You Won’t Believe What Philippe Jabre Did in His Shocking Second Act!

A sobering statistic to get you started: One in six asset managers will disappear by 2027, as the industry faces a difficult combination of market volatility, high interest rates and downward pressure on fees, according to a new PWC extension relationship. It found that nearly three-quarters of asset managers are considering an acquisition or merger with a competitor.

From the trading floor to the factory

After retiring from professional money management in 2018, renowned hedge fund manager Philip Giabre he admits he is “bored to tears”. This was to prove relatively short-lived, as Raya Jalabi in Beirut and explore inside This article. Now the first GLG Partners merchant and founder of Jabre Capital he’s enjoying an unexpected second act as a brewer, having bought back the family business.

Almazza Brasserie was created by Jabre’s grandfather, Michel Jabre, 90 years ago in Lebanon. In mid-2021, Jabre learned that he was Almaza’s longtime supporter Heineken he was looking to sell his controlling stake in the company due to difficult economic circumstances in Lebanon. The brewery was in danger of closing permanently, putting up to 200 jobs at risk.

“To be honest, I never imagined that one day I would take over the Almaza brewery,” Jabre said in an interview, but “it didn’t suit me that it could close its doors because of this crisis.” He added: ‘My family makes fun of me, because I really got into it. But I enjoyed the challenge of doing something completely different.

Jabre, who comes from a prominent Lebanese Catholic family, built a reputation as a top manager at London-based GLG, where he managed up to $7 billion.

But in 2006 he received what was then a register an individual fine of £750,000 from the UK watchdog for trade in confidential information from Goldman Sachs on a 2003 convertible bond sale, though authorities stopped short of calling his actions intentional. He moved to Switzerland from London and founded his own namesake investment firm. But after just over a decade in business, he announced in 2018 that he would repay to outside investors after suffering heavy losses that year.

Speaking from the Almaza factory in Beirut, which has occupied the same building since its foundation, Jabre said: “This is not Lebanon’s first crisis, and it’s not even the worst.”

He added: “I hope to show others that they don’t have to give up on Lebanon, that despite the difficulties, we must continue to invest in our country.”

Since 2019, Lebanon has been mired in one of the worst global economic crises in modern history, and the country is also experiencing an unprecedented leadership vacuum.

Read the full story Herein which we explore the unique challenges of running a business in a country with a collapsing banking system, Jabre’s big plans for the brewer, and why a recent ad campaign for Almaza Unfiltered – its first new product in a decade – caused a stir in Lebanon.

As for Jabre, he believes his transition from hedge fund manager to brewer demonstrates that “life doesn’t stand still. It just continues under a different hat.

Hunt looks to the City of London to support UK growth

Jeremy Hunt he urgently needs good news. After weeks of dismal economic data, especially on inflation, today the chancellor will address the City of London in the hope of funneling billions of pounds of UK pension savings to stimulate growth.

Hunt’s annual Mansion House speech comes at a crucial time for an economy hampered by anemic growth, underinvestment and stubbornly high inflation. The chancellor, inside an interview with the Financial Timeshe said he wants to work with the financial services industry to free up capital for fast-growing companies by changing the rules that hold back investment.

After months of speculation about his intentions, Hunt made it clear he would not order Council what to do or where to put his money. “It’s about evolution, not revolution,” he said. “We’re not looking for Big Bang II on this one.”

The chancellor has high hopes for an investment deal, to be announced today by the mayor Nicholas Lyon, the veteran banker and insurance executive, who persuaded companies to commit up to £50bn in private equity and early-stage businesses in sectors such as fintech and life sciences.

Some of the largest participants in the financial services industry including FTSE 100 groups Aviva, Legal and general AND Phoenix group, have pledged to allocate 5% of their defined-contribution pension plan investments to what Hunt calls “productive assets.” This helped end City fears that the chancellor could instruct them to transfer billions to high-growth private companies.

“We’re not going to mandate,” Hunt said. “There will be a big commitment to invest in manufacturing assets, but it won’t be a UK commitment.”

Three ‘golden rules’ will underpin the reforms: achieving the best possible outcome for pension savers, strengthening the UK’s position as a leading international financial centre, and prioritizing ‘a strong and diversified gilt market’.

Read the full interview Here.

Chart of the week

BP extension AND in the talks on a landmark insurance deal for its £30bn Final Wage Pension Fund, which has the potential to be the largest in the industry’s history. The deal reflects how activity in this once niche area of ​​the financial sector, the so-called wholesale annuity market, is feverish as higher interest rates drive up the scheme’s funding levels, as my colleagues in this report Great read. This makes the acquisition a more realistic option for hundreds of pension funds.

“It’s a huge wave going through the wholesale annuity market right now,” he says Charlie Finchconsulting partner LCP extension, who advises on offers. LCP estimates that around 1,000 schemes, almost a fifth of the UK total, are now well funded enough to be offloaded to an insurer.

The transfer of pension liabilities to an insurer means that the sponsoring company no longer has to detail the pension surplus or deficit in its accounts – or attend to any shortages – potentially improving its ability to borrow money, pay dividends, put itself for sale or pursue the acquisition of another company. Bulk annuity offerings are also an increasingly important source of revenue growth for publicly traded insurers such as Phoenix group, Aviva AND Legal and generalwhich compete with privately owned groups such as PHOTO AND Rothesay’s life for business.

Read the full story Herein which we delve into the growing debate about the disadvantages of handing over pension assets to insurers who will manage them to generate profits for shareholders or their private equity lenders, and explore how the transfer of pension liabilities to insurers could affect investment markets.

Five must-see stories this week

Six other women they asserted that financier Crispino Ody he sexually assaulted or harassed them, expanding the timeline of his abuse across five decades and raising further questions about the extent to which his behavior was tolerated by older colleagues.

Steven Meierchief investment officer for the $250 billion New York City Retirement Systemsone of the largest pension schemes in the US, says it is planning to do so cut investing in stock markets, in the latest sign that rising interest rates have ended the “Tina” era that drove the last decade of stock price rises.

THE Financial Conduct Authoritythe UK’s main financial regulator, has harshly criticized asset managers for potentially leaving their investors exposed to harm, after finding that firms’ plans to cover large-scale redemptions “lacked coherence”.

Hedge fund manager Men’s group I bought a controlling interest in an $11.8 billion credit fund Varagon Capital Partners, signaling its growth ambitions in the private credit market. Here you are Alfaville as to why private credit is having a “golden moment”.

Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ AND Bank of Montreal bought minority shares Sagarda $14.5 billion Canadian-backed alternative asset manager Desmarais family. Insurer Great-West Lifeco it is also increasing its stake in Sagard, of which it is the controlling shareholder Power Corporation of Canada. ADQ, BMO and GWL have committed $2 billion of long-term capital to Sagard’s investment strategies.

And finally

i returned to Quo Vadis last week for the first time in years and I highly recommend you do too. Formerly a brothel and a house in Karl MarxThis Soho institution has a delicious menu of seasonal British regional dishes, with a menu conjured up by Jeremy Lee and his team. Lee’s cookbook, Cooking: Simply and Well, for One or Many, it’s a love song about time spent in the kitchen. In the introduction of the book, she mentions TS Eliot‘S Four Quartets:

“We will not cease exploring / And the end of all our explorations / Will be arriving where we started / And knowing the place for the first time” – home cooking.

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