Latest news with #Osta
Business Times
02-06-2025
- Business
- Business Times
BlackRock plans private market hires to win over rich Europeans
[LONDON] BlackRock is ramping up plans to offer more of its private-market products to individuals outside the US as the Wall Street giant increasingly tries to muscle in on one of the hottest areas in global finance. The world's largest asset manager is targeting a hiring drive and tie-ups with digital investment platforms in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region to boost individual investors' access to its private-markets products, BlackRock executive Fabio Osta said in an interview. 'We'll continue expanding,' said Osta, head of BlackRock's alternative-specialists team for its EMEA wealth unit, declining to specify recruiting targets. 'We want more people in private markets.' BlackRock, a pioneer in providing low-cost stock and bond funds, is betting it can conquer a more opaque and exclusive part of finance by homing in on private markets, where longtime leveraged-buyout titans such as Blackstone and KKR traditionally dominate. The New York-based firm has committed about US$28 billion over the past year or so for acquiring private-asset firms to elbow in on the space, fuelled by chief executive officer Larry Fink's bet that the traditional 60-40 split of stocks and bonds no longer cuts it for model investment portfolios. It has also cut its minimum investment levels to 10,000 euros (S$14,688) following regulatory changes last year that make it easier for individuals to access private markets from Europe, where some wealthy investors previously had no allocations to private credit or infrastructure assets. Customers of digital investment platform Scalable Capital in Germany, Austria and Italy can now use its smartphone app to access BlackRock's evergreen private equity fund launched last year – and more may follow. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up 'We are actively engaging with key players in the industry around this very topic,' Osta, a 12-year BlackRock veteran, said in the interview at the US firm's London office. Smartphones are 'the platform that you want to tap into to deliver private markets at scale.' In recent months, BlackRock for the first time began rolling out model portfolios to retail wealth clients in the US that include private equity and credit funds. The company, which oversaw US$11.6 trillion in assets under management at the end of March, is also completing the acquisition of New York-based private credit firm HPS Investment Partners, after earlier buying US investment firm Global Infrastructure Partners. Over the next decade, private-market assets under management are expected to reach as much as US$65 trillion, more than tripling since the end of 2012, according to recent research from Bain. In the meantime, individual investors have a lot of catching up to do: At BlackRock's inaugural EMEA private markets wealth summit in London in March, a survey of 70 advisers to well-heeled individuals found that most of their clients had 5 per cent or less of their portfolios in non-listed assets. If Fink and his colleagues have their way, that figure will eventually rise to at least 20 per cent, helping to forge a new era for both BlackRock and how individual investors manage their money. 'It's a different game to operate in this space,' Osta said on the private wealth sector. 'It's important we remain students of the market to help guide our clients on this journey.' BLOOMBERG
Associated Press
30-01-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Osta Therapeutics Strengthens Leadership Team with Two Industry Experts Supporting its Goal of Addressing Antibiotic Resistance
Osta Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing smart drugs to fight antibiotic resistance, today announced the appointments of Dr. Gilles Courtemanche as Senior Scientific Advisor and Dr. Nicolas Guyon-Gellin as Chief Business Officer. Both bring substantial experience from the pharmaceutical industry that will support the company on its mission to develop first-in-class antibiotics that target novel mechanisms to overcome the growing issue of antibiotic resistance. By leveraging the company's proprietary OSTA (On-Site-Target-Activated) approach, active pharmaceutical ingredients are delivered to the target and activated by the pathogens themselves. Osta's lead candidate, OSTA27, targets Carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAb) infections and is currently in preclinical development. 'We welcome these two seasoned experts to the Osta team. Their valuable experience in drug development and business development will be crucial in further defining our corporate strategy and supporting our efforts to move our lead candidate towards IND-enabling studies, while we continue developing our portfolio with new active ingredients, effective on bacteria responsible for other infectious diseases,' commented Jacques Samarut, Chief Executive Officer of Osta. 'I look forward to working with both of them towards our vision of battling antibiotic resistance.' Dr. Gilles Courtemanche brings more than 20 years of experience in drug development from positions at Rhône-Poulenc, Sanofi, and Synthelabo. Most recently, he held the position of Associate Director, Antimicrobials Unit Head at Bioaster, where he was responsible for the development of new technologies capable of accelerating the discovery of new antimicrobials. Dr. Courtemanche also leads CDDC, a consultancy that supports biotech companies by refining their scientific and R&D strategy and establishing critical relationships with industry and academic experts. He holds a PhD in chemistry from the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris. Dr. Nicolas Guyon-Gellin brings more than 18 years of experience in biotech industry and global healthcare financial markets to Osta Therapeutics. Most recently, he has served as Chief Business officer at Calypso Biotech, which was acquired by Novartis in 2024. He also was the VP Corporate Development & Strategy at ENYO Pharma. Prior to that he held multiple roles in equity research analysis at Morgan Stanley London, Exane BNP and Amundi Paris. Dr. Guyon-Gellin holds an M.D. from Université Paris Descartes (Paris V) as well as an MBA from ESCP Business School. About Osta Therapeutics Osta is developing smart novel antibiotic molecules to stop the rise of antibiotic resistance. Our proprietary OSTA approach (On-Site-Target-Activated) acts as a triggerable drug delivery system that is activated by the pathogens themselves. It delivers an active pharmaceutical ingredient when and where it is needed to target novel bacterial mechanisms, minimize the development of resistance and to acts locally and specifically on multi-resistant bacteria. Dr. Nicolas Guyon-Gellin Chief Business Officer [email protected] Requests Trophic Communications Gretchen Schweitzer or Sara Ortiz KEYWORD: FRANCE EUROPE INDUSTRY KEYWORD: HEALTH OTHER SCIENCE RESEARCH PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY SOURCE: Osta Therapeutics Copyright Business Wire 2025. PUB: 01/30/2025 05:00 AM/DISC: 01/30/2025 05:00 AM
