Pioneer Investments today announced that it has acquired Vanderbilt Capital Advisors, LLC, a New York-based investment firm specializing in separately managed fixed-income strategies and structured finance products for institutional investors. Vanderbilt has approximately $13 billion in assets under management and is one of the leaders in the marketplace for collateralized debt obligations (CDOs).
"This acquisition is part of our global plan to grow our institutional business," said Dario Frigerio, Chief Executive Officer of Pioneer Global Asset Management S.p.A. "As a rapidly expanding global asset management firm, it is important to have capabilities across a broad range of asset classes. We see opportunities for specialist CDO and related capabilities throughout Europe."
Vanderbilt was the fifth-largest manager of CDO assets that invests in asset-backed securities in the U.S., according to the most recent ranking of CDO managers by Standard & Poor's (as of Q3 2005).
Vanderbilt, which had been employee-owned, will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pioneer Investment Management USA Inc. Vanderbilt will retain its staff and continue to operate out of offices in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Emad A. Zikry will remain President of Vanderbilt and report to Osbert Hood, President and Chief Executive Officer of Pioneer Investment Management USA Inc.
About Pioneer Investments
Pioneer Investments is a global investment management group (the "Group") with over €164 billion of assets under management as at 31 March 2006. We provide a wide range of investment solutions including mutual funds, alternative investments and structured products to clients that include institutions, corporations, intermediaries and private investors around the world. Institutional clients account for over €35 billion.
The Group has over 77 years experience in traditional investments, providing appropriate investment strategies to our clients and partners. Our flagship mutual fund, Pioneer Fund, is the third oldest mutual fund in the US and exemplifies Pioneer Investments' history of consistently managing money and helping investors pursue their financial goals. From our global investment centres in Dublin, Milan, Boston and Singapore and regional centres in Warsaw and Prague, we apply our bottom up investment process supported by our own internal fundamental and quantitative research capabilities. We believe that the route to adding value is experienced portfolio managers working in concert with dedicated career analysts generating proprietary research; the addition of a strong quantitative discipline provides screening and risk management strengthens our process.
Pioneer Alternative Investments (PAI) is the Group's hedge fund business and has its main operations in London, Milan and New York, Dublin being the investment centre. PAI provides single strategy funds as well as a range of funds of hedge funds. PAI had total assets under management of €4.4 billion as at end of March 2006.
With offices in 18 countries around the world, the Group employs more than 1,800 staff.
Pioneer Investments and Pioneer Alternative Investments are trading names of the Pioneer Global Asset Management S.p.A. group of companies (PGAM). PGAM is a wholly owned subsidiary of UniCredito Italiano S.p.A.
As a result of the merger of UniCredito and Bayerische Hypo und- Vereinsbank A.G. (HVB), HVB's asset management divisions are being integrated with Pioneer Investments. This integration will bring total assets at Pioneer Investments to over 270 billion euros.
Dublin/ Milan/ Boston: 26 April 2006