and OFI AM and NewAlpha Advisers own 25% of a newly created entity called NewAlpha Asset Management. A further new entity called NewAlpha Partners, which owns 35% NewAlpha AM, will become the manager of the NExT Invest funds.

All main projects will be launched from NewAlpha AM, which team will be responsible for sourcing, analysis and investments.

...NewAlpha AM's directors will be Ant......................

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This article was published in Opalesque's New Managers a top-down monthly analysis, news and research publication on the global emerging manager space.