Company: COHN
Filing Date: 2025-03-12
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001437749-25-007158
Chunk: 1210

Company: Cohen & Co Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-03-12
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 1210
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ate assets under unfavorable circumstances, which would further harm our reputation and results of operations.

The investment management business is intensely competitive, which could have a material adverse impact on our business. 

We have been working to grow our asset management business and we compete as an investment manager for both fund investors and investment opportunities. The investment management business is highly fragmented, with our competitors consisting primarily of sponsors of public and private investment funds, real estate development companies, SPACs, business development companies, investment banks, commercial finance companies and operating companies acting as strategic buyers of businesses. We believe that competition for fund investors is based primarily on:

      • 
      investment performance; 

      • 
      investor liquidity and willingness to invest; 

      •  
      investor perception of investment managers’ drive, focus and alignment of interest; 

      • 
      business reputation; 

      • 
      the quality of services provided to fund investors; 

      • 
      pricing; 

      •  
      fund terms (including fees); and 

      • 
      the relative attractiveness of the types of investments that have been or will be made. 

      24

We believe that competition for investment opportunities is based primarily on the pricing, terms and structure of a proposed investment and certainty of execution.  A number of factors serve to increase our competitive risks: 

      • 
      our competitors may have greater financial, technical, marketing and other resources and more personnel than we do, and, in the case of some asset classes or geographic regions, longer operating histories, more established relationships, greater expertise or a better reputation; 

      •  
      fund investors may materially decrease their allocations in new funds due to their experiences following an economic downturn, the limited availability of capital, regulatory requirements or a desire to consolidate their relationships with investment firms; 

      •  
      certain of our competitors may have agreed to terms with respect to their investment funds or products that are more favorable to investors than our funds or products, such as lower management fees, greater fee sharing or higher performance hurdles for carried interest and, therefore, we may be forced to match or otherwise revise our terms to be less favorable to us than they have been in the past; 

      • 
      certain of our funds may not perform as well as competitors’ funds or other available investment products; 

      • 
      our competitors have raised or may raise significant amounts of capital, and many of them have similar investment objectives and strategies to our funds, which may create additional competition for investment opportunities