The Alvarium NZ business has been carved-out from the broader global firm that recently listed in the US via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
Under the Nasdaq SPAC float completed this January, Alvarium merged with US wealth management firm, Tiedemann Investment Advisors to create a business advising-on or managing US$60 billion.
Alvarium Tiedemann (AlTi) provides “entrepreneurs, multi-generational families, institutions, and emerging next-generation leaders with fiduciary capabilities as well as alternative investment strategies and advisory services”, according to the January release.
However, following a recent share register reshuffle the Alvarium NZ operations will remain formally separate from the Nasdaq entity in order to “better serve clients and provide greater freedom to transact in local real estate”, the company said in a statement.
Foreign ownership is problematic for property deals in NZ as well as complicating reporting duties for several of the local Alvarium subsidiaries such as fund manager and KiwiSaver provider, Pathfinder.
The local holding company, Alvarium Investments NZ is now majority owned by Gough Investments (the family office vehicle of Christchurch businessman, Ben Gough), which has a 60 per cent stake. Alvarium co-founder, Andrew Williams, holds 25 per cent of the NZ business with Gough Investments chief, Brett Gamble, owning the remaining 15 per cent through his BHive Gold company.
Alvarium Investments NZ holds about 60 per cent of Alvarium Wealth Management NZ, which houses Pathfinder. Pathfinder founders, John Berry and Paul Brownsey, own 15 per cent apiece of Alvarium Wealth with other shareholders including former NZAM director, Alan McChesney.
Alvarium entered NZ in 2017 with the purchase of a 50 per cent share in hedge fund-of-funds firm NZAM and taking a similar stake in Pathfinder two years later – ultimately taking full ownership of the two managers.
In 2021 Alvarium folded the former NZAM and Pathfinder businesses into the Alvarium Wealth wrapper while acquiring Auckland financial advisory firm, Newton Ross, in the same year.
Williams co-founded Alvarium (previously known as LJ Partnership) in 2009 in the UK before moving to NZ in 2017.
Globally, Alvarium specialises in bespoke investment and financing – with a strong bent to alternative assets and real estate (a strategy run by Williams) – for high net worth individuals. The merger with the US-based Tiedemann, which also focuses on the high net worth market, was touted as creating a global powerhouse “positioned between global family office solutions and alternative asset management”.
The combined listed business also flagged further acquisitions as a “key driver of growth” in a presentation last year.
Despite cutting formal corporate ties with the Nasdaq entity, the Alvarium NZ “owners remain closely connected to AlTi, retaining access to its wealth of resources”, the statement says.
“As such, the best-in-class experience valued and expected by Alvarium New Zealand’s investors will continue, with some enhancements.”