Our Proposition

One objective is shared by all our clients: a desire to raise capital from the institutional marketplace. Black Isle was therefore designed with a singular focus on meeting that objective.

Our clients are asset managers or other businesses seeking to raise capital from institutional investors and we have designed our proposition with them in mind. But the asset owners to whom we sell are hugely important to our ability to raise capital and we hope our proposition will also appeal to them.

For Asset Managers

We believe our proposition for our asset manager clients is a unique one in the UK market.

Our team is comprised exclusively of highly experienced institutional sales professionals.
Our service is delivered personally by the partners: each client has two leads, but the whole team works together on each appointment.
We offer exceptional breadth and depth of coverage of the UK institutional market. We don’t restrict our activity to a small number of close relationships, and we constantly seek to expand our contacts.
We are highly sceptical of the effectiveness of digital marketing in institutional investment. People make sales, not computers, so we focus on personal relationships.
Selling is what we do and all we do. We don’t offer stand-alone advisory services.
However, we see the provision of advice on market positioning, sales strategy and bespoke sales materials as vital in the early stages of our relationship with a client.
We have strong views on how to communicate our clients’ propositions to institutional investors effectively. At outset, we challenge our clients to identify the source of their returns and their competitive advantages.
Each client has different objectives. We’ll agree the appropriate strategy and the service necessary to achieve them, and we’ll discuss progress regularly.
We hope to build long-term mutually productive partnerships, but we don’t require long-term commitments. It shouldn’t take months before we can start work, and it shouldn’t take years to establish whether we can meet a client’s objectives.
We believe there are clear synergies in representing multiple clients and disparate strategies. We actively seek diversity in our client base as it makes us more effective for all our clients.

For Institutional Investors and Their Advisers

Institutional investors are time-constrained and spend a lot of time and effort determining how to allocate capital over multi-year periods. However good an asset manager’s product is, if it doesn’t meet a current need they will not invest. The institutional marketplace is highly competitive and investors have to prioritise their relationships to support their evolving priorities.

To meet our clients’ objectives, we need access to asset owners and their advisers. Reputation and relationships are vitally important, but we also need to show investors that we will add value to their investment activities. Partly that will be down to the quality of the asset managers we represent, but it will also depend on how professionally we operate. That is why we make certain important commitments to institutional investors:

Market Knowledge – Our institutional sales experience equips us with a sound understanding of the market and regulatory environment. We understand the challenges you face.
Focused Preparation – We will make continuous efforts to understand your business and your investment objectives to ensure our approaches are relevant.
Professionalism – We will always operate professionally. We recognise your time is precious, so when we approach you, our communications will be brief and concise. We won’t be pushy, and importantly, we will take “no” for an answer!
Fairness – Our remuneration will not impact the fees you may pay should you invest with a Black Isle asset manager client.
Relevance and Creativity – We will constantly strive to bring you interesting and relevant new ideas. Your feedback is appreciated and allows us to refine our approach and search out the best new managers.