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The creation of an Employee Ownership Trust enables the efficient transfer of ownership, providing continuity and stability, and reaffirms Albourne’s commitment to remain strictly non-discretionary and independent.
We continue to believe that our business model promotes our clients’ best interests by avoiding conflicts of interests created when Advisers also manage discretionary products.
Since March 2024, we have been celebrating our 30th anniversary with the tag line, “the road less travelled.” Today, we want to explain a corporate action we have been working on for the last ten months that will further enshrine our differentiated approach to providing advice, research and implementation services to many of the world’s great investors and reinforce our commitment to being a multi-generational firm.
On 11 February , we submitted to our U.K. regulator Albourne’s plans to establish an Employee Ownership Trust (“EOT”), which will buy a majority stake in our company. If the EOT transaction proceeds, following regulatory approvals from our U.K. and other regulators, the EOT will purchase Simon Ruddick’s and Guy Ingram’s entire stakes, most of Sam Lewis’s stake and two smaller stakes from retired employees.
Our path has always been to provide fiercely independent, non-discretionary, fixed-fee services. This was different from the market norm when we started. It is even more different today.
Simply stated, we do not run:
- OCIO mandates;
- funds of funds;
- hedge funds or private market funds;
- interval funds (to access retail) or;
- co-investment funds.
We have never been able to see how we can do the best possible job for our clients while also competing with them. Likewise, we cannot see how we can expect the best equal access to information from the fund managers that we evaluate while also competing with them. We preach greater LP-GP alignment for our industry. We live by those exact same values.
Albourne has always been proactive in managing succession. From inception, we have actively distributed equity participation to those who have made a proven contribution to the business. We have transitioned the role of CEO; two of the three places on the Executive Committee; and more than a dozen of the Function Head, Region Head and C-level positions on our Corporate Planning Council.
The EOT represents our coming-of-age as a multi-generational firm. It completes the alignment of interest between our clients and the Albourne staff who advise them today.
To hear more on the rationale behind the EOT from our CEO John Claisse and Chair Simon Ruddick, please click on the film below.
We do not foresee any impact on client services from the EOT transaction and wish to provide reassurance that we are not “in play” or distracted by trying to line up an external buyer. We think that this transaction is a ‘win-win-win,’ and we welcome any questions you might have.
ABOUT ALBOURNE:
Albourne[1] was established in London in March 1994 as an independently owned adviser specializing in alternative assets. Albourne’s mission is to empower our clients to be the best investors that they can be, by providing advisory services, research, implementation support and data, news & analytics. With over 350 clients,[2] including leading public and corporate pension plans, endowments, foundations, family offices, sovereign wealth funds and financial intermediaries, we benefit from the quality and scale of our clients, which have over $750bn[3] invested in alternative assets. Albourne is one of the largest alternatives advisory firms, with 600+ employees, including 400+ analysts, in 11 offices around the world.
WEBSITE: www.albourne.com
CONTACT: Clare Cuming, Head of Communications: contactus@albourne.com
[1] “Albourne” and “we” refer to the group of companies comprising Albourne Partners Limited and its subsidiaries.
[2] The aggregate number of client entities for the Albourne Group worldwide. Clients may be subscribed to multiple services. All numbers are as of 1 January 2025.
[3] This is a conservative aggregation of the estimated investments in alternatives (where known) of Albourne Group clients worldwide, using public sources where possible.
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