Valterna – your independent Swiss financial boutique. We provide an individual and personal service to our clients. We do this with a great deal of passion and loving attention to detail. And in this way we can address their specific needs and wishes. We offer a wide range of services that go beyond asset management. With our single point of entry approach, you can be sure that your personal contact person will take care of your concerns quickly and pragmatically – waiting in a queue is a thing of the past! Through our close partnership with Partners Group, you also get to benefit exclusively from preferential conditions and access to private market investments.

Much more steadily but no less dynamic than the financial markets themselves, Valterna (formerly Asset Management Partners) has developed very successfully as a company – thanks above all to the trust the esteemed clients have placed in it – in what is a competitive environment. Originally established by Partners Group and having gained full independence through a management buyout some 10 years ago, Valterna has since grown into one of the largest independent asset managers in Switzerland. Through taking a regular, critical look at our own development process, we came to the conclusion that, as part of our 10th anniversary, we wanted not only to undergo a complete rebranding but also to appear under a new brand.

The term Valterna blends the words ‘value’ and ‘alternative’. The word ‘value’ reflects our ultimate goal, and that is to identify and understand our clients’ concerns and create tangible (added) value. We do this in partnership and with foresight. And the word ‘alternative’ is both a reference to our origins and one of our essential strengths: expertise in the field of private markets and our historic and continued close ties to the Swiss industry leader Partners Group. Our expertise in this field and exclusive conditions of access mean that we can offer our clientèle a much broader universe of investment opportunities in this asset class. We are firmly of the view that increasing the allocation to alternative investments not only achieves greater diversification of portfolio risk but, depending on the investment horizon and the macroeconomic environment, also enhanced returns.

As a former subsidiary and with asset management as the original core business of Partners Group when it was founded in 1996, we have continued, even after the management buyout in 2013, to nurture a close, partnership-based relationship with the now globally active Partners Group. We interact at different levels almost every day and this is probably how come at Valterna we have managed to retain the distinctive entrepreneurial spirit along with other invigorating aspects of its corporate culture.

Even though Partners Group with its hugely successful investment solutions is an important distribution partner for us, our independence allows us to work together with other renowned providers so as to be able to serve our clients’ needs effectively.

As an independent asset manager, we provide you with objective and unbiased advice that is focused specifically on your individual needs and wishes. Because we can consider a large number of investments and providers, we ensure that the particular selection promises to provide the most benefit for you. Since we have financed ourselves wholly and transparently through the agreed management fees from the very outset, we neither act as an intermediary for products nor are we exposed to any other financial incentives. Throughout the whole advisory process, in general, and during portfolio construction, in particular, our only commitment is to you and your needs – and the success we have had with our approach over the years proves we are right.

An asset management or advisory mandate is concluded between the client and Valterna; it forms the basis of a jointly developed investment strategy. We determine your investment strategy using a sophisticated process that we have developed together with the renowned Swiss Finance Institute at the ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences (the largest university of applied sciences in Switzerland). Your financial options, your personal investment goals (including your risk tolerance and investment horizon) and your experience, among other things, all flow into the risk profiling assessment.

Your assets are held at your Swiss custodian bank of choice and always shown in our transparent reporting.

By the way, we work with a large number of partner banks. Here again, you benefit from our independence and are free to choose. Whether you prefer big, regional or private banks, we have the right partner for you. We are happy to guide you in this process.

As the client, you set the direction. We work together to develop an investment strategy that is in line with your personal circumstances and financial situation.

Valterna invests for you strictly within the bandwidths of your clearly defined investment strategy – we do not use model strategies. Because with us, your strategy is unique to you and based on your own particular risk tolerance and preferences. That’s why each portfolio is carefully and individually constructed – with the diligence and loving attention to detail that you and your assets deserve. We implement your preferences consistently and monitor compliance continuously.

Based on your asset management mandate, our expert Investment Committee selects individual investments for your portfolio, following analysis of the market environment, within the framework of the strategic and tactical investment process.

Valterna has been in the market as a very successful independent asset manager for over 25 years. As an independent, owner-managed financial boutique, our commitment is solely to our clients and their needs. We invest on the basis of an investment strategy that has been jointly developed and agreed in writing and that is aligned with your financial circumstances, your risk appetite and your investment goals. In this way, we respect your risk tolerance and your need for safety.

As a FINMA-licensed asset manager under the prudential supervision of FINcontrol Suisse AG, we are also obliged to comply with the high standards of investor protection and financial market legislation at all times. Within the framework of financial market supervision, our structures and processes are critically and independently reviewed on a regular basis.

Valterna stands for excellent service at fair conditions. At the same time, we are fully committed to transparency. And this is why we have two attractive and easy to understand fee models you can choose from. Through our transparent, clear and concise asset reports you are kept informed about your investments, the current performance and the running costs (broken down by individual cost factors). There are no hidden costs with us.

On top of our fees, there are the custody fees charged by your custodian bank. Our clients benefit here from our long-term relationships with our partner banks and enjoy highly competitive banking conditions.

No, not at all. Our lean structures enable us to offer you a highly professional, tailored advisory service at fair conditions. Our two fee models are both easy to understand and transparent. The same applies to showing costs in our asset reporting. With us, there will be no hidden costs suddenly appearing.

Valterna has its own securities accounting system. Multiple or separately managed assets (including capital assets such as participations, real estate, vehicles, works of art and other movable tangible assets) can be presented in consolidated form, if you prefer. Clients are regularly informed about the composition and the performance of their portfolio by asset class. You decide on the frequency of advice you receive. Asset statements can be called up at any time in accordance with client wishes. We also keep our clients up to date with what is happening in the financial markets through our regular investment review and outlook publications.

Transparency is a very important underlying principle for Valterna. For this reason, and for as long as our company has been in existence, we have always considered that any received retrocessions, distribution commissions or other trailer fees (referred to collectively as ‘retrocessions’ below) belong strictly to the clients. Where possible, we invest in investment structures and fund tranches with no retrocession component. The fee models we have negotiated with our partner banks are all retrocession-free.  Any monies received will refunded to the clients in full and without being asked to do so.

The Investment Committee, which consists of our Portfolio Management and relationship managers, meets on a regular basis to discuss the investment strategy and current custody positions and select new potential investments. The starting point for our deliberations is the expectations for global economic growth. In Portfolio Management, we continuously monitor our positions and manage the level of investment in the various asset classes based on our expectations of the market.

Private market investments are investments that are not publicly available on a stock exchange. A distinction is typically made between private market investments in private equity, private debt, private real estate and private infrastructure. Depending on the investment structure, the investment horizon and the exit opportunities, a further distinction is made between semi-liquid (early exit possible at certain times under clearly defined terms) and illiquid private market investments.

Based on non-publicly accessible information on privately held companies, opportunities and market inefficiencies are exploited in order to reduce the volatility, or risk, of the portfolio and improve its return profile.

We care about the future of the present and coming generations. That is why we take a consistent approach to compliance with sector-standard ESG criteria and invest primarily in companies that have an above-average commitment to sustainability within their sector, category or class. Our decisions are based on data from Sustainalytics, a company that evaluates the sustainability of listed companies on the strength of their environmental, social and governance performance. We consciously refrain from making certain investments (e.g. arms manufacturers, tobacco and smoking products, alcohol, pornography, gambling) and use positive screening with minimum requirements for ESG criteria as part of our investment process. Here, we apply the best-in-class approach.

With the entry into force of the new Financial Institutions and Financial Services Acts (FINIG and FIDLEG), asset managers will need a licence to continue their professional activities from 2023 at the latest. Valterna was one of the very first independent asset managers to successfully conclude the authorization process at the beginning of 2022 and was granted authorization by FINMA to operate as an asset management company. The FINMA licence is a seal of quality and attests to the impeccable quality of the company’s processes and structures with regard to financial, personnel and organizational requirements.