Cedrus & Partners settles in Luxembourg
Founded in 2010 in France, the company is now establishing itself in Luxembourg and is opening a branch headed by Priscilla Hüe, named country head from the La Française group, which she joined in 2013 as sales manager.
Cedrus & Partners is not a management company. “We are an investment advisory firm”, specifies William Guilloux, Partner, Head of Investment. “Our job is to help long-term investors with all their investment issues”, a “fairly large” scope that includes institutional investors (pension funds, retirement funds, mutual funds, etc.), family offices, associations and foundations, “non-profit organizations, but which have long-term investment needs” and companies “which need to put their own funds, reserves or cash to work”.
Four business lines
“Our role is to support our clients in search of yield on unlisted markets (real estate, infrastructure financing, private equity, private debt and impact investment) and on private markets and to find them the right investment vehicles” , details Guillaume Guilloux. And this through four lines of business.
First of all, global consulting, “an activity that covers portfolio auditing, the definition of investment objectives and constraints, and then the deployment of assets”.
The second line of business is financial engineering. “We are able to create tailor-made products for our clients in partnership with management companies or private equity funds.”
The third line of business is financing. “For our clients who need financing solutions, we will seek out from banks or private players likely to help them create leverage or take advantage of the low interest rate environment to increase the return on their capital. “
The fourth business line is tailor-made advice, “for investors who wish to invest in infrastructure impact investment – a subject to which we are very sensitive and which is part of our DNA – or China. We are able to meet the specific needs of investors on well-framed missions and on well-defined perimeters. ”
The long-term credo
Cedrus & Partners’ activity is linked to the structural drop in interest rates “which makes it increasingly difficult for an investor to find a return today. The only way to do this is to either take more risk – and therefore act on the fact that you distort your investor profile -, or to explore new territories, either more exotic, or more technical like private markets or the alternative sector. We provide our clients with the benefit of our ability to be a pioneer in certain subjects in which it is not easy for them to invest on their own. ”
Cedrus & Partners expertise is long-term expertise. “Our investors are very long-term investors. As a result, we get very little involved in short-term, speculation or arbitrage strategies. Our job is really to support our customers. The corollary of doing the long term is that we subscribe to what we call useful finance, which helps the real economy. This allows us to give meaning to our clients’ investments, to make them invest in subjects which are sensitive to them, which can resonate with their corporate purpose. With an acceptable risk / return ratio in a low interest rate environment. And the more we anchor ourselves in the real economy, the more secure the investments are. ”
The time of internationalization
A “Franco-French” actor, the firm began its internationalization three years ago by opening an office in Madrid. “Spain was a conclusive test for us in terms of growth. And this allowed us to see that the problems of French investors are shared by many investors. Today, our ambition is to develop on a European scale and to do so, we want to open a branch in each country managed by an expert in the local market. ” Starting with Luxembourg, which William Guilloux sees as a gateway between the main financial centers of the world, “opening the doors to an international clientele in the heart of Europe”.
Cedrus & Partners is regulated in France by ORIAS (the single register of intermediaries in insurance, banking and finance, an association placed under the supervision of the General Directorate of the French Treasury) as financial investment advisers (CIF) and by the Prudential Control and Resolution Authority (ACPR) as a PSI (Provider of investment services). And the firm is registered as a branch in Luxembourg with the CSSF.
The firm has 31 employees spread over three countries, France, Spain and the Grand Duchy, and supports 150 clients for a total of 17 billion euros in assets.
This article comes from the Paperjam Finance newsletter, the monthly meeting place to follow financial news in Luxembourg.
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