NabInvest backs new boutique fund manager
National Australia Bank’s (NAB’s) direct investment management business, nabInvest, is backing a new boutique fund manager, Fairview Equity Partners (Fairview).
The majority of Fairview, an Australian equities small caps boutique manager, will be owned by the investment team, with nabInvest taking a significant minority stake in the company.
Fairview was established by three former members of Goldman Sachs JB Were Asset Management’s Australian equities team, Chris Adams, Michael Glenane and Leigh Cronin, and will operate as an independent business based in Melbourne.
The Fairview investment team and NAB have also contributed seed capital to create a new small cap fund, the Fairview Equity Partners Emerging Companies Fund.
Gary Mulcahy, chief executive of nabInvest, said Fairview represents an attractive investment for nabInvest, with the three principals having extensive experience in running Australian equity small cap investments.
Leigh Cronin, executive director of Fairview, said companies in the small cap space are often “under researched and inefficiently priced”.
“This has never been more apparent than in the current climate, with the market dislocation presenting many attractive investment opportunities,” Cronin said.
NabInvest will provide Fairview with access to a range of back-office, product and distribution services, including access to custody services and corporate governance functions.
Recommended for you
Six months after scrapping its planned deal with KKR, Perpetual is yet to make significant headway on the sale of its wealth management division but is focusing on alternatives for product development.
Platinum Asset Management’s NPAT has fallen by 89 per cent in FY25, with the firm confirming that it will be renamed as L1 Group following the expected completion of its merger with L1 Capital.
Statutory NPAT at Pacific Current has almost halved in FY25 to $58.2 million as the result of an investment restructure.
Being able to provide certainty about redemptions is worth fund managers pursuing when targeting the retail market even if it means sacrificing returns, according to Federation Asset Management.
