Man Group plc is an active
investment management
Investment management is the professional asset management of various securities, including shareholdings, bonds, and other assets, such as real estate, to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of investors. Investors may be institut ...
business listed on the London Stock Exchange. It provides a range of funds across liquid and private markets for institutional and private investors globally and is the world's largest publicly traded hedge fund company, reporting $151.4 billion in funds under management as of March 2022. The firm is headquartered at Riverbank House in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and employs over 1,400 people in various locations worldwide.
[Global 50 Funds of Hedge Funds](_blank)
The Hedgefund Journal, June 2009. The company was a sponsor of the
Man Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...
from 2002 to 2019.
History
The company was founded by
James Man
James Man (1755–1823) was the founder of Man Group.
Biography
Born in Whitechapel and apprenticed to a William Humphrey as a barrel maker, James Man decided to establish his own business as a sugar-broker in 1783.
In 1784, he secured a contra ...
in 1783 as a sugar cooperage and brokerage, based in Harp Lane in
Billingsgate
Billingsgate is one of the 25 Wards of the City of London. This small City Ward is situated on the north bank of the River Thames between London Bridge and Tower Bridge in the south-east of the Square Mile.
The modern Ward extends south to the ...
. The following year Man Group won the contract to supply the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
with the rum for its daily
"rum tot", a tradition under which all sailors were allocated a daily rum ration. This tradition continued until 1970, with Man Group holding the contract throughout.
The company further expanded from sugar and rum into other
commodities
In economics, a commodity is an economic good, usually a resource, that has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them.
The price of a comm ...
such as
coffee
Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulant, stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world.
S ...
and
cocoa
Cocoa may refer to:
Chocolate
* Chocolate
* ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree
* Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao''
* Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter and ...
. The company traded as a commodities business throughout the 19th and 20th century, gradually diversifying into financial services following the advent of
financial exchange
An exchange, bourse (), trading exchange or trading venue is an organized market where (especially) tradable securities, commodities, foreign exchange, futures, and options contracts are bought and sold.
History
12th century: Brokers on the ...
s to hedge commodity exposures.
[
The firm was renamed ED&F Man in 1869, based on the initials of James Man's grandsons Edward Desborough Man and Fredrick Man. ED&F Man listed on the ]London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...
in 1994. In 2000 the company divided into two entirely separate businesses, with Man Group plc focusing exclusively on financial services
Financial services are the Service (economics), economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, acco ...
and ED&F Man (the commodities division) taken private in a management buy-out
A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of 1 ...
.
In 2007 Man Group moved into its present form as an investment management business, following the demerger and flotation of its brokerage business (known as MF Global
MF Global, formerly known as Man Financial, was a major global financial derivatives broker, or commodities brokerage firm that went bankrupt in 2011. MF Global provided exchange-traded derivatives, such as futures and options as well as over-t ...
) on the New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...
. Man Group attained its current structure over time through acquisitions, which have now been fully integrated to form investment engines. Man AHL is the oldest investment manager of the group, having been acquired over time from 1989 to 1994. Man Group's other investment managers were formed via acquisition between 2010 and 2017, beginning with the 2010 acquisition of Man GLG (previously GLG Partners
''Man GLG'' (formerly GLG Partners) is a discretionary investment manager and a wholly owned subsidiary of British alternative investment manager Man Group plc. It is a diversified and multi-strategy fund manager that operates strategies includ ...
) for $1.6 billion,[ followed by Man FRM in 2012,][ Man Numeric in 2014 and Man GPM in 2017.][
In late 2017, Man Group announced the creation of a quantitative ]hedge fund
A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as sho ...
in China. The firm has held licenses to operate in the country since 2012, but was provided clearance to operate as a private securities investment fund manager: Man is one of the first systematic investment managers to receive this accreditation. The fund will be managed by Man's AHL division. More recently, Man AHL received approval for a qualified foreign institutional investor ("QFII") license in China.
Structure and operations
Man Group has five investment engines that offer a broad range of alternative and long-only strategies, run on a systematic and discretionary basis across liquid and private markets. It employs over 500 quants and technologists, offers over 75 investment strategies across a variety of investment approaches, styles and asset classes and trades in over 800 markets around the world.
Man AHL
Founded in 1987, Man AHL is a diversified quantitative investment manager offering absolute return and long-only funds, with both momentum and non-momentum strategies.
Man Numeric
Man Numeric was established in 1989 and acquired by Man Group in 2014. A Boston-based quantitative asset manager, Man Numeric offers long-only, active extension and hedged equity strategies. Man Group acquired Man Numeric to build a diversified quantitative fund management business in non-momentum strategies, and to develop Man Group's presence in the North American market.
Man GLG
Man GLG was established in London in 1995 as GLG Partners
''Man GLG'' (formerly GLG Partners) is a discretionary investment manager and a wholly owned subsidiary of British alternative investment manager Man Group plc. It is a diversified and multi-strategy fund manager that operates strategies includ ...
. It was publicly listed in 2007 before being acquired by Man Group in 2010 for $1.6 billion. Man GLG is a multi-team discretionary investment manager. Man GLG utilises absolute return and long-only strategies across asset classes, sectors and geographies. The January 2015 acquisition of Silvermine was expected to boost the division's US CLO business.
Man FRM
Established in 1991, and acquired by Man Group in 2012, Man FRM's research and investment professionals operate from London, New York, Tokyo, Guernsey and Pfäffikon (SZ), Switzerland.
Man GPM
Man Global Private Markets Group (Man GPM) launched in 2017, with the completed acquisition of Aalto Invest Holding AG, a real estate investment management company with $1.7bn in assets under management at the time.
Senior Management
Luke Ellis was appointed as Man Group's CEO in September 2016.
In September 2021, Man Group announced a number of changes to its senior management, which became effective from 1 October 2021. Mark Jones, previously the firm’s CFO, was appointed Deputy CEO for Man Group with responsibility for Man AHL, Man Numeric and the Group's technology functions. In addition, Antoine Forterre, previously Co-CEO of Man AHL, was appointed as Man Group's CFO and joined the Board.
Mergers and acquisitions
RMF and Bernard Madoff
RMF, a former division of Man Group, invested 0.5% of its funds under management at the time with various third-party funds which, in turn, had positions in funds ultimately managed by Bernard Madoff. RMF was one of 107 financial institutions and 13,000 individuals to invest in such funds. As of 2014, 59% of all such funds have been recovered and returned to various institutions and individuals.
Man Booker Prizes
Man Group sponsored the Man Booker literary prize from 2002 to 2019. Described by ''The Telegraph
''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include:
Australia
* ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...
'' as "...arguably the UK's most prestigious" literary prize
A literary award or literary prize is an award presented in recognition of a particularly lauded Literature, literary piece or body of work. It is normally presented to an author.
Organizations
Most literary awards come with a corresponding award ...
, the £50,000 award was created in 1973 to increase the reading of quality fiction and attract "the intelligent general audience".
Corporate responsibility
Man Group supports various charitable initiatives focused on promoting education, which are run primarily through the Man Charitable Trust and the Man US Charitable Foundation:
Man Charitable Trust and the Man US Charitable Foundation
Set up in 1978, The Man Charitable Trust is an independent registered charity that funds small to medium-size charities focusing on literacy
Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, huma ...
and numeracy
Numeracy is the ability to understand, reason with, and to apply simple numerical concepts. The charity National Numeracy states: "Numeracy means understanding how mathematics is used in the real world and being able to apply it to make the bes ...
programmes. It also funds programmes in support of access to education for disadvantaged people. In 2019, Man Group launched the Man US Charitable Foundation to provide funding and volunteering opportunities in the US. In 2021, Man Group donated $4 million dollars to both charities.[
]
King's Maths School
Man Group is a charitable supporter of King’s College London Mathematics School ('King's Maths School'), a specialist state-funded school for gifted mathematicians aged 16-19 that is run in partnership with King's College London. The school brings high quality mathematics education to students who have a particular aptitude and enthusiasm for the subject, and it offers a genuine access route for students who come from backgrounds that are often underrepresented in mathematical sciences.
Oxford-Man Institute
In June 2007 Man launched a joint project with the University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
, the Oxford-Man Institute of Quantitative Finance. Man Group's initial financial commitment to the institute was £13.75 million, one of the largest single donations to a British higher education institution in recent years. In 2016 the Oxford-Man Institute expanded its focus on machine learning and data analytics, becoming part of the University of Oxford's Department of Engineering Science. The development of the OMI's focus creates a hub for machine learning and data analysis at Eagle House, the current home of the OMI and Man AHL's Oxford Research lab.
In December 2019, The University of Oxford and Man Group announced that funding support for the Oxford-Man Institute (OMI) had been agreed for a further five years.
Former sponsorships and charitable initiatives
Man Group is a former sponsor of the Man Group International Climate Change Award and the Man Asian Literary Prize
The Man Asian Literary Prize was an annual literary award between 2007 and 2012, given to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English, and published in the previous calendar year. It is awarded to writer ...
. In the 1990s, Man was a founding member of the East London Partnership, which became the East London Business Alliance, a business-community outreach charity promoting corporate social responsibility and employee volunteering.
See also
*Hedge fund
A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as sho ...
*Man Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...
*Man Booker International Prize
The International Booker Prize (formerly known as the Man Booker International Prize) is an international literary award hosted in the United Kingdom. The introduction of the International Prize to complement the Man Booker Prize was announced ...
*List of investors in Bernard L. Madoff Securities
Investors in Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC lost billions of dollars in the Madoff investment scandal, a Ponzi scheme fraud conducted by Bernard Madoff. The amount missing from client accounts, over two thirds of which were fabricat ...
References
Further reading
* Jenkins, Alan C., 1989, The House of Man, London, UK: Rainbird Publishing.
External links
Official site
{{Authority control
Financial services companies based in the City of London
Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange
Hedge fund firms in the United Kingdom
Madoff investment scandal
Financial services companies established in 1783
1783 establishments in England
Hedge funds
British companies established in 1783