Marshall Wace


Marshall Wace LLP is a hedge fund based in London, founded by Paul Marshall and Ian Wace in 1997. Marshall serves as a chairman and chief investment officer, and Wace as a chief executive officer & chief risk officer.

Overview

Prior starting the fund, Paul Marshall was Head of European Equities at Mercury Asset Management, whilst Ian Wace was Head of Equities Trading at Deutsche Bank. In 1997, Marshall and Wace launched Marshall Wace; they were managing $50 million; $25 million from George Soros and $25 million sourced via family and friends. The firm manages more than $40 billion as of 2019 and operates from fund management offices in London, New York and Hong Kong. The head office in London is on Sloane Street.
The company is a founding member of the Hedge Fund Standards Board and is a member of the Alternative Investment Management Association. In August 2014, Marshall Wace made $36 million from going short on the collapse of the Portuguese bank Banco Espirito Santo. In 2015 Kohlberg Kravis Roberts agreed to buy a 24.9 percent stake in Marshall Wace.

Investment Approach

Marshall Wace manages a number of fundamental long-short equity funds. The investment process for each uses fundamental analysis that seeks to identify companies that are substantially mispriced on an absolute or relative basis. Managers have the ability to shift from value to growth, from small to medium to large-capitalisation stocks, and switch from a net long position to a net short position. Managers can also use futures and options to hedge.

Products

In addition to its fundamental long/short equity strategies, Marshall Wace runs a proprietary alpha capture system called TOPS, which polls the investment ideas of equity sell-side practitioners around the world and uses algorithms to analyse and optimise this information into liquid equity portfolios. Most of Marshall Wace's investors are major institutions. However, a number of its funds are UCITS-compliant vehicles.

Assets under management

YearAUM in Bil.
USD$
1997.05
20064.3
200711
200815
20096.3
20106
201418
201522
201625
201729
201939