Lawyer Massimo Malvestio founded Praude Asset Management in December 2009. Since then, the asset management company has specialized in value investing and has managed to record remarkable performances. In an interview with “Focus Risparmio”, an Italian magazine dedicated to asset management published by Assogestioni, Founder Massimo Malvestio talked about this while recalling his professional life and the many accomplishments he has achieved throughout his career.
Born in Treviso, he graduated in Law from the University of Padova in 1985. Few years later he cofounded “Studio Legale Barel Malvestio & Ass.”, a law firm later known as “BM&A”. As Managing Partner until 2013, he successfully led the commercial law practice of the firm, with a particular focus on banking law, financial markets law, governmental enterprises, and financial crime law. In parallel to this, he worked as legal consultant to several Italian and European banks, listed companies, and enterprises.
As explained in his interview with “Focus Risparmio”, it was in 1985 that he had started to collaborate with the legendary asset manager Mario Zarattini: “I was a great friend of him”, he recalled, “and even before he moved to Lugano and founded his own bank, we had talked together about many projects in the financial sector”. Massimo Malvestio then took another professional path and decided to work full time as a lawyer. However, he subsequently undertook a new professional challenge and entered the world of finance, leading to the establishment of his own fund “Hermes Linder Fund SICAV” in 2004.
His experience and expertise in value investing, in particular in major equity European markets, allowed the fund to record remarkable results: these include a track record of performance of over 600% compared to the fund’s launch value, as well as an accrued performance for investors (net of fees) of 11.85%. Today, the fund is managed by Praude Asset Management, where Massimo Malvestio holds the roles of Portfolio Manager and Chairman of the Investment Committee.
In the interview, he also recalled the international awards received by “Hermes Linder Fund SICAV”: thanks to its excellent performance, the fund was indeed awarded the Thomson Reuter Lipper Fund Award for “Best Fund” over 3 years in the “Equity Europe 2017” category, and was granted a “five-star rating” by Morningstar. As confirmed by its Founder, the fund’s strength lies in “legal arbitration and its in-depth knowledge of the economic, financial and regulatory environment in which the fund operates”. Furthermore, its “value investing approach” is essentially based “on joint studies of companies’ financial data, business plans and regulatory environments”. This is the key aspect that drives the fund’s management team, and “not belonging to one sector or another”, Massimo Malvestio said in conclusion.