Paris and New York, December 13th, 2013 – The Paris-based Anti-Benchmark asset manager TOBAM today announced the opening of an office in New York and the appointment of two representatives dedicated to supporting TOBAM’s growth across North America.
Yves Choueifaty, President and CIO, created TOBAM in 2005 and designed the Anti-Benchmark model. It is a unique quantitative investment approach based on original, patented research. By maximizing diversification, the Anti-Benchmark aims to capture the full risk premium available on the market, and to materially reduce volatility compared to market-cap weighted indices. The diversification benefits also mean that the Anti-benchmark endeavours to outperform traditional market cap weighted indices and seeks to avoid the damaging concentration pitfalls of the benchmark.
TOBAM manages 5.4 billion dollars of assets as of November 2013, doubling assets year-to-date. Since its inception in 2005, TOBAM has built its presence globally and today over 90% of TOBAM’s assets under management come from outside of France. The company is majority employee-owned, besides two external shareholders: Amundi and CalPERS.
Today’s announcement reflects the highly international character of TOBAM and its ongoing commitment to the North American region, as evidenced by previous milestones achieved in the region: in 2009 TOBAM established a partnership with third-party marketer Investeam in Canada. In 2011 TOBAM received SEC approval as an Investment Adviser, following an allocation from the US pension CalPERS. Again in 2011, the United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded TOBAM a US patent for its Anti-Benchmark Model.
The New York office will further strengthen TOBAM’s footprint for developing relationships with North American investors. It will be managed by Stephane Detobel and Francis Verpoucke, both Managing Directors of the newly created and fully-owned TOBAM North America. They will be responsible for business development and relationship management with US investors.
Christophe Roehri, Global Head of Business Development with TOBAM, declared: “We see major potential for TOBAM’s Anti-Benchmark strategy in the US. Our strategy is a natural fit for long term investors, which is well understood in the US as well as other parts of the world. Given its size and sophistication, the US should be one of our largest markets and we are investing the means to achieve our ambition.”
Yves Choueifaty, President of TOBAM, declared: “TOBAM first broke into US market in 2011 with CalPERS as our first investor. Since then we have significantly continued our development and now work with several leading US institutions, pension funds and endowments. Opening a New York office and appointing two renowned, senior industry executives confirms our commitment to the US market”.
Biography of Stephane Detobel
Stephane Detobel joins TOBAM North America after having spent 12 years with Amundi in Europe and North America. He began his career in 1993 as senior auditor at Deloitte Belgium. He subsequently joined State Street Global Advisor in Brussels as Head of Client Servicing for Continental Europe. In 2001 he joined Amundi Benelux where he opened the Brussels office and grew the business up to $15 billion in assets under management. In 2008 Stephane created Amundi USA to start and run Amundi’s activities in the US.
Stephane holds a Master in Law from the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) and a Bachelor in Finance from the Catholic University of Leuven. Stephane holds a degree from the European Financial Analysts Association.
Biography of Francis Verpoucke
Francis Verpoucke joins TOBAM North America after having spent 12 years with Amundi in Europe and North America. He began his career in 1996 as an auditor at PriceWaterhouseCoopers Belgium. He subsequently joined State Street Global Advisor in Brussels as Client Service officer, before moving to Amundi, where he covered the Dutch, Belgian and Luxembourg market. In 2008, Francis joined Amundi USA to be in charge of business development and client servicing for US investors.
Francis holds a Master’s degree in Business and Finance from the Catholic University of Leuven and a Master degree in Accounting and Audit. Francis holds a degree from the European Financial Analysts Association.
Contact details
TOBAM North America, Inc.
41 Madison Avenue, 31st floor
New York, NY 10010
Tel.: + (646) 829 1621
