WTW partners with Carne Group to drive innovation in the asset management industry

By Joy Dumasia

WTW, a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company and Carne Group (Carne), a leading digitally-driven platform for the global asset management industry and Europe’s leading third-party fund management company, announced they have agreed a transaction which will drive innovation in the asset management industry.

As part of its key objective to become the global leading digitally-driven platform, Carne will acquire The Asset Management Exchange (“AMX“) from WTW, subject to regulatory approvals. In return, WTW will take a minority stake in Carne, adding scale and growth opportunities to its client solutions platforms. AMX connects investors, asset managers and service partners to transact and interact all in one place through its institutional funds platform. AMX’s ecosystem and investor relationships will complement Carne’s service offering, including third-party management company, due diligence, distribution, and technology platforms.

The transaction will see Carne employ over 500 highly talented professionals, working with over 600 leading asset managers and institutional investors across 11 offices worldwide. Its third-party fund management company will manage more than US$300 billion AUM with over US$2Tn on its proprietary technology, CORR.

Carl Hess, CEO, WTW, said: “We are excited to have agreed this transaction with Carne Group, and we look forward to working together with Carne as a partner and investor. Five years ago, AMX was established to transform investor experience and outcomes. Now, as part of Carne, AMX can realise its full potential, delivering new products and enhanced services to a wider section of our client base in more jurisdictions and asset classes. I am incredibly proud of WTW’s role in developing AMX into an ecosystem which today facilitates critical interactions between institutional investors, asset managers and service partners across an asset pool of approximately $60bn. Carne and AMX have incredible people and technology combined with unrivaled industry expertise. Together they can accelerate the pace of industry change for investors and managers through what will be the leading industry platform.”

John Donohoe, the CEO of Carne Group, said: “Carne’s ultimate goal is to unite the industry’s investors and distributors with their asset managers resulting in faster deployment of investment capital. Our industry platform, driven by our proprietary technology CORR, accelerates revenue generation as well as delivering enhanced reporting. Now, with AMX as part of Carne, we can offer even better solutions to our clients and the entire industry through one of the sector’s leading digitally driven global platforms. The AMX team shares Carne’s vision of how we can enhance outcomes for investors and managers. I look forward to welcoming the AMX team so that we can deliver this together for clients globally. Working with WTW will increase our coverage, while AMX’s capabilities like its CCF platform and investor reporting tools will further expand our offering.”

Oliver Jaegemann, CEO, AMX, said: “This is a great opportunity for the future of AMX. Our journey has been tremendously exciting over the past five years, and combining with Carne will allow AMX to accelerate its growth further. Importantly, AMX and Carne share a goal to provide better outcomes for the industry and its end savers, and we believe that together we can achieve this.”