La Financière de l'Echiquier

Olivier de Berranger serves as CEO. Individual fund managers hold distinct sector expertise — Alicia Daurignac manages the Echiquier Space fund, Christophe Pouchoy manages the Echiquier Robots and Humanoids fund, and Kévin Net leads the Asia desk. The firm describes its approach as based in fundamental analysis of companies and knowledge of their leadership teams.

The firm relies on bottom-up analysis and direct contact with company management. Thematic fund managers screen for businesses exposed to long-term secular trends — such as space exploration budgets tied to NASA's Artemis program or China's tripling of R&D expenditure between 2011 and 2022 — rather than running purely quantitative screens.

It is an entrepreneurial asset manager, not a family office. The firm was founded in 1991 and distributes thematic equity funds to individuals, financial advisors and institutions across ten European markets. It also operates a private-wealth unit, Echiquier Gestion Privée, serving high-net-worth clients directly.

Strategies include thematic equity funds targeting space, robotics and humanoids, and broader technology and innovation exposure. The firm also runs an Asia equity capability and, through the Tocqueville Finance integration completed in 2024, expanded into European equity and diversified fund-of-funds mandates.

LFDE is positioned alongside LBP AM within the La Banque Postale group. The two asset managers announced a merger project to form LFDE Investment Managers, aiming to accelerate external client acquisition while preserving LFDE's boutique brand identity — the 'LFDE' acronym is specifically used in Germany and Austria to overcome pronunciation barriers.

The firm primarily manages direct thematic portfolios of listed equities — its Echiquier Space and Echiquier Robots and Humanoids funds hold publicly traded stocks. The private-wealth unit also constructs diversified portfolios that may include external fund selections, a legacy of the Tocqueville Finance merger where managers ran funds of diversified funds alongside direct positions.

LFDE maintains a positive structural view on Chinese equities despite geopolitical risk. Kevin Net, the Asia head, wrote in a May 2025 market commentary that China's innovation — notably DeepSeek's generative AI, and BYD's ultra-fast EV battery charging — justifies a portfolio re-rating. The firm believes that trade-war volatility is already priced into valuations near 10.7 times forward earnings.