Investment Management
“The primary aim of the Group is to generate sustainable revenues, enhance returns, reduce risk and optimise WestLB’s investment portfolio.”
The Investment Management Business Unit is responsible globally for the investment portfolios of the Corporate and Capital Markets Division. Asset classes range from traditional credit investments to alternative asset classes such as private equity, hedge funds, and distressed debt/non-performing loans.
The primary aim of the Group is to generate sustainable revenues, enhancing returns, reduce risks, and optimise WestLB’s investment portfolio. This is achieved by going across a wide spectrum of asset classes, product types, sectors and countries.
The Group operates from competence centres in London, Düsseldorf, Dublin, New York, and Tokyo which support the restructuring of the Bank’s portfolio’s composition, re-allocation of asset, and active steer of the portfolio to optimise the Bank’s principal position.
Investment Management is organised in six Investment Groups:
- Private Equity Investments – managing portfolios, investment in private equity deals
- Credit Investments
- Distressed Investments
- Hedge Funds
- Structured Investment Solutions
- Alternative & Joint Venture Investments.
Private Equity Investments entails investments into private equity, either directly or via joint venture / fund concepts. It has three main areas of focus:
- German Private Equity manages the portfolio of mostly German equity investments & makes new investments with a focus on German “Mittelstand” companies
- Global Financial Services invests in private equity deals in the global financial services sectors, targeting opportunities in the banking, leasing, consumer and commercial finance and speciality finance markets
- Private Equity Funds invests in private equity funds and currently manages two fund portfolios (Europe and USA). It manages a portfolio of over 70 investments in companies and private equity funds.
Credit Investments has two principal portfolios; Public Finance and Credit.
- Public Finance has two main platforms (Dublin & Düsseldorf) with two key
investment activities:
- Direct investments into public sector assets including issuance of covered bonds, and
- Pfandbrief issuance as a primary vehicle for public sector funding German Private Equity
- Credit has a regional split (APAC, EMEA and Americas) with three key investment
activities:
- Direct investments with a primary focus on corporate and financial asset classes,
- Structured credit investments acquired either internally or through the market, and
- Leveraged products, mainly through the Silver Birch CLO team.
Credit Investments has established service level agreements with several WestLB legal entities (e.g. Luxembourg, Milan, Tokyo) where servicing of assets is facilitated locally, with the active portfolio management of these books concentrated in the Group’s competence centres (Düsseldorf, Dublin, London, New York).
Distressed Investments makes proprietary investments in the stressed and distressed market either on single asset or Non-Performing Loans portfolio basis. The Group’s German Corporate Restructuring team has a specific focus on supporting mid-cap corporates in difficult / turn-around situations.
Hedge Fund focuses on building a portfolio with structured alternative managed account investment products. In addition, the Hedge Fund business includes the trading activities of Banque d’Orsay.
Structured Investments specialises in providing solutions to optimise and mitigate specific risk for both the Bank and its clients, with three main areas of focus:
- Structured Products Group specialises in structuring, arrangement and placement of transactions to optimise the tax position for the Bank and its clients
- Pensions & Life Insurance Solutions develops solutions linked to pensions, life insurance and longevity risks
- Basinghall Finance provides specialist mortgage products in Europe.
Alternative & Joint Venture Investments provides specialist alternative investment products through JV concepts, leveraging third party assets and expertise to include third party investors. Such specialist managers include:
- Brightwater specialises in the management of structured finance portfolios with approximately $38 billion of securities in several off-balance sheet vehicles, SIVs, CDOs, CLO and an internal US leverage loan fund
- Silverbirch manages the Silver Birch CLO I (€300 million Collateralized Loan Obligation of European leveraged loans) and is responsible for the fund’s fiduciary obligations to noteholders.
Additionally, there is a global team, Investment Monitoring & Support, which supports these Investment Groups.