Ramirez Asset Management Fuels Success as a Nimble Credit Manager with a Differentiated Approach

Firm hits new asset and client milestones in 2022

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As a result of consistent growth in new mandates and additional assets from existing clients, Ramirez Asset Management, Inc. (“RAM”) surpassed $8.7 billion in assets under management (AUM) as of August 31, 2022, a 26 percent increase in assets since year-end 2021. To support this growth, the firm has added new members across its investment, risk, systems and client services teams.

Over the course of this year, RAM has welcomed a diverse range of new clients in the public and corporate pension, corporate treasury, endowment and foundation (E&F), insurance and defined contribution / stable value sectors. In addition, the firm has strengthened its relationships with top institutional investment management consultants.

“Clients continue to be drawn to our firm’s differentiated portfolio construction approach and our consistent and time-tested investment process. Clients appreciate our willingness to customize their portfolios to meet their specific investment goals, credit guidelines, and, in some cases, our ability to incorporate ESG factors into an investment program,” said Sam Ramirez, Jr., President and CEO. “We are laser-focused on meeting each client’s investment needs, delivering high quality service and growing our investment personnel to meet client goals. We feel RAM, as a boutique asset manager, is a refreshing option in an industry dominated by mega managers.”

RAM’s Time-Tested Investment Approach

All of RAM’s products are managed through the lens of a singular strategy and investment philosophy that incorporates the firm’s sector allocation and security selection process, which has historically resulted in competitive risk-adjusted returns. As a credit-focused fixed income manager with a bottom-up process that drives returns, RAM seeks active relative value credit opportunities to add incremental yield and total return.

This philosophy is the foundation of each of its investment strategies, which include Core, Intermediate, Stable Value, Long Duration, and Short Duration.

RAM allows its experienced portfolio managers to make meaningful allocations to relative value anomalies that they identify. While the firm is disciplined in adhering to overall benchmark duration (+/- 10%), term and credit quality risk framework, RAM is not risk-constrained by credit segmentation within the benchmark.

“We firmly believe that utilizing our credit expertise through sector rotation and security selection, in a risk-controlled framework, will produce consistent risk-adjusted returns over time,” said Louis Sarno, Managing Director and Securitized Product Portfolio Manager.

Several of RAM’s strategies utilize a strategic allocation to the taxable municipal asset class. By utilizing this asset class in combination with U.S. Treasuries and Agencies, corporate credit and securitized credit, the firm offers a compelling, dynamic, multi-sector investment approach that can achieve increased alpha and portfolio diversification.

RAM’s Results Drive Demand

Over the past year, RAM’s investment product growth has been across its customized credit strategies in Short Duration (0-3 and 0-5 year investment mandates) for corporate treasury teams and in its Core and Strategic Core (0-30 year investment mandates) composites for public and corporate pensions and E&F clients. RAM’s Long Duration and Liability-Driven Investing composites have also experienced increased interest from public and corporate pension plans.

A track record of attractive risk-adjusted returns accompanies each of these composites as reflected in their historical eVestment Alliance rankings. For example, the Core Strategy is ranked in the 29^th percentile and the Strategic Core Strategy is ranked in the 5^th percentile for the 10-year period ending June 30, 2022. [Please see below for more information concerning eVestment Alliance rankings.]¹

“Corporate pension clients, whose long duration assets are typically overexposed to corporate credit, have gravitated to our style as an attractive return and diversification option,” said Sam Ramirez, Jr. “We believe the appeal of customization under the direction of a proven investment team will resonate with others and continue to drive our AUM growth.”

About Ramirez Asset Management, Inc.
Founded in 2002 and headquartered in New York City, registered investment adviser Ramirez Asset Management, Inc. (RAM) is affiliated with Samuel A. Ramirez & Co. Inc., one of the oldest and best-capitalized Hispanic-owned investment banks in the U.S. and a leader in the fixed income market. RAM is focused on fixed income asset management for a diverse institutional client base, including public and private defined benefit and defined contribution plans, Taft Hartley plans, corporations, state and local governments, as well as foundations and endowments. The firm’s main investment strategies include Core, Intermediate, Stable Value, Long Duration, and Short Duration. For more information, please visit www.ramirezam.com.

¹RAM currently subscribes to eVestment Alliance rankings for a subscription fee. RAM has a reasonable basis to believe that the surveys utilized by eVestment in the preparation of their rankings are structured fairly and in a manner that provides participants ability to provide favorable and unfavorable responses, and is not designed or prepared to produce any predetermined result. The eVestment ranking data is based on the universe of respondents to such surveys and the accuracy of these respondents. Survey results are potentially subject to revision by all survey respondents. RAM’s flagship and most prominent strategies, Core and Strategic Core, are referenced here, but the firm has a suite of fixed income strategies to meet a range of client investment objectives and goals.