Marmondi: I’d like to take a step back and emphasize that at M&G Investments, we don’t have a flavour of the day or month approach. Our top story is that we are asset owner and asset manager which aligns or own interests with the ones of our clients. Thus we have been investing our and their money for 90 years on princi­ples of investing for the long-term in a respon­sible and active way and increa­singly align our invest­ments with environ­mental and social values which both our clients and M&G share.

Ipsaryaris: One topic which is gaining momentum for us is AMR (Anti­micro­bial Resistance). Egyptians and China were the first using micro­organism for the mana­gement of micro­bial infections. The golden era, however, started with the disco­very of peni­cillin. Anti­biotics have gone since on saving millions of lives in treating infections of any kind. With Covid we have even more under­stood how important anti­biotics are, well how bad the resistance of it can be.

Tiziani: Healthcare continues to be one of the mega trends for the coming decades. The inter­rela­tion­ship of demo­graphic change, shifting life­styles and inno­vations in the health­care sector ine­vitably lead to superior global growth with non-cyclical demand. With almost 30 years of expe­rience, as one of the largest health­care investors with over 20 health­care experts, we are more than convinced of the potential of special health­care themes, be it in drug deve­lopment or medical techno­logies and health­care services.

Varnholt: You can set up your own fund or certi­ficate with MRB. After a thorough ana­lysis of your require­ments, we will help you iden­tify the right domi­cile, structure and service providers. MRB will put in place all necessary port­folio mana­gement tools and provide all required support to ope­rate your fund success­fully. Our main focus is on liquid public assets. But currently we see a lot of interest in private equity and private debt as well. Our fund partners can get access to our network of inte­rested fund investors.

• Caduff: Do you have products that have a unique selling proposition of some kind?

Marmondi: Our global approach to global listed infra­structure seeks out oppor­tu­nities in both the deve­loped and the deve­loping world, with a reso­lute focus on long-term stabi­lity and inflation-protected growth. We aim to focus only in secu­rities that meet the ESG and Sustain­ability Criteria. On the fixed income side, our approach to High Yield FRNs offer a liquid strategy with high coupons and pretty much no duration that can benefit from rising interest rates in a risk-aware and diver­sified way.

Tiziani: Bellevue is a specia­lized pure-play asset manager with an entre­pre­neurial-driven culture and as such proudly inde­pendent. Those qualities guide us to sustained growth themes and enable us to unlock excep­tional upside potential. Hence, all of our strategies are bench­mark-agnostic and establish a sound bridge between promising investment themes and diver­sifi­cation for our investors. To achieve that, we even sometimes have to swim against the current and always be on the lookout for inno­vation.

Ipsaryaris: Our recently launched «Natural Capital Transition Global Equity Strategy», which is aligned to SDGs 12, 13, 14 and 15. The strategy invests in companies providing in solutions or are transi­tioning their business models across the four key themes of sustain­able land, sustain­able oceans, the circular eco­nomy, and climate change and important to note: Aviva Investors will donate 5bps of its mana­gement fee to fund eco­system resto­ration projects.

Varnholt: Launching your own fund with MRB provides a number of oppor­tu­nities and advan­tages: leverage your existing client base, expand into new markets and adver­tise your invest­ment compe­tence with a certified track-record. Operating your own fund business generally reduces the regu­latory comple­xity typi­cally found in expanding wealth mana­gement busi­nesses. There are also potential cost savings from more efficient tax treatment and insti­tutional type trans­action fees.

Derlokova: Indeed, we do, rather than taking a one-size-fits all approach, we listen and work with our clients to support them with scalable and flexible solutions that address any gaps or challenges they face across their investment chain. As mentioned previously, this Whole Office approach enables us to help clients look at their whole orga­nisation from supporting them in controlling costs through to their focus on alpha gene­ration by helping them improve their investment process. We provide front office capa­bi­lities through comple­mentary trading services, together with fully inte­grated middle and back office service solutions to lower risk and increase opera­tional efficiency. We are also helping asset managers and asset allo­cators opti­mise their investment process to deliver enhanced outcomes.

• Caduff: Lugano is the third largest financial centre in Switzerland. How important is it for you?

Ipsaryaris: As you mentioned, it is the 3rd largest financial centre in Switzerland and as such next to Zurich and Geneva key for Aviva Investors. The client base we have in Lugano is aligned with our investment philo­sophy when it comes to sustain­ability and towards driving change for a better tomorrow.

Derlokova: Lugano is becoming a renewed hub for hedge funds, private equity boutiques, commo­dities trading companies, as well as block­chain deve­lopers and fintechs. Switzerland is a strategic market for Northern Trust and Lugano repre­sents the cherry of the Swiss cake which completes our ambition to support our clients and partners all over the region.

Rula Ipsaryaris is based in Zurich and focuses on growth oppor­tu­nities for insti­tu­tional clients and whole­sale customers in her region. She has over 30 years in the financial service sector. Prior to joining Aviva Investors, she worked as Senior Sales Execu­tive and Deputy Head Switzerland & Liechtenstein for Vanguard. She gained her profes­sional expe­rience in various leading positions in the fiduciary industry with an American broker, both inter­national and Swiss Private Banks, as well as with one of the world­wide largest asset custodians. Rula Ipsaryaris holds a CAS (Certi­ficate of Advanced Studies) in Sales and Distri­bution Mana­gement from Lucerne Uni­ver­sity as well as Fiduciary with Swiss Federal Accre­ditation.

Marco Marmondi is a Sales Repre­sen­tative at M&G Inter­na­tional Invest­ments Switzerland AG. He’s respon­sible for Ticino and helps for distri­bution in the Romandie. Prior to this he worked for Tabula Investment Mana­gement, an ETFs provided based in London across Sales, Marketing and Investor Relations. Marco Marmondi holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Mana­gement from the Uni­ver­sity of Lausanne (HEC) and a Master of Science (MSc) in Financial Markets and Investments from Skema Business School.

Sandro Tiziani joined Bellevue Asset Mana­gement in 2015. Before taking up his position as Head of Sales Switzerland & Italy, he worked in various roles at Bank Julius Baer in Zurich and Hong Kong as well as Financial Strategies Advisor & Derivatives Sales Switzerland at Bank J. Safra Sarasin. Sandro Tiziani holds a Master's degree in Finance from the Uni­ver­sity of Zurich.

Volker Varnholt is Head of Business Deve­lopment at Zurich based asset manager MRB. After studying at the Uni­ver­sity of Lausanne (HEC) and the Uni­ver­sity of St. Gallen (HSG), he began his career in invest­ment banking, as a fixed income trader at Salomon Brothers in London and Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt. Since summer 2000, Volker Varnholt has been living and working in Zurich. For the last nine years he has been involved in structuring fund solutions at PMG Investment Solutions. Before that, he worked at Clariden Leu (now Credit Suisse) in asset mana­gement and at Julius Baer.