Company Profile
Principle Advisory Services was established in 2001 to meet the need for global private markets investment from the large and growing Australian pension fund sector. The firm was founded by Les Fallick, following a varied career assisting Australian pension funds with domestic private equity and infrastructure investments. The team today comprises four senior professionals with experience in funds management and private markets investing.
Principle acts for Australian and international investment managers and advisors to help them establish and manage working relationships with Australasian institutional investors. The firm specialises in the private markets asset classes, with a particular focus on private equity, infrastructure and opportunistic property. Principle investment manager clients consist of individual fund managers and specialist funds-of-funds. Its advisor clients are specialist discretionary and non-discretionary asset consultants.
Principle holds an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) and is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission. Principle operates in accordance with a Code of Conduct.
The Principle philosophy
In the work that Principle does for investment managers, investor needs always come first. Investors should demand that Principle provides access to the very best investment managers, while respecting their requirements, decision-making processes, and preferences. Importantly, Principle will advocate investor interests to the investment manager or advisor for the life of an investment.
Les Fallick strongly believes that: "Principle has a place in the Australian investment management industry for only so long as it continues to add value. That means we need to be vigilant about making sure our clients align their interests with investors' and that the Principle team helps our clients interface with investors as efficiently as possible."
The Principle value proposition
Principle prides itself on the breadth of its global network and the high quality of the investment managers and advisors that it works with. Indeed, many Principle clients are subject to limited investment capacity, highly sought after, and constrained in the degree of access they can provide investors. In addition to established firms with long top-tier track records, Principle has represented excellent managers early in their development, before they have won broad institutional support.
A note on culture
"We enjoy what we do”, says Les Fallick. “This is reflected in the enthusiasm and energy we bring to our assignments. Life is not a dress rehearsal; enjoy what you do, do it to the best of your ability and, as far as possible, only do it with people with whom you have mutual respect."
Clients
Principle has advised a broad range of private markets investment managers and advisors. These include some of the world's largest buyout firms to smaller boutiques and start-ups. Principle clients are best-of-class, focused on serving their institutional investor client base in Australia and New Zealand, and think strategically about their investor base – they seek relationships rather than mere capital.
Principle is selective in the placement mandates that it will accept and tends to work on about five placement assignments in any year. Given that it takes time to develop meaningful investor relationships, Principle works with its clients on the basis of an ongoing partnership and does not generally undertake one-off capital raisings.
Client names are not generally publicly disclosed; however a comprehensive client list is available to appropriate parties on request.
Our Office
Principle moved into its office in the Wyoming building at 175 Macquarie Street in April 2007. Words used to describe the space include 'light, colourful, interesting, fabulous'. We certainly enjoy working in it: take a look.
The Logo
The corporate logo for Principle is the Thistle (Latin name Onopordum acanthium). As many would know, the Thistle is the national flower and emblem of Scotland. The Scottish connection came initially from Les Fallick, who was born and raised in Scotland and moved to Australia in 1982.
The Thistle is a tall and strong plant with a beautiful and distinctive flower. While the Thistle in Australia is known as a rural pest, growing wild in the inhospitable dry soils of Australia, in its native land the Thistle is hardy, perennial, nutritious and delivers a startling burst of colour when in bloom.