Barings LLC is a global
investment management
Investment management (sometimes referred to more generally as financial asset management) is the professional asset management of various Security (finance), securities, including shareholdings, Bond (finance), bonds, and other assets, such as r ...
firm owned by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (
MassMutual
The Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, also known as MassMutual, is a Springfield, Massachusetts-based life insurance company.
MassMutual provides financial products such as life insurance, disability income insurance, long term car ...
). It operates as a subsidiary of MassMutual Financial Group, a diversified financial services organization.
As of December 31, 2023 Barings held US$381+ billion in
assets under management
In finance, assets under management (AUM), sometimes called fund under management, refers to the total market value of all financial assets that a financial institution—such as a mutual fund, venture capital firm, or depository institutio ...
.
Barings has over 1,800 professionals and offices in 16 countries.
Services
Barings is a global investment manager.
History
Barings, originally established as a firm of merchants and merchant bankers, was formed in London in 1762.
In the 1950s, Barings realised the potential of asset management and set up its own investment department in 1955. Clients were corporate clients, sovereign connections, pension funds and charitable institutions. In the 1970s, Barings expanded this business internationally with offices in the Far East, North America and Europe.
In 1989, Barings combined all of its asset management activities within Baring Asset Management Limited, headquartered in London.
In 1995,
Barings Bank
Barings Bank was a British merchant bank based in London. It was one of England's oldest merchant banks after Berenberg Bank, Barings' close collaborator and German representative. It was founded in 1762 by Francis Baring, a British-born member ...
, the oldest investment bank in Britain, collapsed as a result of unauthorised trading by its head
derivatives trader in Singapore,
Nick Leeson
Nicholas William Leeson (born 25 February 1967) is an English former derivatives trader whose fraudulent, unauthorised and speculative trades resulted in the 1995 collapse of Barings Bank, the United Kingdom's oldest existing merchant bank ...
, who was imprisoned for six and a half years in Singapore. It was then bought for £1 by
ING Group
ING Group N.V. () is a Dutch multinational corporation, multinational banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Amsterdam. Its primary businesses are retail banking, direct banking, commercial banking, investment banking, whol ...
, a Dutch bank.
In March 2005, Baring Asset Management was split and Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (
MassMutual
The Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, also known as MassMutual, is a Springfield, Massachusetts-based life insurance company.
MassMutual provides financial products such as life insurance, disability income insurance, long term car ...
) acquired Baring Asset Management's investment management activities and the rights to use the Baring Asset Management name.
Northern Trust
Northern Trust Corporation is an American financial services company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, that caters to corporations, institutional investors, and ultra high net worth individuals. Northern Trust is one of the List of largest ban ...
acquired Baring Asset Management’s Financial Services Group.
In September 2016, MassMutual merged Babson Capital Management, Wood Creek Capital Management, Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers, and Baring Asset Management to form Barings.
Timeline
*2010 – Baring Asset Management wins the Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2010 in the International Trade Category
*2012 – 250th Anniversary
*2013 – Baring Asset Management completes acquisition of SEI Asset Korea Co., Ltd (SEIAK)
*2016 – Barings is formed after MassMutual merges Babson Capital Management, Wood Creek Capital Management, Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers and Baring Asset Management.
*2018 - Barings Acquires Triangle Capital Corporation (Renamed Barings BDC INC.)
*2020 - Barings BDC Closes Merger with MVC Capital
*2021 - Barings BDC closes merger with Sierra Income Corporation
*2022 - Barings Acquires Altis Property Partners
References
Further reading
*
Philip Ziegler
Philip Sandeman Ziegler (24 December 1929 – 22 February 2023) was a British biographer and historian.
Background
Ziegler was born in Ringwood, Hampshire on 24 December 1929, the son of Louis Ziegler, an Army officer, and Dora Barnwell, a hom ...
, The Sixth Great Power: Barings 1762-1929 (1988). London: HarperCollins Publishers Limited. .
* John Orbell (1995), Baring Brothers & Co., Limited: a history to 1939. London: Baring Brothers & Company
External links
The Baring Archive
{{Authority control
Financial services companies based in the City of London
Financial services companies established in 1762
Investment management companies of the United Kingdom
Baring family
Asset management companies