The most notable news at the company is … Obviously, my appointment… jokes aside it is the excellent work that the UBP teams are doing to ensure that we are among the front-runners on the topic of impact investing. This is something that has become absolutely essential for the Nordic investor base. Over the past three years we have also been developing an impact investing platform in London. The first impact fund investing in listed equities uses our own proprietary approach and measurement method which has been recognised as being among the best.
We have also recently decided to relocate our hedge fund capabilities (excluding the US equities teams) – hedge fund portfolio management, investment due diligence and operational due diligence – from New York to London and Geneva primarily, with some activities in Paris. New team hires are currently taking place in those three cities.
We are most known for … our long-term focus and entrepreneurial spirit that facilitates open discussions with clients and flexibility in terms of the solutions we put forward. We have been very successful with clients with our different approach to fixed income investing with our global and absolute return fixed income team. Based in Geneva and London, the team has a top-down approach with a particular focus on liquidity.UBP has a lot of very good and innovative expertise in house. But we are also known for sourcing unique partnerships to “fill in the gaps” in areas like Japanese equities or insurance-linked securities, for example.
Our plan in the Nordic region going forward is … to continue doing what we have always done, which is communicating with our clients on topics where we feel we can be of assistance and can add value through our expertise. Our ambition is to form strategic partnerships with our investors and to educate them on who we are and how we can add value through our unique approach. Our ambition will be to build tailor-made solutions, adapted to our clients’ needs through partnerships and new product developments.
The thing that sets us apart as a fund company is…the entrepreneurial spirit and the ear to the ground. I see this as rather refreshing and something that we believe gives us an edge over our peers. We believe that in order to survive in this relentlessly competitive landscape it is more important than ever to ensure that we have open dialogues with our investors to ensure that our product offering in house and beyond truly reflect what our investors need. The partnership model in place allows us to really cover our clients in the most comprehensive way.
The clearest trend among Nordic investors right now is… the incorporation of ESG factors. However, I don’t think ESG is a trend anymore: it’s evolved into a fundamental element of prudent investing.
Nordic investors may want to consider… many topics, but I’ll mention two that perhaps will resonate with our investors, namely emerging market debt and impact investing. Investors may want to revisit the topic of EMD and their approach to allocating to the sub-asset classes within EMD. The broad asset class has grown significantly in size and in the diversification available – as a result, investors are now able to be more selective than simply allocating to “EMD” or even considering local vs hard currency sovereigns or corporates. In the EMD universe, investors can now allocate to more specifically dedicated products like investment-grade corporates, short duration, or even frontier debt. These sub-segments were not large or diverse enough a decade ago, but they are today. In addition, I believe impact investing is a topic that we will hear more about this year. Investors’ mindsets are becoming attuned to ESG and the next step is to incorporate impact investing as well. I believe that there is additional value in looking beyond just the financial returns of companies. A chief investment officer we met with recently said in a meeting, “What is the point in trying to get the best returns for our future generations if there is no planet for us to live in?”
My favourite restaurant in the Nordic region is…difficult to pick but as I’m Swedish I will have a home bias and say it has to be restaurant Prinsen in Stockholm. It’s a classic and won’t find a better Wallenbergare anywhere else, in my opinion!
When I’m not in client meetings I like to spend my time … especiallythis time of the year I enjoy going skiing and in general travelling to new destinations. As most of my time is spent travelling back and forth in the Nordic countries (something many of my peers surely can relate to) I try to travel a bit further away in my spare time. This year I’d like to visit South Africa and the Garden Route.
Nina Jahanbin is the new face of Union Bancaire Privée in the Nordics. She is a familiar face to many Nordic investors having spent almost five years as the Nordic sales rep at PineBridge Investments, and before that at Neuberger Berman. She joined the Swiss family-owned business’ London office earlier this month as the head of sales for Nordic region and has spent her first few weeks getting to know the ropes at her new job. FBNW asked her to tell more about her new job and to share her thoughts on the Nordic investors and what they are currently looking at.
The most notable news at the company is … Obviously, my appointment… jokes aside it is the excellent work that the UBP teams are doing to ensure that we are among the front-runners on the topic of impact investing. This is something that has become absolutely essential for the Nordic investor base. Over the past three years we have also been developing an impact investing platform in London. The first impact fund investing in listed equities uses our own proprietary approach and measurement method which has been recognised as being among the best. We have also recently decided to relocateIf you’re new to Tell Media Group, create an account.
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