Behind Nikko Asset Management’s Rebrand to Amova

Stefanie Drews

Tokyo-based Nikko Asset Management Co. Ltd. completed its rebranding to Amova Asset Management Co. Ltd. in September.

The rebrand, Amova CEO Stefanie Drews tells CIO, is designed to reflect the changes the company has made over the last 65 years, as well as the firm’s plans for global growth—aiming to double its assets under management over the next 10 years.

“Largely, it was driven by the fact that the original name that we had, Nikko Asset Management, kind of [looks] back to a time when we were very different as a company,” Drews says. “Our investor base changed, our global footprint is completely different. We also work differently, we are language agonistic, fully digitalized. Everything is different from 65 years ago … so we wanted a name that reflected us.”

Until September, Amova had been co-branding materials with the Nikko and Amova brands side by side for 12 months, which eased the transition to a new name, according to Drews.

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The rebranding was done by 175 of Amova’s employees, who were given the task of distilling down what they thought were the main characteristics of the company and then shaping that into a new name.

“They came up with forward looking, they wanted the word move,” says Drews, who was promoted to president in 2022 and to CEO in February. “They wanted the word innovation or nova … and then they coined the word Amova.”

Looking to Growth

The rebrand coincides with the firm’s plans for global growth. Drews—who moved to Tokyo in 2014, was promoted to president in 2022 and was named CEO in February—told CIO that Amova plans for inorganic growth to account for at least half of its growth in the next 10 years.

“On the inorganic side, we have six target areas,” Drews says, identifying acquisitions and partnerships to add capabilities across exchange-traded funds, private assets and sustainable investing. The firm is also looking to acquire asset managers across Asia, Europe and the U.S., she says.

Drews points to a “de-dollarizing” trend among global public market investors that could be a tailwind for Amova. There are “$30 trillion of U.S. [dollar] assets held by foreign investors, and 50% were hedged; [now] hedges are rising.”

As an example of the trend, she points to ETFs sold outside the U.S. that track U.S. markets and “in January, were 20% hedged. Now [they] are 80% hedged.”

The same trend, she says, will drive additional assets from non-U.S. investors into private assets in Europe and Asia.

Drews also points to the heavily regulated financial markets of Europe and Japan, saying that any deregulation in those areas would provide a “huge opportunity” for investors.

Because of Amova’s footprint in developed and developing Asian markets, Drews says the firm is well positioned to benefit from both growing domestic consumption and corporate spending on information technology in Japan, along with consumer growth in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam. Amova managed $260.5 billion in assets, as of June 30, across multiple-equity, fixed-income and multi-asset strategies. Its global footprint includes approximately 500 employees in Japan and 500 more elsewhere in the world.