Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) has launched its Emerging Manager Program (EM Program). Seeking to provide capital, strategic advice and infrastructure solutions to emerging asset managers, “EM Program” will partner with long-only (equity and fixed income) and alternative minority and women-owned asset managers.
The program has a specific emphasis on minority and women-owned asset managers, the program will be headed by Clara Harris. The new program will focus on increasing the number of emerging managers of scale; make available more avenues for growth and success to the managers; and introduce sponsors and institutional investors to a more diversified pool of managers and their emerging talent.
The EM Program will be a part of Alternative Investment Partners (AIP) division of MSIM, which manages portfolios of private equity, hedge fund and real estate investments on behalf of institutional and high net worth clients. The manager participants in the EM Program will be overseen by an Investment Committee comprising representatives and senior management from across Morgan Stanley and MSIM.
According to Ms Harris, “We are excited about the prospects of partnering with Emerging Managers that we believe will benefit substantially from Morgan Stanley’s premier infrastructure partnerships, business strategy insights and accelerating capital, in order to allow them to focus on managing assets and achieving superior long-term performance.
“We believe that Emerging Managers will present attractive opportunities over the next few years, particularly as public and corporate pension plans seek to diversify their asset management providers and employees look for diverse asset managers among the choices on their employer defined contribution platforms. This program will increase the opportunity for plan sponsors and other institutional investors to get exposure to a larger pool of untapped talent and to place assets with a diverse group of managers.”
Morgan Stanley Investment Management and its affiliates, have nearly 1,000 investment professionals around the world and approximately $386 billion in assets under management or supervision as of September 30, 2009.
The firm provides a wide range of investment banking, securities, investment management and wealth management services serving clients worldwide from more than 1,200 offices in 36 countries.
Source – Emerging Manager Focus
