The Italian Generali group and Peter Kraus, former chairman and CEO of AllianceBernstein and global co-head for asset mamagement at Goldman Sachs, are launching Aperture Investors, a new asset management firm based in New York. Generali will invest up to USD4bn in investment strategies.In Aperture Investors’ revenue model, the firm charges ETF-like fees, which can only go higher when managers beat their benchmarks. Similarly, managers are paid modest base compensation and can only earn more when they generate outperformance*, a major departure from the traditional fixed-fee structure in which managers are compensated based on the volume of assets managed. In addition, a deferral mechanism provides for unearned compensation to be returned to Aperture Investors’ clients ensuring that the profitability of the firm is dependent on whether or not its clients receive returns in excess of benchmarks over the long run*.“There are currently too many asset managers managing too much money. Fixed fees and a lack of real constraints on capacity have long incited managers to increase their assets under management rather than outperforming,” says Peter Kraus, chairman and CEO of Aperture Investors. “This structure has led to years of poor performance that has eroded client trust in active management. We intend to change this by aligning manager and client incentives around outperformance. We do this by charging fees that are similar to passive ETFs when performance is at or below a stated benchmark - and we only charge more when we generate outperformance. It’s our belief that investors would rather pay for performance than pay regardless of whether or not they get any, and the only way to do that is to disrupt the long-held model of fixed fees based on AUM in asset management», he continues. For Generali, “Aperture Investors is an important next step in the multi-boutique strategy launched last year,” says Tim Ryan, CEO of Generali Asset Management.In addition to Kraus, the new firm already has 15 professionals, including Peter Marber, manager of Aperture New World Opportunities, who previously worked for Loomis Sayles & Company, HSBC and Wassertain & Co., and Simon Thorp, manager of the Aperture Credit Opportunities fund, who had previously been a director at KKR Credit.
