Financial services group HFA Asset Management (HFA AM) does not anticipate the closure of any of its funds when the company rebrands as Certitude Global Investments (Certitude), the firm’s new chief executive has said.
“We’re not planning on closing any funds,” Certitude chief executive Craig Mowll said.
“We have some structured products and we’re working with the appropriate parties around the best solutions for those products as they reach maturity .”
In line with the rebrand, the newly appointed Mowll will refocus the business towards the institutional and high net worth sectors of the market with the rollout of a new fund in August.
“We’re going to take a speciality in delivering active management solutions to this market. That means we’ve had to do a global search and we’ve located some single manager propositions,” he said.
“We have signed [managers] and we’re in the midst of working with researchers and putting the final touches to the PDS [product disclosure statement] to take that to market and we’ll launch that on 1 August.”
Mowll said the firm is also looking to distribute the Lighthouse brand to the institutional market.
“We’re actually investing in new people for this business. I’ve got around four to five new headcount going on, and the majority are sales roles and service roles and on top of that I’m also investing in some key operational people as well,” he said.
Mowll was appointed to the chief executive position last month following the departure of joint managing directors Oscar Martinis and Robert White.
“I think the board were looking for a new, invigorated strategy to grow the business going forward and often that requires new energy and some other ideas,” Mowll said.
“I think the two guys previously were an enormous part of the history of this business and a big part of its success and that can be very tiring, being part of a big success story. Markets change and sometimes it is most ideal to bring in someone from the outside who can come in with new thoughts and ideas.”
Under the rebrand, HFA will remain as a sub-brand of the business, with Certitude the Australian financial service licensee and responsible entity.
HFA AM will be rebranded as Certitude from 1 August.
