Metagestation increases their problems. The independent fund manager, one of the oldest in Spain, has dismissed its CEO, Miguel Méndez, after poor results harvested in its two main strategies, especially in the one that has to do with the international stock market. It is the third executive team to ‘burn’ in three years. As Invertia has learned, the firm finalize the return as CEO of Carlos Flores, who was already its president for a little over a year between 2019 and 2020.
The two flagships of Metagestión are the funds Metavalor, of Iberian equities, and Metavalor International, which invests in stocks from around the world. The former has only risen 2.5% so far this year, compared to a 10% revaluation in its index. The photo in the second is even worse. Lose more than one -17%, while its comparable index is up 21.2%. All a drag, being in the last positions of the ranking.
Méndez has not been able to turn the situation around and has been dismissed by José Alberto Barreras, owner and president of Metagestión. Barreras is in turn the majority shareholder of the construction company Montebalito, which is listed on the Continuous Market and whose personal fortune is managed by the management company that is under the umbrella of the construction group.
But the exits in Metagestión do not end there. Another of the fund managers, closely linked to Méndez, has resigned. Is about Julian Lirola, according to sources close to the investment firm.
The question that investors are now asking is: who manages these and the rest of the funds in the house? The only manager left on the staff is Ignacio Salido, since Alfonso Batalla left the daily management of the funds last December to take charge of the personal investments of the construction entrepreneur. However, the firm has already opened a selection process to search for substitutes.
Flowers, a fundamental profile
In these comings and goings of executives and managers, everything seems to indicate that it will be Carlos Flores who will take over the manager from now on, who is closing his contract in the absence of the last fringes. Flores arrived with Méndez in a double managerial signing in the summer of 2019. The first was handed over the presidency with commercial tasks and the aspiration to internationalize the firm, and the second depended on the general management with powers over the products and investments of its wallets.
But both they collided from the first minute. Flores had a marked character as a long-term fundamental analyst, compared to technical analysis and trading short term imposed by Méndez. That particular internal battle resulted in the departure of the first shortly after arriving. But now Barreras has pulled the agenda and asked him to come back, with room to re-implement the old philosophy of the house, which was long-term and even very focused on the value investing.
Flores has worked for firms such as ICBC Standard Bank, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs or Deutsche Bank, in positions related to the structuring of derivatives, sale of fixed income and currencies or financing solutions and risks, among others. Currently, he is a managing partner of Stormharbour Securities.
Madrid Stock Exchange.
Metagestión is responsible for more than 475 million euros in assetsAccording to Inverco with data from June, although it managed more than 600 million precisely two years ago, very close to maximums, when it incorporated Méndez and Flores in the first stage of this. The lack of credibility in the investment community due to its constant rotation of teams, the slump in profitability and the Covid-19 crisis have formed the perfect storm for the boutique. None of the parties involved has answered the questions from this newspaper.
And, if you have not lost more customers in this time, it is because you keep a collaboration agreement with the OCU, your main customer. OCU Inversiones recommends Metagestión funds among its partners, although it is not a formal agreement, attest to several of the sources consulted.
Horos and Beka fished in rough waters
The truth is that Metagestión has always been a manager with many changes in its leadership. But what has happened in the last three years has been a true roller coaster. In the summer of 2018, Javier Ruiz -at that time, Director of Investments-, Alejandro Martín and Miguel Rodríguez They left Horos Asset Management as majority shareholders, which was launched by José María Concejo, who for a few months -at the beginning of 2017- had also been CEO of Metagestión.
Today, its background Horos Value Iberia is the most profitable among those who invest in the parks of Spain and Portugal, with an increase in the year of more than 22%, surpassing its comparable Metavalor by practically 2,000 basis points.
The team that replaced them, made up of Fernando Cifuentes (a veteran of Metagestión) and Javier Martín, ended up at Beka Finance in 2019 for its Asset Management division. Cifuentes is the director of Open Funds and Martín, the director of Investments.
There are numerous voices inside and outside that criticize the intrusions and the personalism of Barreras, more expert in real estate than anything else, in the daily administration of the manager, making it difficult for its executive teams to work. Despite the fact that he has had several offers to sell the investment firm, all have been rejected on his part or the negotiations have broken down on the other, given the high price claims that the construction entrepreneur has.
One of his daughters, Anabel Barreras, advises him however sell a part of the capital -around 20% would be willing- to some external investment group, in such a way that it would give them financial lung and help them in the professionalization of the manager while Barreras Sr. could continue to fly over it but without an executive position. We will have to be attentive to see what happens in this new stage.
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Reference-www.elespanol.com