Invesco, Franklin among firms that added SVB before collapse
ASSET managers including Invesco and Franklin Resources added shares of SVB Financial Group in the months before the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank wiped 60 per cent off its stock value in a single day.
The firms, together with Two Sigma Investments, DE Shaw & Co, Renaissance Technologies and BlackRock, were among the top 10 buyers of the shares since September, showed data compiled by Bloomberg from fourth-quarter and more recent regulatory filings and other fund documents.
Silicon Valley Bank’s technology startup clients and investors fled last week, spurring the second-biggest bank failure in US history. The swift collapse of the lender sent ripples through the tech and finance industries, prompting the government to protect client deposits.
SVB has lured some of the world’s biggest asset managers, ranging from passive to active investors and hedge funds. Franklin Resources’ nearly US$7.2 billion Franklin Mutual Shares Fund owned US$134 million worth of SVB shares at the end of January, stated a document.
Several of the firm’s funds also had small exposure to debt of Silicon Valley Bank, failed Signature Bank and Silvergate as of Mar 9, said a recent update posted on its website.
It is not clear whether some of them still held the shares, especially for quant firms such as Two Sigma and Renaissance which trade in and out of positions frequently.
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Representatives of Renaissance, DE Shaw, RBC Global Asset Management, and Massachusetts Financial Services, declined to comment, citing policies of not discussing specific holdings.
A representative of Invesco could not immediately comment.
Those of Mirova, Ensign and Champlain Investment Partners did not immediately reply to Bloomberg News queries.
Franklin Templeton said in an e-mailed statement that it has “negligible exposure to Silicon Valley Bank at a company level”.
Two Sigma’s one-million-share position in the Q4 regulatory filing reflected only its holding on the last day of the year, said a source. The position was spread across a number of trading vehicles and did not represent a fundamental view.
It had been cut by more than half before SVB collapsed and accounted for less than 10 basis points of the gross market value of the vehicles, the source added.
BlackRock said in an e-mailed statement that it invests on behalf of clients in a range of index and other diversified funds and accounts with limited exposure to Silicon Valley Bank.
Others got out just in time. RBC Global Asset Management UK sold its entire stake in Q4, which would have been worth US$248 million at the end of December. Axiom Investors also exited during the period, when its stake would have been valued at US$61 million.
RBC declined to comment. Representatives for Boston Partners and Axiom did not immediately respond during non-business hours. Rathbones said that it does not have any direct exposure to SVB, in a statement on its website. BLOOMBERG
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