ASSET MANAGEMENT
COVER FEATURE: MAXIME CARMIGNAC, CARMIGNAC
“Carmignac is back” Carmignac is well-known as one of Europe’s leading independent asset managers but less well-known is the quiet transformation that has taken place at the firm in recent years. By Luke Jeffs Central to that effort is Maxime Carmignac, the Managing Director of Carmignac’s UK Branch and the daughter of the company’s founder Edouard Carmignac, now chairman and Chief Investment Officer of the firm. Maxime first joined the family firm in 2006 after a spell in investment banking in London and Paris, and two years at management consultancy McKinsey before leaving in 2008 for a hedge fund in New York. She rejoined the firm in 2010 as a portfolio manager and became managing director of the Carmignac UK branch in 2013, a position she holds alongside her membership of the firm’s Strategic Development Committee and her chairman-
ship of the Strategic Product Committee. Speaking in late January from the company’s plush London offices, located a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace, Carmignac reflects on a solid performance in 2021 and looks ahead optimistically to the remainder of this year. “Looking back on 2021, I am most pleased about the performance of some of our funds and the subsequent positive flows. We were able last year, in a challenging fixed income environment, to have all of our fixed income range in positive territory in terms of performance whereas all the benchmarks were negative so it was a perfect mirror in terms of performance versus benchmark.” She added: “Carmignac is half fixed income and half equity so it was important for us to show clients that we are
Reflecting that performance, we have raised more money and we have just disclosed an additional €3.7bn in 2021 of net flows which underlines the fact that now, Carmignac is back. Winter 2021/22
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here managing positive returns in a challenging fixed income market. This performance was partly thanks to our unconstrained mandate. Rose Ouahba, our head of fixed income, has built a strong team within our fixed income range while I am proud also of what our equity long-short fund has achieved, which is showing a sixth year of top decile performance.” Ouahba, who joined Carmignac in 2007, is one of 53 fund managers and analysts in London and Paris handling some €41.7billion (£34.8bn) of assets under management across 23 investment strategies. A long-term, convictions-based investment manager, Carmignac has relied on French financial investment advisers to distribute its products. Today, their network of professional partners covers the entire country and they are considered ambassadors for the company. Carmignac funds are currently available in 15 countries worldwide. Looking back on 2021, Carmignac said: “Reflecting that performance, we have raised more money and we have just disclosed an additional €3.7bn in 2021 of net flows which underlines the fact that now, Carmignac is back.” This comment is a thinly-veiled reference to the low-point in the company’s 30 years history. In June 2019, Carmignac paid a €30m fine as part of a settlement to end a tax investigation. More than two years on, however, Maxime Carmignac is keen to stress the changes that have taken place at the firm. “Carmignac today is different from the Carmignac of the past. Carmignac used to be a bit of one man show, with one product and one strategy. This enabled spectacular growth between 2000 and 2010 but Carmignac has changed over time so today we have a wide bench of
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