Defining Man Group

 

Man Group’s principles and capabilities are grounded in the fact that we are dedicated to using our expertise and technology to deliver returns for our clients.

Robyn Grew Chief Executive Officer, Man Group

 

Our Principles

 

Performance

First, foremost and always, we focus on achieving superior risk-adjusted performance.

Clients

Our clients are at the heart of everything we do.

Responsibility

We expect our people to do the right thing and conduct our business with the highest standards of integrity.

Excellence

Good is not enough, we strive to be excellent in all we do.

Differentiation

We seek to be differentiated and original in our thinking.

Meritocracy

We succeed through talent, commitment, diligence and teamwork.

Investment Managers

We are an active investment management firm focused on delivering attractive performance and client portfolio solutions, deploying the latest technology across our business to help ensure we stay at the forefront of our evolving industry.

We provide long-only, alternative and private markets products on a single and multi-manager basis. We develop bespoke solutions and fund of hedge fund services which utilise the firm's advanced technology, infrastructure and expertise. We continuously invest in technology, talent and research as we strive to deliver the best results for our clients.

Across our investment managers, we manage US$ 167.5bn* for our global clients, with institutional investors contributing 78% (2023) of the group’s funds under management.

 

Man AHL is a diversified quantitative investment manager that has been a pioneer in the application of systematic trading since 1987.

Man Numeric, established in 1989 and acquired by Man Group in 2014, is a Boston-based, quantitative equity manager invested in almost every equity market in the world.

Man GLG, founded in 1995 and acquired by Man Group in 2010, is a discretionary fund manager that is active across alternative and long-only strategies, equity and credit.

Man GPM focuses on assets within private markets. The firm will look to long duration assets to provide truly differentiated return streams not available on public markets for our clients.

Man Varagon is a specialist middle-market direct lender, focused on creating value-added financing solutions to private equity sponsors and investors in private credit since 2014.

Man FRM, founded in 1991 and acquired by Man Group in 2012, is a hedge fund investment specialist which draws on its technological capabilities in seeking to deliver enhanced investment solutions for clients.

 

* as at 31 December 2023.

Environmental Commitment

Man Group is committed to minimising our operational environmental impact and to being consistent and transparent about the progress we are making.
 
 

Our Infrastructure

At Man Group, we believe that our infrastructure is crucial in allowing our front office to maintain an uninterrupted focus on growing clients’ assets.

Our experienced management team is committed to investing in infrastructure over the short and long terms. In doing this we are confident that we will be able to maintain best-in-class offerings in Technology, Compliance, Human Resources, Legal, Operations and Facilities.

We firmly believe our infrastructure is one of our key commercial differentiators, maintaining our position at the forefront of the asset management industry and allowing us to constantly evolve and adapt as our client’s needs do.

 

We use advanced scientific methods to help inform our investment decisions.

Man Group believes that technology will play a key role in the future of active management. Our commitment to research in this area can be seen in many ways. We collaborate with the University of Oxford on machine learning techniques through the Oxford-Man Institute, we seek to hire the very best quantitative talent to lead our research efforts and we invest in cutting edge hardware, such as GPU computing.

These efforts often involve input from all six of our investment management businesses. In doing this, we are facilitating the effective cross-pollination of ideas, both within Man Group, and between ourselves and the academic community, which we believe will help give an edge to our investment activities.

 

Find out more about Technology at Man Group

Investment in technology is key to the on-going success of our business.

Man Group’s investment managers trade across many different asset classes, geographies and product styles. We invest in technology to help ensure we are at the forefront of investment and risk management, trading and operations.

Rosa, our proprietary central operational platform, delivers a co-ordinated process for the firm’s trading as well as enhancing risk controls and expanding the analytics available to our portfolio managers. As regulatory requirements and clients’ expectations develop, this single central system also delivers high quality, timely and dynamic reporting.

We believe this capability allows us to respond to our clients’ needs and market opportunities with greater speed, flexibility and assurance.

Robust risk management systems are essential to ensuring our duty of stewardship to our clients.

Man Group maintains rigorous oversight of counterparty exposures, group-wide liquidity and balance sheet risk. We also regularly conduct market stress tests to prepare ourselves as thoroughly as possible for potential future adverse conditions. Finally, our Risk & Finance Committee reviews our operational risk profile and challenges the adequacy of risk mitigation wherever necessary.

The firm’s risk teams operate across the entirety of the firm, and are embedded within the most senior levels of our organisation. Risk teams are also deeply involved with our investment management businesses on a day-to-day level, monitoring risk concentrations and conducting other quantitative factor analyses.

In an ever-changing regulatory landscape, we are committed to effectively combining accountability with high organisational performance.

Man Group’s corporate entities are regulated in multiple jurisdictions worldwide, putting the firm at the forefront of today’s complex global investment landscape. In this environment, our compliance and legal functions have a simple aim: to ensure that doing the right thing is the easiest and most effective way of operating.

We invest in the people and processes to support our aim of achieving the highest standards in compliance. Our legal teams are located across all the firm’s jurisdictions, to help ensure that we fully understand the context and impact of varying requirements.

We employ a ‘three lines of defence model’ to ensure our employees have the flexibility to create solutions applicable to our clients’ needs, but to do this in an appropriately controlled environment. We believe that this instils a culture of compliance into all personnel. This is consistent with our commitment to run our business to the highest standards, and for the long term.

 

Oxford-Man Institute

The Oxford-Man Institute ('OMI') is Man Group’s unique collaboration with the University of Oxford. Over the last decade, the OMI, part of the university’s Department of Engineering Science, has been conducting pioneering research into quantitative finance, and now focuses primarily on machine learning techniques and data analytics.

Located in the same building as Man AHL’s Oxford Research Lab, the OMI provides us with a direct connection to cutting-edge machine learning research and allows for the fruitful cross-pollination of ideas between the investment and academic communities. Work done at the OMI, including in areas seemingly unrelated to investment – such as galaxy classification and measurement of the height of tides – has directly contributed to our investment methodologies.

Our History

With a trading history spanning more than 230 years, and over 25 years of experience of global investment management, Man Group offers longevity and durability in a rapidly changing financial world. Each of Man AHL, Man Numeric, Man GLG and Man FRM has over 20 years of investing experience, and Man Group developed its private markets offering with the launch of Man GPM in 2017.

1783
  • James Man founds the company as a sugar cooperage and brokerage at 23 Harp Lane in the City of London
1784
  • Man Group is awarded an exclusive contract to supply rum to the Royal Navy (a franchise the Company retains until 1970)
1802
  • Man Group expands further into commodities, trading sugar, coffee, cocoa and other commodities in candle auctions at London’s coffee houses
1810
  • Man Group moves to Mincing Lane, the City of London’s hub for commodity trading
1972
  • Man Group establishes its first overseas operations in New York and Hong Kong
1983
  • Man Group diversifies into financial services and celebrates its 200th anniversary
1987
  • AHL is founded
1989
  • AHL becomes part of Man Group
  • Numeric Holding LLC is founded
1991
  • Financial Risk Management (FRM) is founded
1994
  • Man Group lists on the London Stock Exchange
1995
  • GLG Partners is founded
2000
  • Man Group demerges from the agricultural commodities business, known as ED&F Man
2007
  • Man Group and the University of Oxford launch the Oxford-Man Institute
2010
  • Man Group significantly enhances its discretionary investment management capabilities with the acquisition and integration of GLG Partners LP into a dedicated business unit, Man GLG
2012
  • Man Group offers clients deeper and more diverse investment capabilities, as well as accelerated growth of Man’s managed account platform, through the acquisition of Financial Risk Management, now Man FRM
2014
  • Man Group further enhances its quantitative investment capabilities with the acquisition and integration of Numeric Holdings LLC, now Man Numeric
  • Man FRM continues to diversify its credit-focussed multi-manager offering through the acquisition of Pine Grove Asset Management LLC
2015
  • Man GLG broadens its leveraged loan capabilities and international equity investment team through Man Group’s acquisition of Silvermine Capital Management and NewSmith LLP
  • Merrill Lynch Alternative Investments LLC's Fund of Hedge Fund Portfolio is acquired and integrated into the Man FRM product suite
2017
  • Man Group develops its private markets offering with the launch of Man Global Private Markets (‘Man GPM’) and the acquisition of Aalto Invest (‘Man GPM Aalto’), a US- and Europe-based real assets focused investment manager.
2023

Man Group acquires Varagon Capital Partners. This adds private credit to Man Group's diversified platform of alternative and long-only investment approaches. As a specialist middle-market direct lender, Man Varagon is focused on creating value-added financing solutions to private equity sponsors and investors in private credit.

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