SPEARPOINT chief investment officer Kevin Boscher believes that despite recent market turmoil, it is a great time to be involved in a newly-formed wealth management company.
The firm opened for business in Guernsey and Jersey only in June, but is already looking after more than £260m. of clients’ assets.
Mr Boscher (pictured) said the aim was to make that £1bn within a short period of time. And present financial market problems, he insists, will not deter its 30-plus Channel Islands staff from achieving that.
‘It’s absolutely the right time to be setting up a new business in this industry. There are a lot of clients out there who have had bad experiences over the past 12 months and it’s an opportunity for us to get out there and to show them that we do things differently.’
He said Spearpoint’s strategy was all about producing an absolute return.
‘The only way people are going to be able to make the most of the investment opportunities that the current turmoil is throwing up is to focus on absolute return investments and to be nimble, flexible and adaptable.
‘We are not in a buy and hold environment. We are in a very volatile environment where there is a lack of transparency about the future and things can change very quickly.’
Another area in which Spearpoint differs from many of its rivals is that all staff are shareholders in the business.
Mr Boscher said this helped to increase the desire to be successful as it aligned the interests of staff more with the clients.
‘It means we have to focus long-term in making sure that we meet the needs of our clients and grow the business profitably and successfully.
‘One criticism of late levelled at finance is it’s focused too short-term, but by having all our employees as stakeholders it means the focus is on building a long-term business.
‘It also means we are a locally-owned business and therefore in total control of our destination.
‘We are not aiming to be big and all things to all men, but we are looking to be profitable and to deliver a high level of service to our clients and shareholders.’
The firm is already serving several hundred clients and Mr Boscher said it was a good office to be part of.
‘The number of staff is shortly to go up to 36 and a lot of those have worked in the investment world for a number of years. A number of us have worked with each other previously and have got a pretty successful track record of building profitable and successful wealth management businesses.’
Spearpoint is based at Yorkshire House, Le Truchot, in Guernsey and at Liberation House in Jersey.
Article posted on 5th December, 2008 - 2.30pm
8 Article Comments
Abssolutely right, Mr Boscher: “There are a lot of clients out there who have had bad experiences over the past 12 months…”
However, I disagree that “it’s an opportunity for us to get out there and to show them that we do things differently”.
You would, of course, say that as it’s your job to do so, but I don’t think I would take up your offer. Certainly not in Guernsey – not after the Landsbanki Guernsey debacle.
Unless there’s a speedy resolution and depositors are repaid in full.
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Mr Ashbey – precisely what does investment management have to do with your gripe about Landsbanki and the lack of a retrospective depositors protection scheme ?
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David
It’s to do with the shattered reputation of Guernsey’s international finance centre in general.
It cannot be restored until Cheshire / LBG savers are repaid in full, as was the case with Icesavers in the UK.
Simple as that.
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Mr. Ashbey I totally disagree that the two are correlated but I accept your difference of opinion.
However, I must pick you up on your suggestion that LBG savers be repaid in full. Even if a depositors protection scheme to the same extent as the UK’s scheme had been in place, depositors would not have been repaid in full, merely to the extent of the £35k/£50k ceiling. Not quite the same thing. If you are of the view that depositors should be repaid in full, then what on earth would be the point of having a formal depositors protection scheme ?
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David
Mr Ashbey takes all opportunity to bring the LG issue to the notice of the reader. This he does whenever he sees the F word in any thread or Press article (F word is, of course, finance).
So far as the total protection of funds are concerned, I suspect Mr Ashbey sees LG as a UK parallel because of its take over of Cheshire BS, even though that took place well before the Icelandic banks iceberg began to break up.
One of the weaknesses of the Landsbanki depositors case is the clamour to blame anyone and everyone, and to spin associations, however tenuous, wherever they may appear.
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David
There was also a deposit compensation scheme in the UK but Chancellor Darling nevertheless honourably repaid all Icesavers the full amount.
The Isle of Man has pledged £150m of public funds to help stricken KSF IoM savers, near-bankrupt Iceland will honour its EEA deposit compensation commitments, and even the tiny Faeroe Islands, with a smaller population than Guernsey, has stumped up $50m to provide a loan to Iceland.
Guernsey has so far refused to follow suit. It is becoming increasingly clear that Guernsey cannot afford to bail out savers. On the other hand it equally cannot afford not to do so if it is to salvage the reputation of its finance centre.
I am well aware that my personal savings disaster is my own fault for not closing my account the moment I discovered that the Guernsey financial regulator had permitted the sale of my safe Cheshire Building Society Guernsey savings to an Icelandic bank that I’d never heard of.
I foolishly allowed myself to be reassured by Guernsey’s former good reputation and the parental guarantee, which we all now know is not worth the paper it is written on.
Stephen
I’m not blaming “anyone and everyone”. That’s not fair. I am praising Mr Darling and criticising the States of Guernsey for not bailing out stricken savers, the largest group of which are in Guernsey itself, ironically.
It is the GFSC that is blaming the States of Guernsey for not introducing a deposit compensation scheme as recommended by Andrew Edwards in his review of the Crown Dependencies TEN YEARS AGO.
They only finally implemented the scheme after Landsbanki Guernsey imploded. To add insult to injury, they said in their Billet d’Etat that they had done so as a result of Northern Rock and, amazingly, didn’t even mention Landsbanki as if it had never happened.
To be fair to Deputy Trott, he did mention in his speech leaked to the Guernsey Press that LG had been a “disaster”.
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Mr Ashbey.
I was talking about Landsbanki depositors generally for the clamour to blame anyone and everyone. Sorry for any misunderstanding,
I feel confident that much of the deposits with LG will be recoverable. I would like to see the Guernsey banks using some oif their £80 million a year tax windfall to make up any losses suffered by LG depositors. However, the greedy s**s are unlikely to dio their gruppy hands in their even grubbier trousers.
I think your comments about the introduction of the deposit proection scheme are spot on.
It did seem to be shooting oneself in the foot (or feet) to claim the repsonse was to the Northern Rock debacle, as that surely would have raised the response such as you state.
My personal view Mr Ashbey is that the GFSC have a number of questions to answer about their regulation of LG after March of this year. After all they have an obligation to look after clients as well as banks.
Perhaps it is time the bank consumer /depositor needs a separate regulator, as clearly the GFSC cannot be all things to all men when they are most needed.
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Mr Ashbey the UK Chancellor appears to have funded the 100% distribution to UK depositors out of the funds that he very questionably “froze” and which legally belonged to Kaupthing Isle of Man and Landsbanki Guernsey.
Now that’s what I call ironic.
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