Man Group plc is an active management business initially founded as a sugar cooperage and brokerage by James Man in 1783. It provides a range of funds for institutional and private investors globally and is the world's largest publicly traded hedge fund company, reporting $117.7 billion in funds under management as of December 2019. The firm is headquartered at Riverbank House in London and employs over 1,000 people in various locations worldwide. The company was a sponsor of the arts and charitable initiatives, including the Man Booker Prize.
History
The company was founded by James Man in 1783 as a sugar cooperage and brokerage, based in Harp Lane in Billingsgate. The following year Man Group won the contract to supply the Royal Navy 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 such as coffee and cocoa. The company traded as a commodities business throughout the 19th and 20th century, gradually diversifying into financial services following the advent of financial exchanges 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 in 1994. In 2000 the company divided into two entirely separate businesses, with Man Group plc focusing exclusively on financial services and ED & F Man taken private in a management buy-out. In 2007 Man Group moved into its present form as an investment management business, following the demerger and flotation of its brokerage business on the New York Stock Exchange. Man Group attained its current structure over time through acquisition. 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 for $1.6 billion, followed by Man FRM in 2012, Man Numeric in 2014 and Man GPM in 2017. In late 2017, the group announced the creation of a quantitative hedge fund in China. The firm has held licences to operate in the country since 2012, but has more recently been provided clearance to operate as a private securities investment fund manager: Man is one of the first global firms to receive this accreditation. The fund will be managed by Man's AHL division.
Structure and operations
Man Group offers strategies across a variety of investment approaches, styles and asset classes:
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. 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 58 research and investment professionals operate from London, New York, Tokyo, Guernsey and Pfäffikon, Switzerland.
Luke Ellis was appointed as Man Group's CEO in September 2016. He succeeded Manny Roman, whom Ellis had worked with for seven years at Man Group and had known for two decades. Ellis' strategic objective for Man Group is to continue diversifying the firm through acquisition, as well as invest in its infrastructure. Man Group has seen significant cost-cutting, led by Co-President Jonathan Sorrell, with a $270 million cost-saving programme planned for delivery in 2015 achieved ahead of schedule. Sorrell's role as President was expanded by Ellis to include corporate strategy, private markets and acquisitions. The Group is likely to be affected by changes to the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive 2004, known as "MiFID II", which go into force in early 2018. This regulation changes the way in which companies like Man pass on costs to their investment clients, such as brokerage and research, which has caused controversy in recent years. The Group announced a U-turn in October 2017 clarifying that it would not pass on research costs to clients as specified by MiFID II, which was likely to impact pre-tax profits by $10–15 million in 2018.
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 3rd 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 as "...arguably the UK's most prestigious" literary prize, the £50,000 award was created in 1973 to increase the reading of quality fiction and attract "the intelligent general audience". Each year the winner is announced at an awards dinner broadcast live by BBC Television. Inclusion into the award's shortlist and attendant press coverage is known to provide a significant boost to book sales and bookstore visits, with sales trebling in some cases. The 2017 prize was awarded to the American writer George Saunders, for Lincoln in the Bardo. Previous winners include Philip Roth and Lydia Davis. The 2014 award went to author Richard Flanagan for The Narrow Road to the Deep North, with his prize presented by Chair of judges AC Grayling at London's Guildhall. It was the first year in which eligibility for the award was expanded to include any novel written in English and published in the UK. Man also sponsors the Man Booker International Prize. This £50,000 prize is awarded each year on the basis of a single book translated into English, and aims to encourage the publishing and reading of quality fiction in translation. The prize is divided equally between author and translator.
Corporate responsibility
Man Group supports various charitable initiatives, principally through the Man Charitable Trust and the Oxford-Man Institute:
Man Charitable Trust
Set up in 1978, The Man Charitable Trust is an independent registered charity that funds small to medium-size charities focusing on literacy and numeracy programmes. It also funds programmes in support of access to education for disadvantaged people. In 2014 the trust awarded £427,075 to UK charities, including £50,000 to Beanstalk, a charity that recruits and trains volunteers to provide reading support in primary schools, and £50,000 to National Numeracy, a charity dedicated to raising low levels of numeracy among adults and children.
Oxford-Man Institute
In June 2007 Man launched a joint project with the University of Oxford, 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.
