Emerging markets account for 85% of the world’s growth and more than 50% of global GDP. But only 22% of global market capitalization, 12% of indices, and typically 6-7% of investor allocation. It is for this reason that Bruno Vanier and Michel Audeban created a management company specializing in emerging markets: Gemway . “We were convinced – and we are – that there is great potential in continental Europe for an emerging markets expert with a narrow range of funds of a reasonable size,” Audeban told FundsPeople .  

Its commitment is that of an enterprising company, very humane and aligned with the interests of its clients. 83.8% of the company’s capital is held by its founders and employees and another 8.5% is held by La Financière de l’Echiquier . “Selling our company is not an option at this time. However, a partnership with a broader structure would be conceivable. Being profitable gives us the necessary peace of mind not to rush”.

range

Gemway’s offering is simple and clear: three funds invested in SRI-labeled emerging equities: GemEquity, GemAsia and GemChina and one fund invested in hard currency emerging sovereign debt with an ESG focus: GemBond. All of them are classified as SFDR Article 8.

“Our idea is not to exceed a capacity of 5,000 million euros for all funds in the part of shares, including 3,500 million euros for GemEquity. Beyond that, management is difficult and achieving good performance is complicated. Our goal is to keep a small, highly motivated and specialized team, with high-quality people who stay with us for a long time”, he explains.

The funds are actively managed and are not restricted by any index. “The management of 1,300 million euros allows great investment freedom. We can close our positions in an hour and we have an active share of over 60%. This would not be possible with a large number of assets under management.”

The ability to respond to our investors is essential for them. “We send out our monthly reports on the first day of the month, while some competitors’ reports may go out in the middle of the month. We also try to respond to all of our customers on the same day.”

Marketing is also essential for them. “Since our creation, we have chosen to hire a marketing manager. We share stories that private bankers can tell their clients and that make our investments understandable to an individual. Every month we write the biography of an entrepreneur, a travel diary through an emerging country and a specific case of investing in a company”, says Audeban.

According to the co-founder, all of this serves to democratize the asset class and demonize emerging markets. “There’s one striking example: Most people, including very competent advisers, think that the volatility of an emerging markets fund is huge. However, if you look at the numbers over ten years, the volatility is quite comparable to that of a European equity fund.”

Reasons for registering funds in Spain

They plan to reach €2 billion in assets by the end of 2023. Since its inception, Gemway Assets has had almost half of its clients outside of France. “After Israel, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Andorra and Italy, Spain is an important investment market for us. We want to strengthen our presence there, where we have just added our products to the Allfunds and Inversis platforms, in addition to registering our range of funds with the CNMV. In Italy, we have hired a commercial, we have already raised 100 million euros and we want to go further”.

After a fruitful collaboration with Altment Capital Partners in the Andorran market, they have wanted to expand their association with them in the Spanish market, via Solventis, a country for which they are firmly committed. As for the products, they would like to develop the bond part and, in particular, their GemBond fund. “We are thinking of launching an additional equity product later, possibly on a specific country in the same way as we did with China.”

*News translated by Google translator.