The Capital Group Companies

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The Capital Group Companies is one of the world’s largest investment management organizations with assets of around one trillion USD under management.[citation needed] It comprises a group of investment management companies, including Capital Research and Management, American Funds, Capital Bank and Trust, Capital Guardian, and Capital International. As measured by assets under management, Capital rivals Fidelity Investments, a figure the company will not confirm because it eschews publicity.[1] The firm was founded in 1931 by Jonathan Bell Lovelace.

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[edit] The Founding Years

Jonathan Bell Lovelace was raised in Southern Alabama by a family who was in the timber business. He initially studied to become an architect at what was then Alabama Polytechnic (Currently Auburn University). After college, he enlisted in the military, working on a project that pioneered anti-aircraft artillery.[2] Lovelace worked with E.E. MacCrone & Company, eventually becoming a partner. In 1929, Lovelace believed the stock market to be wildly overvalued and sold his stake in the company. In 1931, he founded an investment firm, Lovelace, Dennis & Renfrew, what would eventually become the Capital Group Companies. The early company was a model of efficiency, with communications between Los Angeles and New York being hugely expensive.

[edit] Overview

Capital Group is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, and has over 9,000 associates in 20 office locations around the globe, including offices in London, Geneva, Toronto, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Mumbai and Singapore. The company also has a large newly built campus in Irvine, California, making it one of the largest employers in that city. Its families of mutual funds include "American Funds" and "Capital International Funds." On the institutional side, Capital manages money for pensions, governments, and other entities worldwide. It also manages money for wealthy individuals and engages in private equity investments. One of its subsidiaries, Capital International, was responsible for the construction of the MSCI stock market indices. The Capital Group was voted as the third-most satisfactory workplace in the Greater Los Angeles area by the LA Business Journal in 2006.[3]

The American Funds, managed by the Capital Group Companies was as of June 2007 the largest family of mutual funds in the US, followed by The Vanguard Group and Fidelity Investments, with roughly $1.3 trillion in assets under management.

In 2008, Capital Research and Management Company implemented the disaggregation of its equity investment operations to become known as Capital Research Global Investors and Capital World Investors.

A study published in February, 2009 on the arXiv preprint website (i.e., which has not yet been peer reviewed) on the topic of new network analysis methodologies in economics concluded — in the course of presenting an example — that The Capital Group was the most powerful entity in the global stock market.[4]

[edit] References

  1. ^ See section 'The secret world of a $750bn fund manager' in The Independent
  2. ^ Ellis, Charles D.: Capital:The Story of Long-Term Investment Excellence, pages 12-13. John Wiley Press, 2004.
  3. ^ "Inside the Top Five Best Places to Work: No. 3: The Capital Group". ComputerWorld. June 19, 2006. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleTOC&specialReportId=9000080&articleId=111562. Retrieved on 2006-06-19. 
  4. ^ "The backbone of complex networks of corporations: Who is controlling whom?" (pdf). arXiv.org. February 5, 2009. p. 28. http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0902/0902.0878v1.pdf. Retrieved on 2009-02-11. 

[edit] External links

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