The CN Tower in downtown Toronto.Michelle Siu/The Canadian Press
Switzerland-based money manager Unigestion SA has chosen Canada as its next growth market, opening an office in Toronto and seeking to bring in assets of more than $3-billion in coming years.
The Geneva-based firm runs about $16-billion for clients around the world. Some of that is managed in-house using low-volatility equity strategies, and the firm also constructs custom portfolios of investments in hedge funds and private equity funds for clients. Customers include family offices, endowments and pension plans.
The firm hired Heather Cooke, a partner from pension advisory firm Mercer, to start hunting for more business in Canada.
Unigestion has spent three years researching Canada as a market, Ms. Cooke said in an interview. The firm now runs $500-million here after having picked up two mandates in recent years.
The firm was drawn by the sophistication of Canadian investors, who are interested in more complicated strategies, as well as by the size of the market, she said.
"They don't pick every market," said Ms. Cooke. Depending on whose numbers you use, "Canada is either the fourth or fifth largest institutional money management market, so they felt their strategies on global low-volatility equity and more customized solutions on alternatives were suited to our market."
Unigestion is in the process of hiring a second person for the Toronto office.
In addition to Geneva, the firm has offices in Zurich, London, Paris and Singapore. There is also a research group in New York that covers hedge funds and private equity funds.