Ivo Darnley: Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon and thank you for having me here today at the Investec Wealth and Investment UK Charity Conference 2024 and it's an honour to address a distinguished audience such as you representing such a diverse spectrum of charities. As Nicola explained, my name is Ivo Darnley.
I'm the Managing Director of Rathbones Investment Management and in that role, I am responsible for all our client facing teams, including charities. I'm also responsible for the investment process, but probably more importantly for this audience, I founded the Rathbones charity team in about the year 2000, so a long time ago and I arrived as a graduate trainee to Rathbones 30 years ago.
And for most of the time, therefore I have managed charities. I've been facing and joining and supporting charity clients. I established the Rathbones foundation, which I'm going to mention a bit more in a second, and I want to emphasise that the charity sector and charities matter to me, but also matter, very importantly, to Rathbones.
As many of you are aware, and Nicola made a comment about it, the logos and the branding have changed. And in April 2023, we announced to the market that Rathbones PLC, and Investec were having a combination for an all-share combination to combine the businesses to create a leading we wealth manager in the UK.
And as we carefully progress with the process of integrating IWI and Rathbones, I'd like to take this opportunity to share with you that commitment to the charity space. And I want to explain how the combination with Investec brings significant benefits to charities both in IWI and in RIM.
First, a very brief history lesson. For those not familiar with our heritage, Rathbones was founded in 1742 in Liverpool as a wood sawing business. And Liverpool remains extremely important to us, and indeed our enabling teams are still based in Liverpool. And I was there last week. And the company has progressed from a manager of wood sawmills to building ships to managing family money to managing charity money.
So responsibility is in our DNA. At Rathbones we've long recognised the vital role charities play in all parts of society. We understand the unique challenges and responsibilities that come from managing charity money. That's why we made our mission to provide a comprehensive and tailored service to meet the specific needs of all charities alongside their business interests. Various Rathbones family members devoted their passion to social justice and to philanthropic needs. They campaigned in several revolutionary movements at the time, including backing the abolition of slavery. They campaigned for the provision of nursing for the poor, as well as female suffrage and the family responsible for establishing a system of district nursing across the UK in conjunction with Florence Nightingale, and they were instrumental in founding Bangor and Liverpool Universities. The firm's commitment to charitable endeavours remains a focus for us today. And we support a range of charitable projects through the Rathbones Foundation, which I mentioned earlier.
But our day job remains effectively managing charity investments. And as a reminder, the combined Rathbones Group now manages over £9 billion of funds for charitable assets, looking after about 3,000 charities. So through the combination with IW&I we will have the opportunity to enhance the charity proposition in several key areas.
First, the combination with Investec will make us one of the largest charity managers within the UK, but size is not everything. The benefit to you is that you'll be supported by an even larger dedicated charities team. All our charity specialists possess a deep knowledge of charities. They are charity specialists and almost all of the members of the charity team are trustees in their own right, in their part time, as am I.
Second, we believe that our depth of research capabilities will set us apart within the industry. Access to cutting edge research, is essential to our investment managers in deciding how to manage our clients’ money and how to plan for the future. By building and developing our central investment research function, we'll be able to deliver broader and deeper investment insights to these teams.
Third, I'd like to highlight our expertise in environmental, social and governance. So that's ESG investing. At Rathbones, we understand the importance of helping charities balance their ethical and financial goals. And as a company, we have a long-standing commitment to business ethics, and we believe that investment decisions can be a powerful force for good.
In fact, we were pioneers in this area. Rathbones Greenbank Investments, as it was called then, was established in 2004, and it became the ethical investment arm of the Rathbones Group. At the time, it was one of the first tailored ethical portfolio services available, and it allows us to offer charities access to a wealth of knowledge and expertise in ESG investing.
Fourth, we are actively aiming to strengthen our charity collective investment funds. These funds are specifically designed to meet the unique investment objectives and risk profiles of charity organisations. By leveraging our combined expertise and resources, we can offer charities a diverse range of investment opportunities that align with your values and your financial objectives.
And in addition to these services, we'll be able to offer a wider range of fixed interest deposits. Rathbones is a bank in its own right, which helps charities and gives more options to grow your funds while maintaining stability and security. This will allow charities to have greater control of your investments and align your financial strategies with your long-term goals.
Additionally, our portfolio lending services will enable charities to access capital for important projects or other initiatives. And we understand that charities often require funding for different, various purposes, be that expanding operations or creating new facilities and supporting more people.
So in conclusion, Rathbones is deeply committed to the charity space, as am I personally. Our combination with Investec will bring significant benefits to our ability to serve all charities in both IW&I and in RIM, and it will include an enhanced charity proposition. We've got increased resources and further expertise in ESG investing.
We are dedicated to supporting charitable organisations to achieve your financial goals while making a positive impact upon society. So thank you again for your attention and I hope that you enjoy the rest of your conference and I hope to see you all later.
