Commerzbank has launched a new asset management firm, Yellowfin, a spin-out of its active asset management division, with more than €10bn in assets under management.
Yellowfin invests capital with an active approach, looking at trends in the capital markets, based on proprietary quantitative models, and taking into account aspects of behavioural finance, it said.
It has among its clients pension funds, ultra net worth individuals and family offices, and foundations, and plans to double assets under management to more than €20bn in the next five years, a spokesperson for the company told IPE.
“We concentrate on portfolio management that is individually tailored to each customer,” said Yellowfin’s chief executive officer Andreas Neumann in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) newspaper.
The CEO has rejected the idea of deploying purely robotic and artificial intelligence tools for portfolio management, saying: “We, as risk managers, always want to be able to intervene if our models are not suitable for a situation.”
Yellowfin will target institutional investors, corporate clients, and high-net-worth individuals with managed assets of at least €30m, complementing Commerz Real and Commerzbank’s own asset management services.
Thomas Schaufler, board member responsible for private and small business customers, described Yellowfin as an important element for further growth in asset management.
“The company unites the very individual relationship management and the short decision-making paths of an investment boutique with the high process quality of Commerzbank,” he said.
Commerzbank has returned to active asset management following the sale of both Cominvest Asset Management and Allgemeine Deutsche Investment-Gesellschaft (ADIG), to Allianz.
In 2013, after divesting the custodian banking business to BNP Paribas in a strategic realignment, Neumann founded the Active Asset Management division in the bank’s Equity Markets & Commodities (EMC) division, then sold to Société Générale with €5bn AUM as part of the restructuring process.
Neumann’s team continued to designed investment strategies for the subsidiary of Société Générale Lyxor Asset Management.
Last year, Yellowfin’s management team returned to Commerzbank as the new active asset management division, with €7bn AUM, was being set up.
“[Now], under the umbrella of Commerzbank, we have found the ideal structure to continue our boutique approach,” Neumann explained.
He added: “We can now scale our business to a large degree, and we can draw on the bank’s support functions and sales platform. In recent months, we have acquired a number of new clients and significantly increased our volume of managed assets. We intend to continue along this growth path.”
Commerzbank owns a 75.1% stake in Yellowfin, while the remaining part of the company is in the hands of Neumann and another eight people, according to the FAZ report.
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