After graduating in engineering from the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Pierre started his career in 1990 at HSBC as a Financial Engineer. Joining Sinopia AM in 1994 as International Bond Manager, he then progressed within the Group in France and the United States, becoming its CEO in 2007.
Pierre joined Exane asset management's Board in June 2010 and in 2011 became its CEO.

What is the positioning of Exane asset management?

When it was created in 2001, Exane asset management specialised in European shares. In the beginning, we concentrated on absolute performance management through a range of long/short equity products with a high degree of sector specialisation. Since 2010, we have diversified our offer with directional equity funds such as the long only Exane Equity Select Europe fund launched in 2012, which is now a big success, and absolute performance funds with performance sources and risk profiles different to those in our historic product range.

What is the target clientèle for your offer and how is your sales force organised?

Our clientèle is evenly divided between institutional investors, distribution and multi-management. France and international each account for half our assets under management. For the most part, our foreign clients are based in bordering European countries: Italy, Germany, Spain and Switzerland. To support them, we have a dedicated sales team that is specialised by geographic area for our foreign clientèle and by client type for the French market.

What is the current composition of your product offer?

Our current range is founded on three families of funds: market-neutral long/short equity funds with a cautious risk/yield objective which are the core of our historic offer, long/short equity funds with higher yield/risk objectives and our long only equity fund management.

Can you say a few words about Exane Equity Select Europe?

The Exane Equity Select long only fund aims to generate alpha through rigorous intra-sector stock picking by specialised managers. Thus, the challenge is to choose securities that can beat their sector benchmark.
We shifted our focus to long only with the goal of diversifying our range and expanding our clientèle while bringing added value to our offer. In just over seven years, this new approach has enabled us to exceed one billion in assets under management out of the total of 4.6 billion in assets under management and to beat 92% of competing funds in the same category as Exane Equity Select. Today this fund is a pillar of our product offer.

What is the growth outlook for EAM?

We must continue to concentrate on, cultivate and reinforce our strengths with a view to maintaining the level of quality and the performance promise our clients expect. To do this, it is crucial that we leverage our historical know-how in absolute performance, which enables us to consolidate our expertise and to take advantage of a sound foundation as we explore new strategies. In parallel, we intend to continue gradually building out our range to continually optimise its appeal and differentiate ourselves in an ultra-competitive environment.