La Française buys out Matt Kiernan from Inflection Point Capital Management

La Française the €64bn Paris-based fund management house, has bought the majority half that it didn’t own of Inflection Point Capital Management (IPCM), the sustainable asset manager started by Matthew Kiernan in 2009, RI can reveal.
The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Kiernan will stay on as CEO of IPCM for one year, while remaining as Chair for three years.
Back in 2013, IPCM signed a joint venture to start advising on $1bn in assets on behalf of La Française, in exchange for a half share in IPCM. Under the deal, La Française took a 49% stake in IPCM UK, a London-based subsidiary of the sustainability manager, while IPCM took a 49% cross stake in a Paris-based entity called La Française Inflection Point (LFIP). The assets comprised retail and institutional money from La Française.
Both stakes have now been bought by La Française, giving it 100% control of IPCM.
Kiernan was the majority shareholder and held the voting rights for the block stake, while other staff at IPCM also held some of the equity.
The deal will not lead to any changes to the current investment and staffing set up, Kiernan told RI. La Française will use the coming year to implement the succession to Kiernan as CEO.
Inflection Point runs assets based on what it terms “Strategically Aware Investing”, which allies financial research with additional company data around megatrends such as climate change and resources depletion and a focus on identifying better information on corporate management quality and human capital.Kiernan told RI that the buy-out was “a vote of confidence” from La Française in IPCM, and that it was driving IPCM’s research into its investment process across the board in equities, fixed income and real estate.
In June this year, IPCM became the investment advisor to a new listed real estate securities fund launched by sister firm La Française Forum Securities (LFFS). It is also coming up to a three-year track record in its La Française LUX – Inflection Point Zero Carbon fund, which groups together 50-60 companies in three ‘buckets’ that its says nets out the overall carbon exposure. ERAFP, the French public sector additional pension scheme has invested around €10m in the fund.
La Française’s Chairman, Xavier Lépine, a respected investment chief, has been a vocal supporter of responsible investment to research accelerating mega-trends including huge urbanisation shifts, demographic issues, military combat, environmental problems, energy and technology shifts.
Read the RI Interview with Xavier Lépine
In November 2012, La Française took a 20% stake and placed €15m in assets in Cedrus Asset Management, the Paris-based SRI fund-of-funds house.
The stake was taken by NExT AM, its fund manager incubation arm. In June this year, Cedrus AM merged with two other boutique fund managers, Amaika AM, and 360Hixance to form Sanso Investment Solutions, retaining an RI focus alongside financial innovation.