Our group company Cohen Brothers Financial Services Israel offers local placement agent, third-party marketing advisory services towards Israel institutional investors, family investors and duly qualified investors since 2007. In Israel, we have advised in excess of 10 best of breed carefully selected world majors and midsize high performers managers, from the US and Europe.

 

Israel is a liberal jurisdiction for professional investors and an attractive somewhat for many still ''under the radar'' USD 400 billion+ AUM equivalent DC Pension market with deep international diversification requisite, which offers potentially high rewards to the most competitive managers from anywhere around the world to market their products thru the advisory of a professional long established international-trained placement agent on the ground. 

 

Here is what one of our former clients, Amundi - world top 10 major asset manager with in excess to 1 trillion USD AUM equivalent, which we represented under exclusivity in Israel for four years, had to say about our services:

 

'Andre Cohen and Cohen Brothers Israel have been Amundi's third-party marketer and placement agent for the Israeli market from 2010 to 2013. During that period they have been able to generate business for our alternative investment range of products to our entire satisfaction.'

Amundi, former Head of International Distribution Jean-François Pinçon

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   FOCUS : Why a Placement Agent?

 

For the general partner of a private equity fund

 

• A key intermediation role in the marketplace: A considerable 60 % of investors have committed to funds managed by firms that have initially approached them through placement agents. 20% of investors have frequently made commitments to funds pitched to them by placement agents.* 

• Essential in the diffusion of innovation: the vast majority of investors (92%) say emerging fund managers had utilized placement agents to approach them.* 

• Essential to address certain investor categories : Save for the largest private equity firms that can maintain large investor relations’ teams, using placement agents may be the only way to reach a multitude of investors “below radar” of international markets, such as small and medium-sized private banks, banks, insurance companies and family offices which never appear in international rankings but still play an important role in asset commitments. 

• Second to none local investor knowledge: Certain placement agents have unbeatable knowledge of certain local markets. 

*source: Preqin research report August 2009, poll of 50 prominent US institutional investors

 

For the manager of a mutual or alternative investment fund range

  

The promotion of an open-ended mutual or alternative investment fund range by an external sales team, or Third Party Marketing, has a number of strong advantages : 

 

• Third Party Marketing enables fund managers to enter new foreign markets with virtually no investment risk by comparison to setting up a local team or to acquiring a local fund management company, both development mode implying respectively substantial recurring fixed costs before any revenues are generated or substantial initial investment 

• Following up markets with strong domestic features with a sales team headquartered abroad & going to and fro, has sometimes proven little efficiency compared to the use of a Third Party Marketer’s team who is highly connected and viewed as part of the local market

• The Third Party Marketer brings to an asset manager a deep knowledge of a local market and its participants and to local investors the closeness and local presence that are essential to the creation and development of relationships with a new fund manager. 

• Fund managers profit from the Third Party Marketer’s portfolio of relationships with local investors and sharp expertise in the promotion of sophisticated and plain vanilla products as well. The latter has a long history of relationship with local investors in the markets in which it is based as well as a second to none expertise in the tenders originating from such markets. 

• Third Party Marketing is a valuable option for an asset manager to access or enhance penetration in markets which are perceived as restricted to foreign competition, with high barriers to entry, non-core or risky.