Hilbert Investment Solutions, a Paris-based independent advisory and financial engineering firm, is gearing up to increase its footprint in the UK market following the approval from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to sell products in the UK in mid-November, and the launch of its London office.
The firm can now offer its cross asset structured solutions engineering services (equities, rates, and commodities) to a range of distribution channels in the UK market including institutional investors (pension funds), asset managers, insurance companies, private banks, wealth managers, distributors, independent financial advisers, and family offices, according to Steve Lamarque (pictured), partner at Hilbert Investment Solutions.
"Demand for structured products in the UK market has increased over the last two years including both the institutional and advisory side. We are going to replicate our model in the UK market which is based on private placements for institutional, professional investors and eligible counterparties, but the ultimate goal is to enter the discretionary fund management (DFM) and wealth management segments of the market," said Lamarque. "We want to build a strong offering in the mid-term for wealth managers and as the firm evolves we will look into opportunities with high-net worth individuals (HNWI) and private banking investors."
According to Lamarque, the initial focus of Hilbert's offering in the UK will be on a range of capital protected structured deposits and bespoke structured solutions. "We have some [structured deposits] already in the pipelines for the UK market," said Lamarque. "In terms of payoff types and underlyings, we are not going to be another provider of dual-index autocalls as we believe the market is a bit crowded on that area."
Instead, Hilbert will build its offering around single index/stock autocall deposits and "be reactive to what are clients want and the mandate we get from them".
"We can leverage our dedicated structuring capabilities and tailor them to meet our clients' needs," said Lamarque. "Our core offering is protected deposits but we do a lot of bespoke placements, and we can also wrap the product in different vehicles if that's what the client wants."
Hilbert has used an undisclosed "core list of counterparties" over the last three years as investors in the French market "prefer the same paper" but the firm is looking to expand and adapt its counterparties for the UK market and will "adjust its set up in terms of the use of counterparty providers".
Lamarque said the firm has already hired two specialist sales people "from the structured products industry to cover the UK market", who will join in January, in addition to Elisa Deniau, former cross-asset structured investment solutions sales assistant at SG CIB, who joined Hilbert Investment Solutions, as an associate in September.
Hilbert was established in 2013 by Lamarque, formerly head of structured products at Old Mutual.