JEDDAH, 19 March 2007 — Each individual investor will always have individual investment needs, “but we have detected an appetite for Gulf women to have access to high caliber financial advice, something that is not readily available to them,” according to Bramdean CEO Nicola Horlick.
“There are always certain basics that apply to all investors and understanding the markets in which you plan to invest is critical. We believe that in partnering with established, well-known, reputable institutions and groups of individuals who are based in the Gulf, there is a substantial opportunity to educate women investors and, with the support of their male relatives, to build their knowledge and confidence in managing their investments,” Horlick said in an interview with Arab News.
“As a result of our two-week tour of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, we have now decided to focus our attention in the first place on Saudi Arabia and our efforts will now concentrate on attracting founder investors and partners to build the local company. We will work with Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) to progress our plans and we hope that, should our plans be acknowledged as being of benefit to the Kingdom, that we will be operating toward the end of the this year,” she said.
“Our trip to Saudi Arabia was an enormous success and helped consolidate the business model we plan to progress with. It is our desire to build a local company in partnership with local investors and, we hope most sincerely, chaired by a well-known senior-ranking Saudi woman, where a primary objective of the company will be to invest inwardly into Saudi Arabia by creating jobs and opportunities for Saudi women within the country’s cultural parameters. We believe there is opportunity for these women, often well-educated to degree level, to use their skills and qualifications for the benefit of the local economy,” she said.
“We would like our Saudi-based company to align itself with a women’s college to develop and offer financial training courses and qualifications as well as to work with us to provide seminar programs for women investors to enable them to develop their knowledge and understanding of financial instruments and markets so they can invest wisely both in local markets as well as overseas, to provide a balanced and appropriately diversified investment portfolio,” Horlick said.
Following are excerpts of the interview:
Q: You have set up Bramdean, a wealth management service in the UK. Can you describe it in brief.
A: Bramdean Asset Management LLP, based in London, was established in January 2005 by Nicola Horlick. It is primarily an institutional multi-manager fund management company owned by its management and investment team together with a small group of outside investors. Bramdean also has a wealth management division, headed by Amanda McCrystal, with a flagship brand, Bramdiva, which offers wealth management exclusively for women.
The multi-manager approach is well established in the United States, but less so in Europe. It is based on the belief that no single investment manager is equally and consistently good at managing every type of asset, but that there are areas in which they excel.
The Bramdean model is to seek out those managers who can demonstrate consistent returns in a particular asset class — global equity for example — and hire that manager to manage our own allocation to global equities in that example. Therefore Bramdean hires between two and three managers in each asset class in which we wish to invest our clients’ money to manage our portfolios for us.
If those managers do not perform or meet our expectations, we can simply replace them. It is a simple model and one that we believe passionately delivers the most sensible investment approach for institutional investors.
Q: You are planning to launch a new fund for high net worth individuals that would be relevant to Middle East market. Tell us something about this fund and which Middle East markets you are targeting?
A: We are not able to say much about our intentions at this stage. Our trip to the Middle East is part of a pre-marketing exercise to help us determine whether there would be an appetite from institutional, private family offices and high net worth individuals for a fund that invested right across the alternative asset spectrum (which might include private equity, hedge funds, infrastructure, timber, art or commodities, for example). We are visiting the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait on this trip. There is considerable and growing demand from investors for alternative assets with around 20 percent of a typical high net worth individual’s wealth now invested in these types of investments.
Q: What are your views on women providing wealth management services for women?
A: Having launched Bramdiva in November 2005, we have attracted an enormous amount of interest from both UK and international clients. There is no doubt that as women command an increasing — soon to be dominant — share of some countries’ personal wealth, there is a need for a specialized service to meet women’s particular investment demands.
These are different from men’s. In the UK, women live longer and earn less; they generally pay less attention to their personal finances than men do, and even those who are financially literate are often too busy to focus on their own financial affairs.
Unfortunately, divorce is becoming more commonplace. In the UK, there have, regretfully, been some headline-grabbing, so-called big money divorces. In the Gulf, the pattern is the same, with one in four marriages ending in divorce in Saudi Arabia, for example.
Divorce is a difficult time for women and Bramdiva aims to provide full service support to assist women throughout the divorce process — which can take 2-3 years in the UK for example — and ensure that they are well set up for a new chapter in their lives once the divorce has been settled.
Q: Are you targeting only women investors?
A: No. Indeed, Bramdean Asset Management and Bramdean Wealth Management are open to both men and women.
Only our Bramdiva service is offered exclusively to women. Our research prior to launching Bramdiva and our experience since then demonstrates that women’s investment needs are subtly different to a man’s.
In the UK, by 2025, women will own 60 percent of the nation’s personal wealth. Across the Gulf, women are believed to control around $38 billion of personal wealth and that is possibly a conservative estimate.
The way in which women go about planning their finances is different to how a man plans: women take their time, they consult extensively, they research and take second opinions, they are resistant to sales pressure and very sensitive to fees. But once a woman has made her decision, she is immensely loyal to the advisers and managers she has chosen.
Q: What is the purpose of your visit to Saudi Arabia. Are you exploring the market here?
A: We are in Saudi Arabia for the first of what we hope will be many visits in the future. We are here to meet a selection of carefully chosen institutions and private families to discuss their views on investing in alternative assets and also to introduce our Bramdiva service to a group of individuals who have expressed interest in working with us to help them to develop a similar service in Saudi Arabia.
Q: I am sure you have studied Gulf markets very closely. What do you think is the general investment atmosphere in the Gulf?
A: 2006 was a very difficult year for Gulf investors who have witnessed the significant decline in the value of stock markets. It has been an important opportunity for investors to recognize the value of a diversified and well-balanced portfolio. The Gulf has a strong heritage of investing in international markets where Gulf investors have invested an estimated $360 billion in overseas properties, private equity and bonds.
Gulf investors have been highly attuned to alternative assets for years, indeed they were among the first investors to recognize the opportunity of investing in these asset types. There is a continuing strong demand in the region for private equity in particular with returning demand for hedge funds now being seen.
Q: What advice do you give to women investors in the Gulf? Which are the areas where women can invest?
A: There is no general answer to this. Each individual investor will always have individual investment needs, but we have detected an appetite for Gulf women to have access to high caliber financial advice, something that is not readily available to them.
It is important to stress that we would always support investors who wish to invest inwardly in their local markets. A piece of advice we would always give is not to put all your eggs in one basket as this substantially raises exposure to risk. The best investment approach is balance so inward investment should ideally be matched with outward investment. Quality investment advice is essential, particularly for novice investors.
