Macquarie Global Investments and Omega Global Investors today announced that Macquarie has acquired a 19.9 per cent stake in the Melbourne-based investment management business. 

The management team and founding shareholders of Omega Global Investors are three former Vanguard executives, George Vassos, Mathew McCrum and Andrew Gruskin, who have a collective experience of more than 45 years in the industry, developing and managing investment solutions.  

As part of the agreement, Macquarie Global Investments will provide institutional support to allow Omega to focus on managing investments for its clients.

Omega has already secured an Australian Financial Services Licence, and will now begin to roll-out its new business development program. The company expects to be ready to launch its first product to market, accepting mandates and wholesale inflows, in the coming months.

Mr George Vassos said that Omega’s investment philosophy is to begin with a strong focus on the investment outcomes, aiming to generate superior returns for all of its investors.

“We do this by ensuring we are not constrained by the limitations of traditional investment thinking, and can search global markets to select the best opportunities to deliver on our investors’ objectives,” Mr Vassos said.

“While many boutique managers are restricted in terms of their investment universe, we have the scope, capability and capacity to select from public market securities trading from more than 30 nations worldwide, ranging from developed countries to emerging markets.  

“The breadth of skills and experience within our investment team includes equities, bonds, currency and derivatives.”

Omega develops investment solutions based on the organisation’s core values, which include breadth of experience, freedom to challenge traditional investment thinking, controlled risk management and the innovative use of technology.

“We believe in challenging traditional investment thinking to help us develop solutions that are innovative in their approach, but also considerate of the risk and return fundamentals.” Mr Vassos continued.

“Outcome investing is the next stage in the evolution of investment management, and we are starting to see evidence of this in Australia and around the globe.

“We are delighted to have Macquarie Global Investments as a strategic equity partner. It allows us to do what we do best, which is to develop and implement optimal investment outcomes for institutional investors and asset consultants.”

The Head of Macquarie Global Investments, Matthew Rady, said Omega is an attractive business due to both the experience of its management team and its outcome focused approach to investing.

“We believe Omega Global Investors is a standout business, with an investment philosophy that has the potential to generate attractive and consistent returns for investors,” Mr Rady said.

“This acquisition fits well within Macquarie Global investment’s strategy of developing affiliations with businesses, both inside and outside of Australia, that have a strong synergy with our own organisation and a successful working model.

“We believe that Omega’s investment offering comes at a highly appropriate time, when a difficult period in investment markets is leading both institutional and retail clients to search for sources of reliable and stable income.

“We are delighted to be part of this exciting business venture.”

While Macquarie Global Investments has acquired a stake in the business, Omega remains an employee majority-owned organisation and will operate independently as a boutique fund manager, with its own Board of Directors.