Among the phrases they posted on their website as a presentation, Altis Partners chose writer Mark Twain and photographer Sergio Larren. But also investment icon, businessman Warren Buffett. “High diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing,” the selected quote read. At Altis, an investment bank created in 2016 by Tomás Müller Sproat, they believe in this predicament. They say diversification is not a trait in itself or a dogma. You have to manage risk, they believe in Altis, but wallets don’t just have that goal. And in this diversity of purposes is where they added customers.
15 years after its founding, whose name refers to the sacred region of Zeus, the company has been involved in many transactions, representing the funds of dozens of high-net-worth families, distributing funds to investors in the region and has ventured into private equity.
Altis was one of the companies that also managed funds that Sebastián Piñera Echenique gave as a trust, via Bancard Inversiones, to three fund general managers, in 2018. He did the same in 2010, but not Altis, but rather BTG, LarrainVial, Bice and Moneda. In March 2018, Bancard repeated its partnership with BTG and Moneda, but added Altis, which received $209 million in liquid resources. Ten days ago, Altis made a report on the end of his term. Unlike its competitors, Altis returned more than was entrusted with it: a $268 million asset portfolio made up of shares in six funds managed by Wellington Management. 27.7% more in dollars. Funds delivered to BTG, in pesos, are down 12.5% in four years, and Moneda, 8.5%. But they had more limited management mandates for Chilean assets and were compared, for example, to a 16.5% drop in Ipsa in the same period. On the other hand, Altis had to invest abroad. And he did it successfully. The increase in the peso was 72.5%, but the exchange rate affected this, rising from $602 in March 2018 to $805 on March 11, 2022. Competitors credit the success of this administration. In the same period, the Compass Group’s report, reflects that the MSCI ACWI index, which repeats global stock markets, has returned 80.27% in peso.
Altis and its competitors have charged Bancard 0.55% of the value of the initial assets, a figure considered low for four years of management.According to an experienced investment manager. Another nuance: with large amounts like this, lower commissions are charged. Altis received $692 million for his work.
Behind this result is a director made up of thirty people and controlled by four partners: Alejandro Pointes, Thomas Muller Benoit, Jose Gabriel Palma and Jorge Tagli.
The first two worked in the late 1990s and early 2000s at Bankard and interacted with business-active Sebastian Pinera, after passing through the Senate and prior to their presidential nominations. Puentes was Bancard’s chief financial officer. “Because these delegations are blind, the key is trust,” says one local manager. And the Altis partners knew their customer. And your customer knows Altis.
Thomas Muller-Sprout was a prominent CEO in the local financial world. It comes from the Citicorp quarry in the 1970s. He worked at Banco Osorno in the 1980s. He founded the IM Trust in the middle of that decade. He sold it in 2005 and a year later created Altis. His son, a commercial engineer from Finis Terrae University, accompanied him to the start-up investment bank. A year later he invited Alejandro Bentes, whom he chanced upon at Bancard. In 2010, the founder of Altis was appointed by Piñera as ambassador to the United Kingdom, where he spent four years. That diplomatic mission marked the beginning of his departure from Altis. It no longer has a share in the company, which was divided into similar parts by the four partners, who in turn are engaged in the four business areas.
The first is corporate finance. It was the origin of a small financial store. In that region, they were involved in the sale of Pharmacias Ahumada, which was controlled by Jose Codner, to Mexican company Saba, in 2010 and in the deal that ended with the transfer of the Johnson chain to Cincosud, in 2011, for example. Most recently, they were the investment bank for Moneda Asset, in its merger with Brazil’s Patria Investment, six months ago. In the process, Alejandro Pointes and Jorge Tagli traveled to New York to participate in the negotiations and served as counterparts to Patria and JP Morgan, their financial advisor. At Altis they represent more than 40 transactions. “They are very good professionals,” says one of the brokers they have worked with.
The second field of work is a derivation from the first, created in 2010 and responsible for Puentes: wealth advice for high-income Chilean families, but with a certain orientation: they serve as family office for their clients and manage all their liquid assets. Altis has dozens of big clients.
One of his clients explains it this way: They are families who have accumulated large sums of money after a special liquidity event, such as the sale of a business, rather than creating their own. family officeThey chose to outsource this job. This is the case of Jose Codner, who worked with Altis in the sale of Farmasis Ahumada and assigned them to manage his assets.
The second area, in turn, is connected to the third. Altis distributes international funds in Chile, Peru, Colombia and Mexico to institutional clientsThat is why it has alliances with global managers such as Wellington and Vontobel. This area is led by Jose Gabriel Palma, a Babson MBA lawyer who previously worked at Cary. Piñera’s final stock of assets was fully invested in Wellington Funds, an option expressly provided for in the portfolio management mandate.
One competitor says Altis is not an active fund manager and defines it better as the conductor who selects and negotiates with international directors for its clients. It is endorsed by the executive in a family of great fortune working with Altis. “They are not peers to families. They are family advisors and they are peers to global managers,” he explains. One of his clients describes it, “They won’t be put up for stock trading over the phone.”
Because of their relationship with their customers, many Altis partners also participate in corporate directories. Puentes is located on the Mall Plaza, where Tomás Müller Jr. is located. Also. The Mueller family are shareholders, but Altice advised about the company’s initial public offering. It is also present in Vitamina, a network of kindergartens controlled by Chilean Alejandro Pasconan, a process advised by Altice. Puentes, today the group’s general manager, was also working in other family businesses he advised, such as Pesquera Landes, owned by Fosks, or Imagina, a real estate company owned by the Calderon family. And before he reached Altis, he drove family office Of the Eblen family, former associates of Piñera in Lan, whom he met through his work at Bancard. Jorge Tagli, the former CEO of Luksic Group, has been the director of another company since 2015 family office: Megève, the car controlled by the Solari Donaggio brothers.
Latest line of business private equity, which Altis calls the prime investment. Created in 2016, Claudio Inglesi, a former Quiñenco member, has been added to this business as an independent partner. So far they have developed three works. The first was Coseche Automotive, which they later sold in 2019, a company that was profitable, but did not return what they expected. The second is Blue Express, a Delivery They bought Carlos Heller in 2019 and doubled that after the pandemic. The last one was made in 2021: Talana, with Endurance. In addition, they are involved in a real estate project several families And in various private loans.
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