Invesco Is Shopping Around for an OCIO Business

Invesco is looking to get into the outsourced chief investment officer business by acquiring an OCIO firm or team.

The $1.2 trillion investment manager has approached at least two firms, including TIAA’s abruptly shuttered OCIO business, about a potential acquisition, according to sources familiar with the matter.

这样的提议s are not entirely unexpected for an asset management firm like Invesco, according to Dennis Sugino, founder of OCIO consultancy Kansa Advisory. “It doesn’t surprise me that more money managers want to follow in the footsteps of BlackRock and other organizations to get in the OCIO business,” he said by phone Thursday.

A deal between Invesco and TIAA would have made sense in at least one aspect: The majority of TIAA’s OCIO staff were based in Houston, where Invesco has a major office, according to one former TIAA staffer.

“They didn’t want to start from scratch because it would take too long to get a track record,” the source said about Invesco’s desire to acquire a team, rather than to start its own business.

然而，源头表明，有几个原因，为什么融合没有发生。首先，在决定关闭之前，TIAA没有购物OCIO业务。在其关闭的消息之后，“关于十几个”OCIO企业表示，他们对前TIAA员工表示，他们至少对TIAA集团表示感兴趣。刘易商是在公开风险后变得兴趣的公司之一。

Another reason the deal didn’t happen, according to the source, is that part of TIAA's internal assets were invested in the business as seed capital. TIAA was not willing to share those performance figures with Invesco, the source said.

The TIAA staffer also cited the two firms’ clashing investment styles as a reason the deal wouldn’t have worked. “Invesco is about using their proprietary products,” the source said by phone. “TIAA is more of an institutional, university endowment approach. Invesco wanted to put together things and offer it to the market as a solution. TIAA was better at customizing solutions.” A spokesperson for TIAA declined to comment.

[IIDeep Dive:‘Angry’ Clients, ‘Shocked’ Staff After TIAA Pulls the Plug on Outsourced-CIO Arm]

TIAA isn’t the only OCIO business that Invesco has reportedly tried to acquire.

One OCIO business owner said that they had been approached by Invesco about a potential acquisition, but that talks didn’t proceed past the early stages. The OCIO executive said that they got a sense that Invesco had seen other money managers get into the business and was hoping to do the same.

“They said that they want to be able to offer the full suite of services to clients, including OCIO... but when I pressed them for any live leads in OCIO I didn’t hear any, so I interpreted that as an aspiration for clients rather than identified actual potential clients,” the source said. A spokesperson for Invesco declined to comment on the matter.

If Invesco were to acquire an OCIO business or team, the firm would likely have to manage conflicts of interest, according to two OCIO consultants.

“You get inevitable conflict situations where are they doing it to sell their own products or have other intentions in mind,” Sugino said.

根据Sugino的说法，提供OCIO服务的一些货币管理者通过同意在他们包含在OCIO组合中时不收取他们自己的产品的费用。“但仍然，对于一个根本没有冲突，”仍然是最佳的，“他补充道。

Brad Alford, the founder of OCIO search consultancy Alpha Capital Management, agreed that potential conflicts of interest at money management firms is a concern for OCIO clients.

“The tricky part for money managers is that a lot of clients want pure-play consultants,” Alford said.

Still, other clients are willing to hire money managers as their OCIOs. One of his firm’s recent search clients, for example, ended up hiring JPMorgan Chase & Co.

“Everyone has a desire to own an OCIO,” Alford added. “The Invescos of the world have to be careful not to bite the hand that feeds.”