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Conning (company)

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Conning & Company
Company typePrivate
IndustryInvestment management
Founded1912; 112 years ago (1912)
Headquarters
Hartford, Connecticut
,
United States
Key people
Woody Bradford (Chairman and CEO)
ProductsAsset management
Pension plans
AUM~US$120 billion (2016)[1]
Number of employees
350
ParentCathay Financial Holdings
Websitewww.conning.com

Conning is a global investment management firm serving the insurance industry.[2] Conning supports institutional investors, including pension plans, with investment and asset management products, risk modeling software, and industry research. Founded in 1912, Conning has offices in Boston, Cologne, Hartford, Hong Kong, London, New York and Tokyo.[3][4][5][6]

Company history

Conning & Company was founded in Hartford, Connecticut in 1912 by William Smith Conning. Conning was born in Slingerlands, New York, just outside of Albany on September 16, 1877, and moved to Hartford in 1904 to serve as office manager for investment firm Hornblower & Weeks.

W.S. Conning & Company was founded with William C. Goeben, a colleague of Conning’s at Hornblower & Weeks. The firm embraced the technology of the day, providing election returns to clients by wire from New York during President Woodrow Wilson’s successful, yet narrow, re-election victory in 1916 over Charles Evans Hughes while Europe was enmeshed in World War I.

In 1920, Conning & Company installed a bond ticker and moved into a newly constructed building on Lewis Street in Hartford. In January 1923, Conning Realty Company was incorporated for $50,000 by Conning, Goeben, Mitchell and Charles T. Treadway.

In 1924, the Hartford Community Chest formed as the predecessor to the Hartford United Way.

In 1935, a year shy of celebrating its 60th anniversary, the Hartford Stock Exchange closed after failing to comply with the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Conning & Company was no longer registered with the exchange. Two of the oldest investment firms in Hartford joined forces when Conning & Company merged with Ballard & Company on December 4, 1942, to become Conning & Company and Ballard.

In late 1948, William S. Conning’s wife, Carolyn Dermott Conning, died. Four months later, the widowed Conning died at the age of 71, leaving behind the couple’s daughter, Katharine S. Conning, who died in 1996.

New Directions

In 1950, Conning & Company began offering insurance stock research and advice to institutional investors.

After Conning & Company celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1962, the firm continued to emphasize research and education. In 1968, Conning & Company became a Registered Investment Advisor with the SEC.

During 1970, the firm branched out into consulting and strategic industry research for senior insurance executives. By 1974, Conning & Company had 13 Partners and 60 employees operating in Hartford with a subsidiary, Fox-Pitt Kelton Inc., headquartered in London. The subsidiary provided research on U.S. insurance companies and banks to institutional investors throughout Europe.

Mergers and Acquisitions 1985 – 1999

In the mid- to late-1980s, Conning & Company celebrated the company’s 75th anniversary and formed two new groups: a venture capital unit to raise private equity for insurance investments and an asset management group to manage insurance companies’ assets.

In 1995, General American Life Insurance Company (GALIC) acquired Conning Corp. and its subsidiary Conning & Company. Conning Corp.’s asset management business was merged with General American Investment Management Company (GAIMCO) to form Conning Asset Management Company (now known as Conning, Inc.). In 1997, GALIC took Conning Corp. public and completed a successful initial public offering of 2.875 million shares in 1997. The company began trading on NASDAQ as CNNG.

In August 1998, Conning Asset Management acquired Schroeder Mortgage Associates LP, a small real estate investment company in Manhattan. Four months later, Conning Corp. and Conning Asset Management acquired Noddings Investment Group, a small convertible bond asset manager and broker-dealer located near Chicago.

Conning Corp. closed out a decade of growth by acquiring the insurance company and high-grade fixed income management business of TCW Group, based in Los Angeles. In 1999, Forbes ranked Conning Corp. 82nd on its list of 200 Best Small Companies.

Creating a Global Footprint, 2000 - 2003

In 2000, MetLife acquired Conning Corp. and took it private, paying $12.50 a share in cash. Later that year, Conning acquired Charter Oak Asset Management of Hartford. Conning also spun out its MarketStance business in an MBO.

Swiss Reinsurance Company acquired Conning Corp. in July 2001 to grow the third-party asset management business. As part of these changes, Conning & Company’s broker-dealer business was shut down and the remnants were combined with Fox-Pitt Kelton Inc.’s similar business; also, Conning & Company’s insurance industry research and publications business was transferred to Fox-Pitt Kelton management.

In 2002, Swiss Re Asset Management, Americas’ asset liability management unit came under Conning’s control with 20 employees relocating to Hartford. In June, Conning Asset Management Company sold its Mortgage Loan and Real Estate business to Key Corp, and in December, Conning & Company and Conning Asset Management Company sold Noddings to First Albany.

In the first six months of 2003, the company spun out Schroeder Mortgage and Conning Capital Partners in MBOs. Conning US then took over management of SR Asset Management’s European third-party asset management businesses in Dublin and London. Although Swiss Re continued to own the entities, they were renamed Conning Asset Management (Europe) Limited located in Dublin and Conning Asset Management Limited located in London.

In 2004, Conning Corp. and Conning, Inc. merged with and into Conning & Company, leaving two entities: Conning & Company and Conning Asset Management Company which then changed its name to Conning, Inc. Also in 2004, Conning & Company acquired Conning Research & Consulting, Inc. a research business from its affiliate Fox-Pitt, Kelton, Inc.

New Ownership and New Products & Services – 2009 to Present

In October 2009, Aquiline Capital Partners acquired Conning & Company from Swiss Reinsurance Company.

In 2010, Conning launched its High-Dividend Equity Fund strategy and acquired the assets of DFA Capital Management, a market leader in economic, capital markets and risk modeling software. The deal included some of DFA’s management team, staff, and ADVISE® and GEMS® software suites.

On September 20, 2011, Conning and Cathay Financial Holdings received regulatory approval for their previously announced joint venture to form a new Hong Kong-headquartered asset management company, now known as Conning Asia Pacific Limited. Later that year, Conning and The Phoenix Companies entered into a multiyear investment agreement under which Conning acquired Goodwin Capital Advisers, Inc. and took management control of the Phoenix’s publicly-traded fixed income general accounts insurance assets totaling approximately $8 billion.

In June 2014, Conning completed the acquisition of certain assets of Brookfield Investment Management Inc.’s Core Fixed Income Insurance Business. With the closing, the investment team managing these assets joined Conning in its newly-formed midtown Manhattan investment office.

On September 18, 2015, Cathay Financial Holding Co., Ltd. (TWSE: 2882), completed its acquisition of Conning through its subsidiary, Cathay Life Insurance Co, Ltd. This transaction provided complete continuity for Conning and its clients.

On January 31, 2016, Conning acquired Octagon Credit Investors, LLC ("Octagon"), a U.S.-based investment manager with expertise in collateralized loan obligations (CLOs), bank loans and high yield bonds.

Investments

The company's investment management subsidiaries top 5 holdings as of June 2017[7] were:

Number Security Number of shares Percentage of portfolio
1. Spdr S & P 500 Etf Trust 203,374 1.78 %
2. Johnson & Johnson 351,419 1.68 %
3. Microsoft 668,143 2.1 %
4. iShares Trust 643,055 1.52 %
5. Pfizer 1,189,755 1.45 %

References

  1. ^ http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/conning2016-individual-life-annuity-growth-and-profit-leaders-announced-300357699.html
  2. ^ https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=228781
  3. ^ http://www.conning.com
  4. ^ http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=228781
  5. ^ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-12/cathay-to-buy-92-billion-asset-manager-conning.html
  6. ^ http://www.conning.com/aboutconning/news-detail.aspx?id=13620
  7. ^ http://www.insidermonkey.com/institutional-investor/conning+inc/6235/holdings/
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