CORNELIAN Asset Managers, a spin-out company founded by former Scotland rugby second-row Jeremy Richardson, has outlined ambitious plans to become a £1bn fund manager.
Jeremy Richardson’s bullish plans for the former Noble Asset Managers include the possibility of acquisitions of other private-client fund-management businesses, which he believes would take funds under management over the £1bn mark.
“We believe we could reach £1bn, conditional on a deal. Consolidation in the sector throws up lots of opportunities for us. But we’d like to grow assets organically to over £200 million before we do any deals, ” he said.
Richardson said that even without corporate activity, Cornelian Asset Managers can take funds under management from the current level of £152m to £500m within three to five years.
To help realise this, Cornelian Asset Managers has appointed John Jackson from National Australia Bank as chief operating officer.
Jackson was formerly Glasgow-based Clydesdale’s operations head and has also worked in NAB‘s Melbourne head office, where he led strategic and financial planning in the late 1990s. Returning to the UK, he has been responsible for implementing IFRS accounting standards across NAB’s European operations.
Cornelian Asset Managers has also signed up Allan Nicolson, a partner in law firm Maclay Murray & Spens, as a non-executive director. Its existing non-executives include chairman Graeme MacLennan (a founder of Edinburgh Fund Managers ) and David Ritchie (formerly Scottish Widows’s chief investment officer).
In 2002, Richardson hired two former Stewart Ivory directors, Marcus Brooks and Richard Allison, and he has recently recruited George Renouf — formerly of Citibank, Edinburgh Fund Managers and Ralph Institutional Advisers — to head up fixed-income and structured products investments. This takes Cornelian Asset Managers’ staff to 15.
Richardson said the business, which is classified as a discretionary fund manager, was renamed Cornelian earlier this year to avoid confusion with its former parent. Cornelians are orange gems that are meant to boost concentration and combat infertility and impotence. The fund management business bought itself out of Noble Group in 2000.
Last month, Cornelian Asset Managers launched two Open Ended Investment Companies (Oeics) — a balanced and a growth fund. “We were having to explain we were no longer part of the Noble Group and didn’t want any confusion when we launched the Oeics, ” said Richardson.
Cornelian Asset Managers is also aiming to expand relationships with lawyers and accountants who refer clients to fund managers, particularly in England.
Business development director Richard Allison said: “We’re putting in a lot of effort to develop outwith Scotland and recently won new business from Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, York and Manchester.”
Copyright 2005 SMG Sunday Newspapers Ltd.
This article on Cornelian Asset Managers was published in The Sunday Herald on 29 May 2005. Read it on Herald Scotland.