Russell Investments and Hamilton Lane Strike Strategic Partnership Deal

Russell Investments, an outsourced CIO provider and investment solutions firm, and Hamilton Lane, a private markets investment management firm, have entered into a strategic partnership, the firms announced Tuesday.

Hamilton Lane has also purchased a $90 million stake in Russell Investments, according to the announcement. The strategic partnership will give Russell’s global clientele access to Hamilton Lane’s private market capabilities, including the firm’s research and technology.

“This partnership is about catapulting a leading-edge platform that offers end-to-end capabilities across the market-cap spectrum, and frankly, there aren’t many partners in the world that can rival Hamilton Lane’s three-decade experience in private market solutions,” Michelle Seitz, chairman and CEO of Russell Investments, said by phone.

Russell is the world’s fifth-largest investment adviser with $2.5 trillion in assets under advisement and $323.7 billion in assets under management, according to the press release. The firm was established 85 years ago with the intention of working primarily in public market securities, and later expanded into private markets. Hamilton Lane has a nearly 30-year, global tenure in private markets and has $657 billion in assets under management and supervision.

The partnership between the two firms comes at a time of increasing market complexity, with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic still rippling through the economy.

“This is a very timely partnership and a unique pairing of our two firms’ specialists,” Seitz said.

Through the partnership, the firms also aim to democratize access to private markets, which have notoriously high barriers to entry.

“It’s a reality of the private markets that they are not uniformly accessible to all investors,” Erik Hirsch, vice chairman and head of strategic initiatives of Hamilton Lane, said by phone. “We think one of the benefits that we can bring to clients who are trying to build out private market portfolios is access.”

According to Seitz, the goal is to help clients “successfully navigate complex markets while at the same time address rising financial security needs.”

“If we’re able to successfully do that, which we have high confidence that we will, then there will be success that follows to both firms, in terms of continuing to grow our top line,” she said.