Sionna Investment Managers Celebrates its 20th Anniversary as one of the Largest Female-Founded, Independent Investment Management Firms in Canada
TORONTO, Oct. 19, 2022 /CNW/ - Founder and Co-CIO of Sionna Investment Managers (Sionna), Kim Shannon, celebrated her firm's 20th anniversary last month. She started the firm in 2002 to provide institutional and retail investors an opportunity to work with an independent manager dedicated to the value investing style.
Kim joined the industry in 1983, and she recalls, "There were very few women in the investment world. Even today, a recent statistic out of the U.S. suggests that female asset managers own less than 3% of all asset management firms and manage only 1% of assets under management."
With the express purpose of being a trailblazer for women investors, throughout her nearly 40-year career Kim has been recognized with countless industry awards. These include the RBC Canadian Woman Entrepreneur (2007), Canada's Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award (2007, 2017), the Rotman Women in Management Association Top 10 Award (Entrepreneur Category, 2015) and the Rotman Lifetime Achievement Award (2021). This month, Kim will be inducted into the Investment Industry Association of Canada's (IIAC) Investment Industry Hall of Fame.
A few years ago, to broaden the global reach of women investors, Kim co-founded Variant Perspectives, a global group who advocate for better representation of women in asset management. Variant Perspectives' first conference in 2019 attracted Warren Buffett, who addressed the audience with his sage advice.
With a business that has evolved and improved over 20 years, Kim notes "I love what I do, and I'm not nearly done. I am fortunate to be surrounded by a uniquely talented and supportive team and am excited to lead the next chapter of Sionna's success story". Sionna's President and COO, Paul Spagnolo, noted, "When Kim started the firm, Sionna focused on Canadian Equities and is an expert in that space. However, for over a decade, we have been expanding our offerings in the non-domestic universe, and brought on value investing veteran, Co-CIO, Stephen Jenkins, to manage Sionna's U.S., Global and International strategies".
Stephen joined Sionna more than three years ago and has a long history with Kim, "Kim hired me as a junior analyst back in the early 1990s and provided me with a solid foundation in value investing, so it was an easy decision to join such a well-respected firm and work alongside Kim again after all those years. Kim and I share a deep conviction in value investing and have been focused on making meaningful enhancements to our process over the last few years, which I believe has contributed to our strong returns."
With the recent turn towards value, Kim and her team have seen top quartile performance rankings over the one-year period to September 30, 2022. Kim noted, "We still have work to do for our clients. But, market history and the abundance of attractive value opportunities we are seeing today give us further confidence in our style of investing".
After the longest and deepest underperformance of value in a century, Sionna believes the value style has a promising future ahead.
Established in 2002, Sionna is an independent, investment management firm. Sionna oversees assets for institutional clients, mutual funds and high-net worth individuals.
Sionna is an active manager and uses a bottom-up, value approach to stock selection. With more than 100 years of industry experience among the portfolio managers, the team focuses on providing downside protection and strives to deliver long-term, above-average returns by applying a disciplined value investing process.
SOURCE Sionna Investment Managers Inc.
Media Contact: Katie Ophelders, Director, Relationship Management & Marketing, Sionna Investment Managers, [email protected].
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