When a company changes its name or logo, the big winners are usually the brand consultants employed to pick the right shade of blue. But such changes invariably signify an important shift in the way the company sees itself, and how it wants the market to see it.
It’s MA’s $9 billion asset management business, which offers alternative asset products to wholesale and retail investors, that powers almost 80 per cent of the group’s earnings. And Pridham, Biggins and Wyke also see big growth in MA’s mortgage businesses, where it has a $650 million loan book and $100 billion worth of mortgages under management through its
Like seemingly every financial institution on the planet, Wyke sees the opportunity to grow that private credit business; and help boost the asset management business to $15 billion by 2026.But he wonders if every other financial institution will be able to ride out the likely rockiness that will hit the sector as higher rates bite. ”Private credit is really easy when things are stable,” he says.
Pridham does note that MA’s growth in the mortgage market via its MA Money division does put it in a unique role, where it is competing with banks and being funded by them, and competing with non-banks that it is also funding via wholesale markets.