The GIPS standards must be applied on a firmwide basis, and the firm must be defined as an investment firm, subsidiary, or division “held out” to clients or potential clients as a distinct business entity. I just do not understand the actual meaning of “held out”, can anyone explain ? Thanks !
Assume there’s a company that owns two subsidiaries. The two subsidiaries are both investment managers, and have completely separate investment processes, and are marketed/branded in totally different ways (so in essence, the two subsidiaries are independent of each other) - at least as far as I understand it, either subsidiary can claim GIPS compliance. On the other hand, if there is another company that owns two subsidiaries, but in this case, they are branded similarly (same logo/branding, same investment process, etc). These would not be “held out” as a distinct business entity because the general public/prospective clients would view them as the same entity.
darkstar, TKVM for your explanation. Anyone else has further clarification ?