Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2016
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
TARGETING SUCCESS TM
We interviewed Arrow Investment Advisors CEO and Director of Investment Strategy Joseph Barrato, who provides us with a unique insight into the firm and its award winning funds.
Investing in the Future Gen2 Partners CEO Kyle Shin talks us through the company and the vast array of investment products it provides.
C 2 GEN2 PARTNERS
Providing Solutions We invited Veteran Industry Professional and Sentinel Growth Fund Management CEO Mark Varacchi to talk us through this innovative platform and how it is changing the investment landscape.
Back Office Hub We interviewed Opportunities New Brunswick CEO Stephen Lund who provided us with a fascinating insight into the organisation and its exciting plans for the future of this dynamic region.
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com
38.41 % p.a.
Only in the crisis shows the sustainability of an investment strategy - the Da Vinci strategy guides you through unsafe waters on to new horizons
800 700 600
Systematic Quantitative CTA Investmentstrategy Dax Index MSCI World Global Hedge Fund Index
500 400 300 200 100 Jul. 09
info@davinci-invest.ch www.davinci-invest.ch
Jul. 10
Jul. 11
Jul. 12
Jul. 13
Jul. 14
Jul. 15
You Win
Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2016
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com
Welcome to the 2016 Alternative Investment Awards Following the 2008 financial crisis many investors were drawn to alternative investments, seeing within this previously undervalued asset class a means to diversify their portfolios, in order to spread their risk and avoid future losses. As such the alternative investment industry has grown incredibly over the past few years, and the 2016 Alternative Investment Awards are looking to highlight the firms, departments and individuals from all sectors that have helped shape this unique and dynamic industry. These awards are not concerned with a firm’s size or reputation, but rather their dedication to client service, innovation and success. From multinational companies to individual investors, these awards are seeking everyone working within this industry, investing in everything from collectable items, fine art and wines through to property and precious metals, whose hard work and professionalism is changing the financial landscape for the better.
3
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
6 Arrow Investment Advisors, LLC Best for Mutual Funds – USA & Best Alternative Fixed Income Fund: Arrow Alternative Solutions Fund 10 Gen2 Partners Best Asia Pacific Multi-Strategy Hedge Fund: KS Asia Absolute Return Fund & Best Asian Credit Hedge Fund: KS Korea Credit Fund 14 Opportunities New Brunswick Award for Innovation in Foreign Direct Investment 16 Sentinel Growth Fund Management Best Emerging Manager Managed Account Platform 2016 20 Castle Hall Alternatives Best Alternative Investment Diligence Platform: DiligenceProfessional & Best Global Due Diligence Firm 2016 24 Apple Tree Capital Ltd. Best iAbsolute Return Emerging Markets Strategies & Best Emerging Europe Fund: The Violet Emerging Markets Fund 26 Asset Match Limited Best Electronic Share Trading Platform 2016 28 Broadridge Best Investment Management Software Firm 2016 & Most Innovative Portfolio Management Solution: Portfolio Master 30 Deutsche Finance Group Best Real Estate & Infrastructure FoF Manager - Europe 32 IIFL Private Wealth Management Best Private Wealth Manager - India & Best India Start-Up Fund: Seed Venture Fund 34 InvestTech Systems Consulting Best Alternative Investment Consultants - USA & Award for Innovation in Buy-Side Investment Management Systems 36 Starwood Energy Group Global Best Value-Added Energy Infrastructure Investor - North America & Award for Innovation in Renewable Energy Portfolio Management 38 Waha Capital Best Diversified Asset Manager - UAE & Best Early Stage Infrastructure Fund: MENA Infrastructure Fund I 40 Westside Wealth Management Global Leader in Diversified Liquid Alternatives 42 Africa One Holdings Ltd Best Financial Services Law Firm - South Africa 43 Ameriprise Financial/Penica and Associates Best Private Wealth Advisor - Pennsylvania 44 Brevet Capital Management Best Mid-Market Private Debt Manager - USA (Brevet Capital Management) & Best Alternative Lending Fund Trophy (Brevet Direct Lending – Short Duration Fund, L.P.) 45 Campbell Lutyens & Co Ltd Best Global Fund Placement Agent 2016 & Best North American Infrastructure Fund: Stonepeak Infrastructure Fund II & Indian Growth Fund: Everstone Capital Partners III 46 Carlisle Management Company Best Open-Ended Alternative Investment Fund Manager - Luxembourg & Best Long-Term Life Settlement Fund: Long Term Growth Fund FCP SIF 47 Cinnober Financial Technology Ab Best Marketplace Technology Provider 2016 48 ClusterSeven Best Strategic Software for the Management of EUC Applications 2016 & Most Innovative EUC Management Technology 49 Computershare Investor Services Best for Global Shareholder & Stock Transfer Services 50 Cornerstone Investment Services Best Multi-Asset Portfolio Manager - Rhode Island & Most Innovative Emerging Market Growth Strategy: The Global Strategic Trends Portfolio 51 Corridor InfraTrust Management, LLC Best Real Property Asset Manager - USA & Best Energy Infrastructure REIT: CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust 52 Drooms Best Secure Virtual Data Room Provider - Europe & Most Innovative Asset Management & Due Diligence Products 53 Dynamo Software Best Asset Management & Reporting Software Company & Best FoF Software Platform: Dynamo™ Fund of Funds Edition 54 E Fund Management (Hong Kong) Co.,Limited RMB Asset Manager of the Year - China & Best Fixed Income Fund (Since Inception): E Fund RMB Fixed Income Fund 55 Ernst &Young Business Advisory Services Best for Global Fund Distribution Services 2016 56 Exception Capital Best Global Multi-Strategy Portfolio (3 Years): The Family Fund & Most Innovative Investment Boutique 2016 57 Eze Castle Integration Award for Innovation in Hedge Fund Technology
4
Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2016
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com
68 Global Funds Registration Best Cross Border Fund Administration Consultancy 59 GREIFF Capital Management AG Best Absolute Return Portfolio Manager - Germany & Best Total Return Fund: Tungsten PARAGON Fund 60 Host Capital Best Independent Authorised Corporate Director - UK & Most Consistent Mixed Asset Equity Fund (Since Inception): HC Global Opportunities Fund Return 61 International Financial Data Services Limited Best Outsourced Fund Administration Services 62 Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP Best Alternative Investment Fund Law Firm - USA & Private Funds Practice Group of the Year - USA 63 Kriya Capital Best Event-Driven China Hedge Fund (5 Years): The Kriya China Fund & Most Influential Woman in Hedge Funds 2016 - Asia Pacific 64 Langham Hall Best for Depositary Services - USA & Private Equity Fund Administration Firm of the Year - USA 65 Laureola Advisors Best Secondary Life Insurance Asset Manager & Best Life Settlement Investment Fund (Since Inception): Laureola Investment Fund 66 Makes & Partners Corporate Law Firm of the Year - Indonesia & Recognised Leader in Transnational M&A - 2016 67 Managing Partners Group Best in Insurance-Linked Investments - UK & Best Diversified Fund (5 Years): The High Protection Fund 68 MCR Development LLC Premier Hotel Management Company of the Year - USA 69 Mendon Capital Best US Financial Services Investment Advisor 2016 70 Meson Capital Partners Best Long-Term Activist Fund - USA & Award for Excellence in Capital Structure 2016 71 Met Facilities Best for Regulatory Umbrella Platform Services 72 Pacer Financial Most Innovative Financial Products 2016 73 Pacific Life Fund Advisors, LLC Best Total Return Diversified FoF: PLDLX & Most Innovative FoF Portfolio Manager - California 74 Platinum Capital Management Ltd Best Long-Term Multi Manager Fund: Platinum All Star & Best Single Strategy Fund Manager - UK 75 Portas Capital Best Hedge Fund Portfolio Manager - Switzerland & Award for Innovation in Tailor-Made Private Equity Portfolios 76 Presidium Partners Most Sophisticated Multi-Family Office - California & Best Private Capital Investment Team - California 77 QQM Fund Management AB Best Systematic Equity Market Neutral Fund (5 Years): QQM Equity Hedge & Best Independent Fund Manager - Sweden 78 Quilter Cheviot Limited Award for Excellence in Private Client Portfolio Management -UK 80 Saltus Investment Managers Best Risk Based Multi Asset Investment Managers - UK & Best UK Absolute Return Fund (Since Inception): S&W Saltus Multi-Asset Class Fund 81 Sibilla Capital Management LLC Most Innovative Discretionary Global Macro Strategy 2016 & Best Global Macro Hedge Fund (3 Years): Sibilla Capital 82 SimplyBiz Group Best for Compliance & Business Advisory Services – UK & Most Innovative Fund Selection Software: Simply Funds 83 Spell Capital Partners, LLC Best Mezzanine Capital Manager - USA & Best New Private Equity Buyout Fund 2016: Spell Capital Partners, Fund V 84 StatPro Best Portfolio Analysis Software 85 Stratton Street Capital LLP Best Fixed Income Fund Management Specialists – UK & Best Asia Pacific Fixed Interest Fund (5 Years): Renminbi Bond Fund 86 Synchrony Value Fund LP Best Multi-Strategy Investment Management Boutique 2016 - USA & Best Option Strategies/Managed Futures Fund: Synchrony Value Fund 87 TVM Capital Healthcare Partners Ltd. Best Healthcare PE Fund Manager - MENA & Best MENA Healthcare Fund: MENA I
5
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
Arrow Investment Advisors, LLC
6
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16033
Company: Arrow Investment Advisors, LLC (Arrow Funds and ArrowShares) Name: Joseph Barrato, CEO and Director of Investment Strategy Email: jbarrato@arrowfunds.com Web: www.arrowfunds.com and www.arrowshares.com
Best for Mutual Funds – USA & Best Alternative Fixed Income Fund: Arrow Alternative Solutions Fund Arrow Investment Advisors, through its companies Arrow Funds and Arrow Shares, provides a range of investment solutions designed to help clients meet their financial goals. We interviewed CEO and Director of Investment Strategy Joseph Barrato, who provides us with a unique insight into the firm and its award winning funds.
Arrow Investment Advisors is dedicated to creating value for its shareholders by offering investments strategies that are portfolio diversifiers, and encouraging investors to allocate beyond traditional domestic equity and fixed income instruments. Joseph outlines the firm’s history and how it came to identify its innovative approach.
and that blending our investment strategies with traditional investments can help give investors the chance to create a portfolio that performs like endowments; securing higher returns at a lower risk.” The Arrow Alternative Solutions Fund (ASFNX), which has been recognised by the Wealth & Finance Alternative Investment Awards as the ‘Best Alternative Fixed Income Fund’, provides a unique alternative to traditional bond funds. ASFNX seeks capital appreciation with an emphasis on absolute returns, low volatility and low correlation to traditional equity and fixed income markets. From a performance perspective, the fund is ranked in the top 1% of its peer group for the past year. Joseph explains what he believes are the secrets to the fund’s success.
“Ten years ago, my colleagues and I founded Arrow Funds with the intention of making institutional-style investments more accessible for financial advisors and their clients. We believe that every investor should have at their disposal the same types of tools and investment solutions that institutions have long-used to mitigate risk and enhance returns. “Today, those same principals are key to our firm, and as such we look to provide unique investment products that help investors build portfolios that can adapt to changing market conditions, and we place an emphasis on offering alternatives and non-traditional investments in the form of mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) to make this possible. During the last decade, the firm has grown from a single mutual fund provider to a diversified asset management firm offering a range of tactical and alternative oriented mutual funds and ETFs, including indexed and smart beta solutions, alternative fixed income, global equity, yield, managed futures and commodity strategies.
“We believe the fund’s success is largely due to the dynamic approach its investment strategy takes toward trading high yield, government bonds and credit default instruments. Depending on proprietary indicators that are customized for each specific market segment, the fund is designed to provide long or flat High Yield exposure: long, flat or short Credit Default exposure; and long, flat or short Government Bond exposure. Each of these three underlying strategies has the ability to act independently from one another, adding an additional element of diversification to the fund. Performance has been strong, and we are seeing heightened interest in this alternative fixed income fund. In essence, ASFNX often acts like a traditional bond fund when fixed income markets are going well, but can become tactically hedged and even seek profits during downward market moves.
“We have also developed several “smart beta” factor based investment strategies: diversified momentum, tactical global macro, global high yield, multi factor equity, long dated commodity, dynamic bond solution and a legendary high volatility futures strategy.
“Two years ago this product was moved into the non-traditional bond category. Most non-traditional bond funds take on more credit risk without managing it effectively and subsequently may outperform in rising rate environments but underperform when the stock market underper-
“Our factor based strategies are typically cost effective, transparent and not affected by human emotion because they are based on quantitative models. We believe that Arrow has something to offer every portfolio,
7
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
forms. This has been a major issue for advisors allocating to non-traditional bond funds as they expect all of their bond funds to hold up and provide diversification when the stock market is underperforming and most non-traditional bond funds have not done this due to the equity like risk (HY bonds etc.) they have in the portfolio.
“In addition, we also offer three exchange traded funds (ETFs): The Arrow Dow Jones Global Yield ETF (GYLD), the Arrow DWA Tactical ETF (DWAT) and the Arrow QVM Equity Factor ETF (QVM). GYLD provides a global, multi-asset approach to yield that includes exposure to alternatives like Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs). Similarly, to Arrow’s DWA mutual funds, the Arrow DWA Tactical ETF leverages Dorsey Wright’s proprietary relative strength momentum models to select its holdings. Meanwhile, QVM offers a Tri-factor™ approach to equity investing that entails selecting those securities that simultaneously demonstrate strong quality, value and momentum metrics. The methodology behind the QVM tapped into the expertise and experience of Ford Equity Research. Ford Equity has over 40 years of proprietary research on equity factors.
“ASFNX has the ability to outperform in both rising rate and negative equity market environments as it actively manages the credit risk or HY bond exposure and has a treasury model that diversifies the portfolio, providing a potential source of positive returns during negative equity and HY Bond market environments. The returns it has had over the last few years have helped to back up these statements, while most non-traditional bond funds have struggled ASFNX has outperformed. At the end of the 1st quarter, the ASFNX was outperforming 99% of the funds in the non-traditional bond category and 89% of all the U.S. fixed income products (mutual funds) over the last two years.” Alongside ASFNX, the firm also offer a range of additional funds, all of which, Joseph asserts, take an approach to risk management unheard of in the wider investment market. “Here at Arrow Funds, we also offer a range of additional investment solutions beyond ASFNX, including: Arrow DWA Balanced Fund, Arrow DWA Tactical Fund, Arrow Managed Futures Strategy Fund and Arrow Commodity Strategy Fund. All of these mutual funds have an alternative investment element that differentiates them from their peers within each respective fund category. Our DWA funds, for instance, use the technical analysis expertise of Dorsey Wright & Associates to provide investment strategies based on relative strength and momentum. Both of these mutual funds are designed to adapt to changing market conditions. In our managed futures fund, we offer first-time mutual fund access to CTA legend DUNN Capital Management. Our Commodity Fund is unique in its approach through the use of long-dated futures contracts to provide broad-based commodities exposure.
8
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com
“When it comes to delivering returns and managing risk, each of our mutual funds and ETFs is unique in its investment methodology. As a firm, however, we strive to deliver investments products that can help reduce risk and enhance returns as part of an overall, diversified investment portfolio.”
Ultimately, Joseph was keen to emphasise the firm’s dedication to educating and supporting clients. By helping them to manage their portfolios in an educated way they are aiding both the clients and the wider investment industry.
Within the wider investment industry as a whole Joseph explains how the vast choice clients enjoy has had an effect on both Arrow and the market as a whole.
“Here at Arrow Investment Advisors we are extremely committed to providing investors with education and timely research to help them make informed investment decisions. This is a key focus for our business, and therefore we have a dedicated research arm—Arrow Investment Insights—which publishes regular commentary and a quarterly newsletter.
“Investors today have more options than ever before. It used to be the case that unless you were a high-net worth or institutional investor you were pretty much limited to a stock and bond portfolio. The finance industry has evolved to address investors’ needs in a much more comprehensive way, providing financial advisors and their clients with access to alternatives and tactical investment strategies like managed futures, hedge fund replication strategies, smart beta equity strategies and more. At Arrow Funds we see ourselves as helping to push the industry along to better meet investors’ needs. We have been successful by packaging tactical and alternative investments in retail-friendly product structures like mutual funds and ETFs that provide enhanced liquidity, affordability and convenience for investors.
“Education is also a big part of our marketing and investor communication efforts. We use our website and marketing emails to promote investor education, and have made a diverse line-up of educational collateral available on-line including pieces that explore yield, absolute returns, alternatives, commodities and other topical investing topics. For example, in 2008 we created a piece about equity Market Turns. In 2013 we started to educate the market about Relative Strength Turns. Both were powerful and timely opportunities for those that were brave enough to act. “Today the key topic of discussion is the commodity market turning. As with every investment product, commodities have historically gone in and out of favor. When they are in a prolonged period of delivering negative returns, at some point investors begin to wonder when they may begin to make a new upward turn. Many wait until the market has already gone up before they buy, and then panic when the market drops and sell when prices are low. Unfortunately, this investor behavior erodes returns on even the best-performing assets. We create these educational pieces to raise awareness with the hope of helping improve some of this investor behavior.”
“While the industry has evolved to provide investors with more options, the road to getting investors to embrace non-traditional investments has not been a smooth one. During the financial crisis of 2008, the market environment called into question whether or not some of these alternatives really do have the ability to help manage risk and provide diversified sources of returns for investors. For instance, many mutual funds that were marketed as “absolute return” strategies fell short of investor expectations. What’s more—stocks bounced back in a big way in recent years, leading many to question the need for alternatives in the first place. During a bullish market it is easy to forget the lessons of the past and give into the temptation to go all-in on equities.
Moving forward, Joseph stated that the firm was keen to continue offering innovative investment solutions to clients, levering the relationships it has made in the wider industry to ensure investors receive the best value.
“As a firm we have had to respond to these challenges by conducting a thorough review of our product line-up, making enhancements as needed and placing a renewed emphasis on providing investor education surrounding the importance of incorporating tactical and alternative strategies into an investment portfolio. In a way we view alternatives much like we view insurance policies. The right time to be incorporating them into your portfolio is not when the stock market is tanking and you are looking for diversification. It’s more prudent to have an overall asset allocation plan in place ahead of time that incorporates diversified assets and investment strategies.
“Looking to the future, we are always looking to bring value to our financial advisor clients, and one of the ways we do that is by partnering with other firms in the industry who have a well-defined skill set or area of expertise that is synergistic to Arrow’s capabilities and value proposition. For example, we have formed tremendous partnerships with firms such as DUNN Capital Management (managed futures), Dorsey Wright (Technical Analysis), Ford Equity Research (smart-beta) and others to offer our clients access to unique investment strategies. We are experts in our field and our boutique nature enables us to be nimble and look for unique ways to bring value to our clients—whether through industry partnerships or through advisor-focused product development research and expertise.
“Therefore, as tactical and alternative investments continue to gain traction among financial advisors and their investor clients, many firms are beginning to look at ways to develop non-traditional mutual funds and ETFs. However, making institutional-style investments mainstream is part of our DNA at Arrow. Prior to founding the firm in 2006, my colleagues and I led product development for Rydex Investments (now part of Guggenheim). An industry innovator in leveraged/inverse mutual funds, Rydex also helped pioneer an industry push to package alternative assets and investment strategies in retail-friendly, ’40 Act mutual funds and ETF product structures. We played a crucial role in helping Rydex develop 40 investment vehicles to include many industry-firsts such as the first equally-weighted ETF (RSP), the first currency-based exchange traded products (CurrencyShares) and the first managed futures mutual fund.
“As a boutique asset management firm we can be nimble and explore opportunities with a true focus on meeting financial advisors’ needs and delivering products that are differentiated in the market place. Look out for Arrow as we continue to build partnerships that benefit our clients.”
“At Arrow we have continued to build on our team’s legacy of innovation by delivering unique equity, managed futures, commodity, hedge fund replication and alternative income strategies to our clients. We have also been instrumental to the industry’s first MLP-based ETF by serving as the subadvisor for Alerian’s AMLP which grew to more than $1 billion in assets during its first year.”
TM
9
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
GEN2 PARTNERS 10
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16044
Company: Gen2 Partners Limited Phone: 852 3727 4500 Email: info@gen2ks.com Website: www.gen2ks.com
Best Asia Pacific Multi-Strategy Hedge Fund: KS Asia Absolute Return Fund & Best Asian Credit Hedge Fund: KS Korea Credit Fund Gen2 Partners is a Hong Kong based investment firm offering a range of innovative investment products to investors across the APAC region. The firm’s CEO Kyle Shin talks us through the company and the vast array of investment products it provides.
Gen2 is an independent alternative asset management firm in Asia, with our main office located in Hong Kong’s Landmark building, International Commerce Center. As a multi-award winning firm we pride ourselves on offering the very best, risk adjusted returns which are ideal for clients looking to move into the Asian investment market.
time and accumulate a store of these, which I then sell in one transaction. These approaches have been highly successful and have helped to drive growth in our business since the fund’s inception. Since the firms’ inception it has grown to become among the industry leaders in customised Asian Hedge Funds for Institutional Investors and Family Offices, in addition to being a trusted partner to help manage investors’ exposure to Asia across all alternative strategies in the region.
Prior to founding Gen2 Partners Limited, I was the head of Kingdon Capital’s Korea office, which is highly reputable global hedge fund manager, gaining unique experience which I drew on when I decided to move into the Hong Kong hedge fund market myself.
The investment professionals in the Gen2 hedge fund team have diverse backgrounds. The majority joined the team after successful careers in some of the world’s leading financial institutions. Others are extraordinarily gifted professionals who would like to work in an environment where they can flourish. They offer a diversity of input from the market with extensive local network, with close proximity to company executives and decision makers who are influential in the future economic landscape of Asia. Overall our investment team is highly experienced and work collaboratively with a network of industry contacts to support growth across our fund portfolio.
In 2008 I set up Gen2 Partners in Hong Kong, drawing on my experience investing in Korea to support both onshore and offshore investors. Our Korean Credit Fund was launched in 2010 to work around these regulations, and has merely 4.2% market volatility, with a 2.2 sharp ratio. The fund invests mostly in investment grade fixed income funds based in Asia, tried to avoid working with high yield products in order to reduce risk. This fund has been one of the key drivers of the success of the Gen2 Group for the past eight years. The reason for the success of our Korean investment strategy is because many international credit rating agencies do not understand the Korean financial market, and therefore they just apply their global ratings methodology to rating all bonds. This means we are able to invest in these poorly rated bonds and reap benefits accordingly.
Our internal culture successfully combines an entrepreneurial partnership structure with a disciplined institutional investment process to ensure that investors receive the best quality service which exactly meets their needs. We align the interests of the investment team with our investors as much as possible. Alongside our investment team we have a dedicated team of senior partners focused exclusively on investor relations. We seek out feedback from our investors on our reporting, transparency and accessibility to ensure that we are always performing at our very best and supporting our clients.
Additionally, a lot of Korean investors have to buy bonds in vast sizes as this is how Korean institutions work, but liquidity in the market means that it is not easy to do this, therefore I am able to buy bonds ahead of
11
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
12
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com
This approach means that we have an unsurpassed ability among our peers to customise / structure fund solutions for our clients. Many of our single strategy funds have been created at the request / suggestion of our pension, institutional and wealth management clients. We take great pride in our risk management system which ensure that our investors always receive the very best possible returns. The system constantly monitors investment breaches by our Portfolio Managers. Our independent risk monitoring company who are one of the leaders in the industry produces monthly risk reports that tracks over factors, including cross correlations, underlying asset performance, risk factor exposure (equity, fixed income and country risks), P/L attribution, liquidity analysis, tracking versus our peer group, etc. Within the Asian investment market it is critical to keep ahead of emerging trends and developments, and therefore Gen2 Partners regularly communicates with market participants in order to ensure that our information is up to date. We also keep a good network of brokers, who always hold a lot of information on the industry, such as IPOs or how the market is performing. Thus we operate a strong collaborative approach, which, combined with our risk averse strategy has helped to ensure a strong performance from the fund, and we have made 5% returns over the past 12 months, and despite tough economic conditions across the Asian market. Many alterations to legislation in our region are proving our firm with unique opportunities for growth. One such development is the Korean Government’s changing regulations, which now allow offshore investors greater access to its markets, as well as enabling firms such as mine to easily set up hedge fund businesses within the country. Therefore, moving forward Gen2 Partners is keen to set up a hedge fund management company in Korea, as well as looking for an investment opportunity in an established asset management firm in the country, looking to become the second largest shareholder in this business. This is an exciting opportunity for our firm as the Korean investment market is currently very strong, and the country has a lot of money internally, particularly invested in its pension funds, some of which are the third largest in the world, which is still growing rapidly. Owing to their aging population the country has to invest offshore, and Gen2 Partners is perfectly placed to support them in this. By creating an office in Korea we will increase our investor base and grow our assets under management significantly.
C 2 GEN2 PARTNERS 13
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
Opportunities New Brunswick
14
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16070
Company: Opportunities New Brunswick Address: Place 2000, 250 King Street, Fredericton, NB E3B 9M9, Canada Phone: 1.506.453.5471 Email: info@onbcanada.ca Website: http://onbcanada.ca/
Award for Innovation in Foreign Direct Investment
Opportunities New Brunswick is New Brunswick’s business development agency dedicated to improving the region’s corporate landscape. We interviewed CEO Stephen Lund who provided us with a fascinating insight into the organisation and its exciting plans for the future of this dynamic region.
Opportunities New Brunswick, (ONB) specialises in providing New Brunswick-based businesses with, support, advice and financial assistance. We work across all industries and sectors, with a focus on IT, cybersecurity and Financial Services. New Brunswick is North America’s Near Shore Center for Business Services.
the form of one specific area, for example payroll, technological support etc, or it could be in the form of multiple business units encompassing these and other sectors of their business. The result of course is a winwin for New Brunswick and our clients. The businesses that expand in New Brunswick do so because of the tremendous business and growth opportunities.
The region has many advantages, including a skilled and motivated workforce, world-class communications infrastructure, unsurpassed quality of life and low corporate income tax, all of which make New Brunswick the ideal region in which to grow any business. New Brunswick’s naturally strategic location and time zone in Atlantic Canada makes it the ideal location for businesses to work with clients in Western Europe, North and South America all in the same day. The area offers ideal transport and technological capabilities all of which will support any firm, whether they are expanding or locating their business to New Brunswick.
Within the financial services market, we are the back office hub for financial institutions. The value-add is significant. For example, New Brunswick is Canada’s epicentre for cybersecurity. This is critical to the success of financial institutions and locating in New Brunswick makes sense for these businesses. As a value proposition, New Brunswick offers many exhilarating opportunities for financial service organisations. The area already has a vast technological offering, and is home to many major firms in the technology market. Many major firms, including the Royal Bank of Canada, have already set up their contact centres in the region, and as such we are keen to entice others to join them.
A unique competitive advantage of ONB is its ability to work at the speed of businesses as a Crown corporation versus a government department. This also affords ONB to simultaneously influence policy and work with government departments of the Government of New Brunswick to make the region extremely business-friendly. ONB stays at the forefront of the latest developments and trends in the corporate market. As an agency we are streamlined and efficient to ensure that we are as effective as possible when working with our clients.
This strategy will not just focus on Canadian businesses, but is looking globally, and we are currently in talks with businesses from the US, UK and further afield. By keeping up to date with global trends, we are able to act quickly and adapt to meet the needs of international firms. Companies are always looking to grow business through global positionings, and it is our aim to make New Brunswick the premier destination for this.
My own personal background includes 30-years’ experience in the financial industry with leadership roles in banking, venture capital, business development and international finance. Our goal is to drive growth in the region by encouraging businesses from all sectors to grow their business by expanding operations such as their back office infrastructure in New Brunswick. This could be in
15
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
Sentinel Growth Fund Management
16
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16073
Company: Sentinel Growth Fund Management Website: http://www.sentinelfundmgt.com/
Best Emerging Manager Managed Account Platform 2016
Sentinel Growth Fund Management provides a unique platform serving both emerging fund managers and allocators. We invited Veteran Industry Professional and Sentinel Growth Fund Management Chief Executive Officer Mark Varacchi to talk us through this innovative platform and how it is changing the investment landscape.
The idea for Sentinel’s distinctive platform was formed around four years ago, when we realised that we could create a platform that would provide each side of the market (allocators and portfolio managers) with the solutions we felt they needed the most.
letter actually represents. Even T+1 reporting to us is not efficient. We felt when building the platform as we do now that Separately Manage Accounts ( SMA’s ) would continue to grow as an investor choice and be what the investor would choose (if actually given the choice) as an investment solution over time. We at Sentinel wanted to be ahead of that change in mandate and hopefully lead the way with our platform. The most basic definition is if you are receiving information in a way where you would need a time machine to do anything about it, it is not truly an efficient way to be invested.
For emerging managers, we allocate to, we provide a platform that assess their skillset and then supports them in their portfolio management, providing back office solutions after identifying a true “repeatable process”. This combination allows the manager to focus on their core competency: generating alpha.
The offer of transparency is particularly vital to the growth of emerging managers as it is a continuing key focus for investors, and therefore by providing a platform which offers this transparency we are enabling our managers to work with allocators they may not have been able to access without our infrastructure. Here at Sentinel we believe in true transparency and risk control- this means that investors should not only know what is happening after it has occurred, but should instead have access to real time updates on the portfolio. In addition, each account has a dedicated risk manager that watches the portfolio in real time and is able to communicate with the investor about how their risk parameters are set, observed and maintained.
The biggest reason Portfolio Managers benefit from being accepted for an allocation on the platform is because in this environment, allocators look at the many “hats” that Portfolio Managers have to wear in their first few years in starting a new business as a direct drawdown on performance. Simply, if a manager isn’t focusing their time on research or generating alpha like when they previously had a large team around them, most allocators will then wait until there is a larger team in place and scalable infrastructure before allocating. The Sentinel platform allows managers to leverage a full infrastructure and team to then build their performance and business around it. On the other side of the market, we provide allocators, including Fund of Funds and Family Offices, with live transparency, risk management and control over their investments and managers through our platform.
Unlike in a Limited Partnership structure, in which allocators have to invest in every fund on the platform pro rata and worry about the comingling of assets, here at Sentinel we offer investors a series structure, which ring-fences each series and does not allow for comingling of assets, giving allocators the opportunity to choose specific funds a la carte based on their investment make up and manager risk profiles we compile from our due diligence. This allows an investor to choose only the managers that complement their existing investments.
A typical fund investment in principle is an investment in a non-transparent vehicle. An investor letter sent 15 days after month end showing a snapshot of a portfolio taken at exactly 4pm on the last day of the month is not a great representation to an investor of what has gone on in the portfolio during the rest of the timeframe which that investor
17
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
18
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com
When making an investment the allocator agrees with the manager on specific risk parameters, and this is then hardcoded and monitored by the Sentinel account manager. Taking a proactive, rather than a reactive approach, we are able to ensure things many platforms do not. Our system allows us to stop a trade from breaking a risk parameter before it occurs (pre trade compliance) as well as warn us when a manager is close to breaking a risk constraint based on attribution (post trade compliance), allowing us to have a constructive conversation before an issue occurs not after which both avoids disturbing the manager’s investment strategy and protects the interests of our investors. In this environment of market volatility, once that red light comes on it is too late for us, and we developed a system where yellow lights are where proactivity and prevention can change the investment environment. This approach has been highly successful, particularly in recent years, as the market returned to its usual volatility patterns following an extended period of quantitative easing and directional up markets. In our opinion it was this artificial market support by the Federal Reserve that has now caused greater issues in the financial markets as the industry returns to its normal levels of volatility without that support. Additionally, this directional up market over the past 5 to 7 years made it easier for asset managers to put up good relative returns despite not needing to run a balanced portfolio that would stand up over time in any other market other than one going directionally upwards. When over a 5+ year period a manager can run 50% net long and buy every dip with minimal consequence, it kind of blurs the ability to see who is truly talented and you have to go many layers into the onion to really evaluate a manager properly. We have always chosen managers we feel can generate alpha agnostic of the markets direction. As the market returns to normality it is interesting to see the really strong, efficient emerging managers who are able to generate alpha in both up and down markets, on both the long and short side of their books and it is these managers that we are keen to continue to evaluate for our platform. Overall within the wider financial markets I believe there are a lot of really great emerging managers out there, and if the markets continue as they are currently then there will be plenty of opportunity for those with real drive, determination and skill to become truly successful. Additionally, I believe that separately managed accounts will flourish in the coming years as allocators look for more transparency and control in their investments. Ultimately, I believe that Sentinel’s strategy is very scalable, and therefore in the future we plan to continue searching for great differentiated emerging managers with real talent to add to our platform so that we can continue providing a solution that meets the needs of both sides of this industry. Looking further ahead, we have plans in 2017 to grow as a business and explore offering our services in additional asset classes in order to meet the industry’s increasing need for portfolio diversity. Currently we operate primarily in the long-short equity space, but we are keen to move into new asset classes and expand as a business, as we know that our solution is meeting the needs of investors and managers alike.
19
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
Castle Hall Alternatives
20
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16038
Company: Castle Hall Alternatives Website: https://www.castlehallalternatives.com/
Best Alternative Investment Diligence Platform: DiligenceProfessionalTM & Best Global Due Diligence Firm 2016 Castle Hall Alternatives, a member of AIMA, is a leading specialist in operational due diligence of alternative and traditional asset managers.
With a team of more than 50, Castle Hall helps investors around the world build comprehensive due diligence programs across hedge fund, private equity, infrastructure, real estate and long only portfolios.
Against this backdrop, Castle Hall sees the emergence of a new paradigm in ODD, which they call Due Diligence 3.0. What is Due Diligence 3.0? Due Diligence 1.0: Pre Madoff. Before 2008, operational due diligence was an optional, “nice to have”. For those investors who did conduct ODD, the process, scope and methodology of emerging ODD programs was very variable. Equally, there was a lack of commonality among hedge fund operating structures, exemplified by the existence of many self-administered funds.
Built upon Castle Hall’s next generation, online diligence architecture, DiligenceProfessional helps institutions, fund of funds, advisors, endowments, foundations, sovereign wealth funds, pension plans and family offices evaluate whether asset managers meet operational best practice. Having just celebrated its 10-year anniversary, Castle Hall Alternatives is proud to have been named the Best Global Operational Due Diligence Firm for three consecutive years.
Due Diligence 2.0: Post 2008. In the Diligence 2.0 world, some level of hedge fund operational due diligence is now performed by virtually all asset owners. Diligence scope and methodology has also become somewhat more standardized, although some investors continue to have a “light touch”.
Operational Due Diligence is Evolving As the alternative asset industry has grown and matured, the discipline of operational due diligence (“ODD”) has become more prominent. Alternative asset investors no longer make decisions based on investment performance alone: allocators are equally focused on the risk of operational failure—be it through honest error or, in the worst case, through dishonesty and fraud.
Due Diligence 3.0 is a new model: Responding to an ever more sophisticated Governance, Risk and Compliance environment, ODD must now address four emerging themes and challenges for institutional and private investors.
Investors also recognize that weak business infrastructure creates an unavoidable drag on performance. An asset manager with weak controls will not have the data, technology, and operational efficiency to ensure optimal implementation of the investment strategy.
1. MULTI ASSET CLASS Operational diligence should be applied across all third party asset manager relationships, not just hedge funds. Investors focused on governance, risk and compliance now require consistent operational risk information across all fund and account holdings, irrespective of asset class.
Against this background, ODD, often an optional luxury before 2008, has become a mandatory component of alternative asset investing. Hedge funds and PE managers are no longer “different”, and institutional investors, often subject to fiduciary obligations, cannot accept lower operational standards simply because they are allocating to an alternative manager. As a result, it is becoming a baseline assumption that an alternative asset manager will match the operating standards and mitigate business risks in the same way as established, long-only money managers. ODD is the tool deployed by investors to ensure that alternative investment managers meet these evolving and more demanding requirements.
2. A RISK-BASED APPROACH Operational risks for mutual funds, long only managed accounts, private equity funds and real estate investments are very different as compared to a traditional hedge fund. Different diligence procedures should be adopted to reflect different asset classes.
21
Technology Excellence for Fee & Commission Management
Quartal Financial Solutions is a market leading provider of award-winning fee and commission management, revenue and expense lifecycle management software for the nancial and insurance industry. Our products are used by key players in the nancial industry to reduce operating costs, improve performance, and get quicker return on investment.
Data Import Allocations Sales Controlling
Data & Contract Management
Reporting
Auditing Management Reporting
Calculations & Accruals
Workkow Simulations & Forecasting Revenue Management & Accounting
Reconciliations
Payments, Invoicing & Billing
Quartal’s products eectively support the entire commission and fee management lifecycle - from calculations and payments to invoicing, controlling, allocations, modeling, forecasting and reporting on one single software platform. Contact us at Quartal Financial Solutions www.quartalfs.com | info@quartalfs.com
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com
3. REAL TIME MONITORING, NOT SNAPSHOT REPORTS Traditional ODD has focused on a schedule of in person diligence meetings, with the output of each ODD cycle often limited to a report memorializing information gathered during each meeting. This process is then repeated every 1-3 years. Diligence 3.0 introduces a new operating model: the foundation of an effective ODD program is now an active, real time monitoring program, where the annual onsite visit and resulting diligence report is just one tool in a far broader toolbox of diligence procedures.
“Castle Hall is delighted to receive the ‘Best Global Due Diligence Firm’ award for the third consecutive year,” says Anne Coady, Managing Director of Castle Hall. “This accolade reinforces our commitment to building an innovative, transparent and cost-effective operational due diligence solution that responds to each client’s unique needs.”
4. FINTECH Just as hedge fund managers no longer use Excel for accounting, ODD no longer relies on word processed meeting reports. Technology has become critical to process ever increasing amounts of public and private information. Systems, bandwidth to curate data, and quality reporting and dashboard capabilities are vital to give asset owners an effective view of portfolio risks.
Looking Ahead Earlier this year, Caslte Hall launched DUE DILIGENCE UNIVERSITY™ - a growing ecosystem of white papers, online tools and other educational resources to support every aspect of the due diligence process. The firm’s inaugural DDU white paper, “Evaluating an Asset Manager’s Cybersecurity Environment: a guide for the operational due diligence practitioner”, and related webinar, will be followed by additional materials, resources, white papers and webinars in the months ahead.
Echo Bell, Castle Hall Director - IT, adds, “These achievements are also a testament to our growing team and ongoing investment to refine and enhance our technology and service delivery.”
Due Diligence: Solved. DiligenceProfessional, Castle Hall’s proprietary online diligence solution, is a risk-management platform for operational due diligence. Chris Addy, Castle Hall President & CEO, states, “It is truly an honour to receive the ‘Best Alternative Investment Diligence Platform: DiligenceProfessional’ award this year, on the back of winning ‘Best New Approach to Operational Due Diligence’ in 2015. These awards highlight that the DiligenceProfessional platform delivers value-added solutions to meet the evolving ODD challenges faced by allocators.”
Moving forward, the firm expects to continue to grow its team and evolve its capacity and service offerings to meet the needs of institutional and private allocators globally. In the coming year the plan is to roll out our newly remodeled client platform with enhanced features and capabilities, delivering additional analytical metrics along with improved operational risk management and due diligence efficiencies to our clients. The company also expects to launch several innovative and specialised due diligence solutions in response to the changing and expanding needs of institutional investors.
The guiding principle of DiligenceProfessional is flexibility. Providing a powerful set of diligence tools, DiligenceProfessional allows investors to outsource their diligence program in full, co-source a program with Castle Hall in combination with internal diligence, risk and compliance professionals, or simply use Castle Hall’s services on an “as needed” basis.
These are indeed, exciting times for Castle Hall Alternatives. The firm is grateful to its clients for partnering with Castle Hall to meet their specific operational due diligence and monitoring needs, and the Alternative Investment Awards for their recognition of the company’s work.
DiligenceProfessional tools can be applied to any fund or investment vehicle, and across all asset classes, from hedge funds to private equity to real estate and long only mandates.
23
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
AppleTree Capital
24
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16046
Company: AppleTree Capital Name: Dimitrios Apistoulas Email: info@appletree-capital.com Web Address: www.appletree-capital.com
Best iAbsolute Return Emerging Markets Strategies & Best Emerging Europe Fund: The Violet Emerging Markets Fund AppleTree Capital is an award winning independent financial advisor specializing in European Emerging Markets and Absolute Return Strategies. We spoke to Dimitrios Apistoulas to find out more information. AppleTree is an awarded alternative investment manager launched in May 2010 by Michael Nicoletos and Dimitris Apistoulas. From 2012 onwards its flagship, the Violet Emerging Markets Fund, has outperformed all market and peer indices.
AppleTree remains at the forefront of Emerging Markets developments by employing a comprehensive data gathering process that allows us to pool information from a number of different sources: we use a network of established relationships with local professionals, who provide a first-hand experience of the political and financial developments on ground; we frequently attend road shows and make company visits to speak directly to companies management ourselves; we do extensive in-house research to identify valuation miss-pricings; we review exhaustively company releases and quarterly results, as well as use a diversified array of 3rd party research; finally, all team members engage in robust monitoring of daily news and macro-level trends, utilizing the latest technology, local feeds, and social media (Bloomberg, Twitter, etc.). This constant flow of information, as well as our team’s dedication to synthesizing and constantly re-evaluating new developments, provides us with a thorough understanding of all major developments, challenges, and macro trends in the EMEA region.
The fund is a long-short Emerging Markets Equities Fund focused on Emerging/Developing Europe. The portfolio consists only of listed, liquid equities, bonds and listed derivatives. Since its launch in May of 2010, Violet has significantly outperformed its benchmark, the MSCI EMEA (in 2015 alone, Violet yielded a net return of +18.8% vs a -22.3% drop of the MSCI EMEA). Within the course of the past 3 years, the Violet Fund has yielded a net return in excess of 90% vs a more than 20% drop of the MSCI EMEA. The firm’s mission is to deliver exceptional value to its investors by strictly adhering to its philosophy of transparency, liquidity, and risk management. In particular, we take risk management very seriously. Our approach, which has been a key driver of our strong outperformance, is multi-fold: we have two in-house risk specialists (one for financial risk, and another for political risk), we track daily portfolio performance through multiple levels of detail, compile daily consolidated risk reports, and utilize a host of quantitative analytics to map the different sets of relevant risk metrics, derived both from internal and external sources (i.e. BBG Analytics, EIU, Fact-Set).
The hedge fund industry is currently facing some very turbulent times. There has been a lot of talk lately about hedge fund managers underperforming and not deserving the fees they earn. An increasing number of investors has shown special interest to passive funds, as many of those have outperformed top active managers. We believe we need to look beyond that: if fund managers are good at what they do, illustrate a high level of commitment, vigour and transparency, then there is certainly a value to their role – a value that no passive fund can ever attain.
When it comes to our investing strategy, we have a unique approach, which sets our company apart from the crowd and ensures that our fund keeps achieving superior results. We challenge ourselves and our convictions, constantly, to ensure that all angles are covered. Financial markets are full of “noise”. Therefore, our main effort is to distinguish the real market-moving news that have a real effect in our portfolio vs the usual noise which can only cause intra-day or very short term price fluctuations. Every morning, before we begin with our daily routine in the office, the fund Managers begin by debating a very radical and contrarian position in the form of a reduction ad absurdum argument: they assume that the existing portfolio is not optimal. They challenge and debate everything: from our macro/political view, to portfolio net exposure, individual positions and sizing. This debate takes place every morning, and does not settle until the managers are convinced that the strategic investment decisions taken are on the right track. While unconventional, this investment mentality has proven to be an excellent modus operandi to revise our assumptions, identify behavioural biases (both personal, but also across the industry), and affirm the strongest of our convictions. This profound process of daily re-affirmation of our fund’s strategy through productive debate lies at the core of our investment philosophy.
We believe that we – at AppleTree – have exemplified this to our investors: not only have we outperformed our benchmarks, but we have also demonstrated that we will always be thoroughly transparent in whatever we do, and fully reliable whenever they need us. Our relationship is about trust, dedication, and perseverance. At such difficult times, with passive funds making important gains, we believe that it is these exact values that will set active Managers apart across the industry. Looking ahead, we are very excited to announce that the company is in the process of opening a new office in London and getting an FCA license, where we aim to add another fund to our portfolio. With this transition, we will be shifting our primary operations to London, retaining our Athens office as a supplementary base.
25
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
Asset Match Limited
26
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16085
Company: Asset Match Limited Phone: +44 (0) 207 248 2788 Email: info@assetmatch.com Website: http://www.assetmatch.com/
Best Electronic Share Trading Platform 2016
Asset Match is an online marketplace where users can buy and sell shares in UK private companies. We profile the firm to find out more.
Situated in the heart of the City of London, Asset Match provides unique and customised services to investors, companies, shareholders and intermediaries.
tors to participate in an asset class that has historically been difficult to access. In recent years alternative financing options such as crowdfunding have made it easier for private investors to invest in firms, however these investors may not know how to exit from these investments. Asset Match aims to make the process of selling shares easier and quicker, acting as a time efficient and cost-effective alternative to traditional liquidity options, enabling both those looking to sell shares to proactively engage with the buying market.
Founded and managed by a Top Tier team of industry professionals with decades of international business experience, Asset Match provides a full-spectrum solution for a range of clients. For Shareholders the platform enables them to unlock the liquidity of their existing shares in private companies. Companies can use Asset Match to obtain market valuations of their shares or raise IPO capital at a fraction of the usual cost and time. Investors are able to secure investment in selected companies which other- wise would not be available. In addition, Intermediaries are able to participate in all of these processes either directly or on behalf of their existing clients or client companies.
The process of both buying and selling is user friendly and unique compared to many other platforms in the market. Shares that trade on AM Private Market do so via periodic auctions rather than continuous trading. Periodic auctions are normally daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly. This approach addresses the historically disparate liquidity of private company shares and focuses the liquidity into regular, discrete points in time that allows buyers and sellers to meet in a more efficient way.
Asset Match estimates that there is over £300bn of equity locked up in private UK companies. These are typically high growth mid-cap companies that are key to the UK’s future but are not readily accessible to investors, are not well-covered in investment commentaries and are largely over-looked by the financial media.
Each company that gains admission to AM Private Market will have a pre-determined auction calendar and market type that best reflects the needs of the company and its shareholders. As liquidity is established the company may choose to amend its auction calendar and market type.
AM Private Market removes the obstacles that have hindered access to this important asset class and improves liquidity to the benefit of the company, its shareholders and new investors. The technology is the first comprehensive electronic platform in the UK for buying and selling shares in established private companies.
All auctions on AM Private Market are conducted within a defined regulatory framework and operate under a Code of Practice which governs the behaviour of participants. The market is overseen at all times by Asset Match which is Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority
Interested buyers and sellers participate in periodic auctions to collate expressions of interest. Participants are then matched at a single market-derived price.
The future looks bright for this innovative and disruptive platform, as interest continues to grow. Crowdfunding shows no sign of slowing in popularity, and as such the firm are keen to tap into the market for investors looking to offload shares purchased via this financing strategy.
By centralising liquidity in the shares of growing and profitable private companies, AM Private Market provides a “shop window” for inves-
27
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
Broadridge Investment Management Solutions
28
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16071
Company: Broadridge Website: http://www.broadridge.com/
Best Investment Management Software Firm 2016 & Most Innovative Portfolio Management Solution: Portfolio Master Broadridge is the leading provider of investor communications and technology-driven solutions for wealth management, asset management and capital markets firms. We interviewed Bennett Egeth, President of Broadridge Investment Management, Reference Data and Risk Solutions, to talk us through the latest market developments and how the firm is adapting around these.
The Broadridge Investment Management Solutions business services more than 250 global hedge funds, hedge fund administrators, asset managers, family offices and prime brokers, providing services such as portfolio accounting, order management, compliance, risk, data warehousing, reconciliations, regulatory reporting, and data management. While some firms utilize Broadridge for its expertise in providing one of these services, Egeth explains how many other clients are seeking to partner with the firm for its ability to offer a platform that combines these technological capabilities.
“Our vast client list is also a competitive advantage for our firm, as we work across a wide range of asset classes and financial markets, ensuring that we have the expertise to support clients. This is particularly vital in today’s market, where differentiation is a key focus.” “By managing complexity, we allow clients to capture an order and automatically reconcile trade files to prime brokers, as well as provide a daily NAV to their administrator. This enables them to focus on differentiating activities like alpha generation and capital raising. Because we cover virtually every asset class globally, our clients can consolidate multiple platforms onto a single product suite,” Egeth said.
He says that in the past, the perception among hedge fund managers when launching their fund was that they needed a large IT infrastructure in place, which typically involved buying a substantial portfolio accounting system and other “best of breed” technologies from various vendors. In their eyes, this was the infrastructure that institutional investors expected to see, as it served as a signal of the manager’s intent and reflected their commitment to growing and supporting the business.
Looking to the future, Egeth outlines a number of exciting areas of focus for Broadridge Investment Management Solutions. “Today, our global portfolio management solution enables hedge funds and asset managers to institutionalize their infrastructure and realize significant operational efficiencies by having their order management, portfolio accounting and risk management on a common platform.”
“Over the last decade the approach to running a hedge fund’s operations has changed markedly, thanks largely to improvements in technology. The approach to building complex, multifaceted IT infrastructures and operations models internally is no longer viewed as the best model for managers to support their businesses. New options and models have challenged the definition of what is “Best of Breed.” Now firms are seeking integrated solutions provided and managed by well capitalized partners,” he says.
“Longer term, we are eager to move into new markets, and are looking into working in the institutional finance and family office markets, as we believe these are key areas for growth. Our recent acquisition of QED Financial Systems, a leading provider of investment accounting solutions, provided us with enhanced accounting capabilities and data management solutions, which allowed us to enhance our service offering and strengthen the support we can provide our clients. All of these opportunities will provide us with the chance to grow and develop as a business, so the future will be an exciting time for Broadridge.”
Broadridge’s modular suite of investment management solutions combines portfolio management, order management, risk management, reference data management, data warehousing, reporting and analytics, and reconciliation functionality in a single, multi-asset, completely integrated application, or as separate point solutions. Today, firms can buy products, solutions, managed services, data cleansing, hosting, IT accounting and administrative services as components or bundled together.
Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: BR) is the leading provider of investor communications and technology-driven solutions for broker-dealers, banks, mutual funds and other corporations. Broadridge’s investor and customer communications, securities processing and managed services solutions help clients reduce their capital investments in operations infrastructure, allowing them to increase their focus on core business activities.
29
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
Deutsche Finance Group
30
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16012
Company: Deutsche Finance Group Name: Symon Godl/Managing Partner Email: s.godl@deutsche-finance.de Web Address: www.deutsche-finance-group.de Address: Ridlerstrasse 33, D-80339 München, Germany Telephone: +49896495630
Best Real Estate & Infrastructure FoF Manager – Europe Deutsche Finance Group is an international investment manager specializing in institutional Private Market Investments in real estate, private equity real estate and infrastructure. Managing Partner Symon Godl provides us with a fascinating insight into the company and the sector in which it invests. In a world of zero interest rate policy, for an individual or an institutional investor such as an insurance group, pension fund or an endowment, it is getting increasingly difficult to create an attractive investment performance. For many investors bonds and equities may not be sufficient to reach their individual goals. Therefore, the discussion about an increase of the alternative investment portfolio is ongoing in this sectors. For many other investors adding alternatives is part of their overall investment strategy of diversification, and they simply want to add alternative asset classes to their portfolio. Others may have different reasons to invest in this sector but all of them need to decide which of the alternative asset classes can help to reach their goals.
resources in-house, Deutsche Finance is able to maintain the full lifecycle of a product from the beginning until the liquidation of a fund. Deutsche Finance Funds offer investors diversified access to institutional PERE and infrastructure strategies to delivering long-time superior investment performance, broad diversification, excellent manager allocation and ongoing risk management capabilities. Deutsche Finance Group is an investment company offering all types of clients tailor-made products with an excellent investment team and a well implemented investment process. Every target investment is handpicked, with a thorough due diligence process and serious negotiations to have a fully aligned investment manager. Deutsche Finance has access to the best in class managers in the PERE and infrastructure business. All of them are best positioned, well focused specialists for certain markets and sectors with proven track record of success over a long period. They all help us to capitalize on the extraordinary opportunities in the global PERE and infrastructure landscape.
Real estate and infrastructure have been the most popular asset classes in the couple of last years in the alternative investment space. Investors who are not able or willing to invest directly in real estate or infrastructure, or want to have better diversification may be better off choosing “Private Equity Real Estate (PERE) or Private Equity Infrastructure”, which ideally combines the benefits of real estate/infrastructure with a private equity approach or may choose a fund of funds which offers the best diversification available.
Private individuals for example are serviced with structured fund of funds (Deutsche Finance Private Funds). In this area Deutsche Finance offers two main product series. Both products are in the market already for many years and more than 18.000 clients committed in these funds.
When the partners of Deutsche Finance Group started their business 10 years ago, their vision was to establish an investment company offering alternative investment products for private clients and institutional clients which was different to the existing competitors. But the target was not only to be different, it was to be much more diversified, long term oriented, actively managed, more transparent and to deliver higher performance based on risk adjusted returns.
The product range for professional and institutional investors is very individual. With regards to certain needs and restrictions of any individual investors Deutsche Finance is able to structure a tailor-made fund of funds strategy for a PERE and/or infrastructure portfolio. A broad diversification focus can also be on emerging managers, emerging markets, distress assets or even on a regional or sector focus. Additional services can be added as per request of the investor.
Today, with a team of more than 50 people Deutsche Finance Group manages 10 indirect alternative investment vehicles for private individuals and institutional investors. With a personal investment track record of more than 4bn USD and nearly 200 indirect private equity real estate and infrastructure investment strategies in more than 30 countries globally, Deutsche Finance team is one of the most active European private market investors and has the most experienced teams in the international fund selection and co-investment arena. The focus of all investment strategies is on indirect private equity real estate and infrastructure investments with entrepreneurial local managers and a high dedication to create value and being fully aligned with investors.
In the past, the team has been awarded with 5 IPE Real Estate awards for innovation and the best investment strategy. Recently the company has been awarded with the fund awards 2015 as “Best for individual indirect investment portfolios in real assets” and 2016 as “Best Real Estate & Infrastructure Fund of Funds Manager – Europe”. We are very pleased to receive acknowledged with this alternative investment award now. It is an honour for us but also the proof that our funds are not only a niche product. It is the proof that our alternative investment product and strategy is being recognized by professionals as an interesting alternative or addition when building up an investment portfolio. It is our vision to create the best investment platform for indirect investments in private equity real estate and infrastructure in the industry. We are inspired by the trust of our clients and partners and the everyday passion of our team.
The group is an integrated investment company working every day for the success of their clients. Being regulated with a licensed investment manager and a licensed distribution company and having all important
31
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
IIFL Private
Wealth Management
32
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16034
Company: IIFL Private Wealth Management Website: http://www.iiflw.com
Best Private Wealth Manager – India
IIFL Private Wealth: Generating Wealth and Cultivating Lasting Relationships.
While trust is the basis of any relationship, nowhere is it of greater importance than the one financial services firms build with their clients. With many years of experience in this domain, IIFL Private Wealth Co-Founders Karan Bhagat, Yatin Shah and Amit Shah were familiar with gaps that plagued the wealth management industry when they started the company in 2008. For when it came to garnering trust, educating and engaging clients, most wealth management firms did precious little. And this is what the three endeavored to change – as the years were to show – with great success.
Co-Founder and Executive Director, Yatin Shah explains, “We have built a strong alignment of interest by eliminating distribution incentives, so that we can be on the same side of the table as the client. Also, our employees own as much as 24 per cent of the company. They are thus able to take a long-term view of the firm and the client”. Leveraging Technology to Stay Ahead In the Game Technology has emerged as a key differentiator in the wealth management industry. And IIFL Private Wealth has been at the forefront, providing new technology solutions to clients with its updated digital platform – an enhanced website, www.iiflw.com, as well as an app for Android and Apple platforms. The updated site allows for a superior user experience and showcases new product launches, access to world class research, analysis and product level performance, anytime, anywhere. Additionally, the launch of Caliber, an intranet software with a single sign on (SSO) feature has made the firm’s internal processes such as client mapping and information, database manage¬ment, and work flow management extremely swift.
At IIFL Private Wealth, wealth management goes beyond the standard asset management to cover wealth administration (An array of intricate financial planning and management tools, aided by technology, and involving the creation of an Asset Register and Investment Reporting), wealth management (preparation of an investment mandate, and establishing strategies according to client risk appetite, income/liquidity requirements, asset allocation etc), and wealth structuring (asset protection and ring fencing of holdings within global, legal and tax frameworks).
These efforts have been supplemented by the launch of the IIFL Market and IIFL Research app that boosts advisory services with live stock prices, research from institutional equities, stock ideas, strategy notes, in-depth data and analysis of market trends.
Forging Relations with Trust An array of best practice measures has helped IIFL Private Wealth create a 360 degree, all-encompassing advisory service and ensured that its interactions with clients are relationship-driven. For instance, its fixed fee structure as opposed to a commission-based practice translates into considerable cost savings for its clients. This, and many more such features, has helped the company earn strong client referrals that have added to its fantastic growth story. Today, it is the largest Indian private wealth management company with more than US$13.00bn. assets under advice from over 9800 client families.
Looking ahead Yatin sums up, “From our humble origins, starting off as a small 7 employee firm to the 510 at present; the first flush of awards in 2010 to over 45 trophies today; our increasing global footprint (14 domestic and 8 international offices), we have painstakingly recorded each achievement, without ever taking any of it for granted. Looking ahead, we believe the best is yet to come and we are ready to capture the opportunities likely to unfold in the coming years.”
33
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
InvestTech
Systems Consulting
Company: InvestTech Systems Consulting Name: Pam Bloom Managing Director, Alternative Investments Website: www.investtechsystems.com
34
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16076
Best Alternative Investment Consultants – USA & Award for Innovation in Buy-Side Investment Management Systems InvestTech Systems Consulting (InvestTech) provides business and technology consulting for buy-side Global Investment Managers with a specialized practice in the alternative investment sector. We invited Pam Bloom, practice lead to tell us more. Established in 1993, InvestTech is the leading buy-side investment industry consulting firm specializing in strategic design, operational review, investment systems selection and implementation, and enterprise data management. The firm works with a wide variety of traditional asset management clients such as mutual fund managers, insurance companies and investment advisors, and has a strong history working within the alternative investment market. Pam Bloom, Managing Director of the firm’s alternative investments practice, outlines InvestTech’s vast service offering.
InvestTech’s alternative investment practice is comprised exclusively of experts in the alternative space, ensuring that clients gain the benefit of their deep level of expertise in the Alts market. Pam explains how this is a key factor which sets InvestTech apart from its competitors. “Unlike other firms offering consulting services, our clients benefit from our collective years’ work in the alternative investment space. Our consultants were either employed by investment managers or vendors prior to joining InvestTech, so our clients benefit from their depth of knowledge and hands-on experience.”
“At InvestTech, we are able to support our clients by consulting on all aspects of their investment systems strategies; conducting operational reviews, evaluating the market, and managing peer reviews. We offer all of these services in succession, or we can help direct a specific stage of the process, depending on the clients’ needs. We will ‘right-size’ any engagement that we believe we are qualified to service.”
Moving forward, Pam believes the market is evolving; with new vendors entering the Alts space and mature vendors and service providers adding AI asset class functionality to their products and offerings. Not only is this exciting for InvestTech, but great for clients to have more options. “Recently InvestTech has expanded into data management for private equity, hedge funds, direct and indirect investments, credit, derivative, and investor domains. Additionally, we provide recommendations for best of breed solutions for mortgages, syndicated loans and commercial, direct lending products, as these are all key growth drivers for the industry.”
“Another key aspect of our work is leading the evaluation of front, middle and back office technologies for our clients. A major trend we are seeing in the industry is the move toward outsourcing, and through our vast network of associates in the industry, we are able to support our clients in selecting the service provider that is right for them. InvestTech is entirely independent, and therefore able to recommend the solution that best fits their needs.”
“We are noticing larger institutional investors allocating more capital towards alternative investment strategies, which could provide potential for future expansion. This sector is currently experiencing some of the most significant returns in the financial industry, and we are excited to partner with and support these clients as they increase their asset allocation in this market.”
InvestTech provides these services to a wide range of asset managers across the financial industry, and has a dedicated division specializing in supporting alternative investors, including GP’s, LP’s, insurance, government and pensions. “InvestTech has a long history in the alternative investment space, and a strong network of clients and industry partners. Our founders’ experience in private equity and distressed credit markets led to providing our professional services to large alternative investments firms, boutique multi-strategy asset managers (BDC’s, hedge funds, SMA’s, closed-end funds), and large asset managers with alternative strategies.”
To discuss your investment technology and operations challenges with Pam or another InvestTech expert, contact us at 877.599.6077 or info@investtechsystems.com
35
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
Starwood Energy Group Global
36
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16006
Company: Starwood Energy Group Global Email: starwoodenergy@starwood.com Web Address: www.starwoodenergygroup.com Address: 5 Greenwich Office Park, Greenwich, CT 06831 Telephone: 203 422 7700
Best Value-Added Energy Infrastructure Investor - North America & Award for Innovation in Renewable Energy Portfolio Management Starwood Energy Group specializes in value-add energy infrastructure investments, with a focus on natural gas and renewable power generation, transmission and storage assets. Brad Nordholm and Himanshu Saxena, Senior Managing Directors who share the Co-Head role, provide us with a fascinating insight into the firm, which has just been named ‘Best Value-Added Energy Infrastructure Investor - North America’ and has also received our prestigious ‘Award for Innovation in Renewable Energy Portfolio Management’.
Through its general opportunity funds and other affiliated investment vehicles, Starwood Energy Group manages total equity commitments in excess of $2B, and has executed transactions totalling more than $4B in enterprise value. The Starwood Energy team brings extensive development, construction, operations, acquisition and financing expertise to its investments. Starwood Energy actively pursues attractive, risk-adjusted returns from both opportunistic acquisitions and the development of energy infrastructure assets.
As environmental concerns become an increasingly important topic among investors, Starwood Energy remains committed to ensuring that every investment is fully compliant with regulations and has a reduced carbon footprint wherever possible. Within the industry, we are seeing a massive shift in power-generation technologies away from coal and nuclear and toward natural gas, wind and solar. Solar and micro-grids are also serving as catalysts for the disintermediation of our historically centralized power grid. We are looking at dramatic change over the next few decades—and in a capital-intensive, technology-driven business, change provides opportunity for a firm such as Starwood Energy that can evolve with such changes.
With more than eight decades of combined experience in the power sector and approximately $7B in principal transactions, the Starwood Energy executive team is well-positioned to successfully navigate the regulatory, technological and operational complexities of the market. This enables the team to dynamically shift between different regions, technologies and risk profiles as the most compelling investment opportunities emerge. To further mitigate risk, Starwood Energy typically collaborates with highly experienced developers on Greenfield projects
Moving forward, the macro trends that will affect our business include inexpensive natural gas, low-cost renewable power-generation technologies and tightening regulatory requirements, all which create a massive investment opportunity—estimated at $300–500B over the next 10 years—to transform the U.S. electric power grid. Starwood Energy intends to continue to pursue its proven investment strategy as this transformation unfolds—to the ultimate benefit of our investors.
The Starwood Energy team believes that investor relations are critically important, and we welcome the industry trend toward increased disclosure and transparency all of which helps create a greater sense of partnership with investors. In addition to quarterly reporting and annual meetings, the team holds quarterly conference calls with investors to discuss all aspects of the business. Starwood Energy continually seeks to set a tone whereby the team, investors, advisors and counterparties maintain frequent, open communications—which enhances the relationship between all Starwood Energy stakeholders and ultimately contributes to business success.
37
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
Waha Capital
38
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16080
Company: Waha Capital Website: http://www.wahacapital.ae/
Best Diversified Asset Manager – UAE & Best Early Stage Infrastructure Fund: MENA Infrastructure Fund I Waha Capital, based in Abu Dhabi, is one of the region’s leading diversified investment houses. Amer Aidi talks us through the firm and how it came to become such a pillar of the region’s asset management market.
Having traditionally been focused on managing private equity investments, over the last five years Waha Capital has carved out a niche investing in public markets including fixed income and equity products. The strength of our returns has allowed the business to evolve into a fully-fledged investment management business with third party investors allocating capital to the strategies.
market conditions, where reduced liquidity results in increased market dislocation during sell offs. The financial market in the UAE is currently changing owing to the prolonged slump in oil prices and the subsequent drop in liquidity it has created in the region. Because of this, oil exporting nations from the GCC that had historically ran large fiscal and external account surpluses quickly went into deficits and have been forced to implement structural measures in order to preserve FX reserves at the expense of GDP growth. This tightened liquidity in the banking system and has created larger financing requirements for the governments, financials and corporates. Going forward, challenges are expected to remain for the region in the short term but much needed reforms and diversification away from oil will create a more robust and resilient economic model in the medium to long-term.
Current and prospective investors of our funds include institutional investors (insurance companies, pension funds, hedge funds: fund of funds, long / short, global macro), family offices, and private wealth clients. As a relatively recent entrant into the public market business, the company has gained a strong reputation both locally in the region as well as internationally over a short period of time. Our current service offering comprises of two investment strategies: the CEEMEA Fixed Income and MENA Equities. Both funds are long / short investment strategies aimed at delivering sustainable absolute returns. The CEEMEA Fixed Income Fund has generated 79.1% cumulative return since inception in 2012, whilst the MENA Equity Fund has generated a 58.6% cumulative return since 2014.
Ultimately, it is paramount for us to maintain a trustworthy and longstanding relationship with our investors. As such, moving forward our primary focus will be to continue delivering strong performance. This encourages ongoing evaluation of our investment approach and business model on a continued basis. Furthermore, monthly fact sheets and Portfolio Manager Commentary on the fund performance are published publicly to increase transparency. When needed, phone calls and in-person meetings are facilitated to provide clarity to our investors for any questions / concerns they may have. It’s imperative for us to convey to our investors that their capital is not taken for granted and we continue to work hard to generate superior returns for them.
Our investment teams use a top-down macroeconomic approach, combined with an understanding of technical flows to identify investment themes, which then get translated into individual trades that are actively managed. Both teams work hand-in-hand with top tier internal research personnel and risk management professionals that contribute to the track record highlighted above. The focus has remained on capital preservation and delivering superior returns on an absolute and risk-adjusted basis.
Looking to the future, we firmly believe that this could be the beginning of a growth phase for the business. With our multi-year track record and investment team in place, we have recently placed an increased emphasis on expanding the awareness, and marketing the platform to the appropriate audience. There has been a growing interest for our products. Investors are most impressed by our ability to hedge risk and preserve capital in downturns. We currently have a number of prospective investors interested in our services and look forward to an exciting future.
One of the key differentiators of our fund is our long / short mandate. We are able to take both long and short positions within our investment universe, enabling us to put on relative value long / short trades where we can capitalise on mispriced securities whilst keeping overall market risk to a minimum. This strategy is particularly effective in current
39
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
Westside
WEALTH MANAGEMENT
Every investor’s situation is unique and you should consider your investment goals, risk tolerance and time hori-zon before making any investment. Investing involves risk and you may incur a profit or loss regardless of strategy selected. Diversification and asset allocation do not ensure a profit or protect against a loss. Past per-formance may not be indicative of future results. The forgoing is not a recommendation to buy or sell any in-dividual security or any combination of securities. Alternative Investments involve substantial risks that may be greater than those associated with traditional investments and may be offered only to clients who meet specific suitability requirements, including minimum net worth tests. These risks include but are not limited to: limited or no liquidity, tax considerations, incentive fee structures, speculative investment strategies, and different regulatory and reporting requirements. There is no assurance that any investment will meet its investment objectives or that substantial losses will be avoided. Futures trading is speculative, leveraged, and involves substantial risks. This material is being provided for information purposes only and is not a complete description, nor is it a rec-ommendation. Any opinions are those of Seth Radow and not necessarily those of Raymond James. The in-formation has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but Raymond James does not guarantee that the foregoing material is accurate or complete. Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of an investment company carefully before investing. The prospectus contains this and other information and should be read carefully before investing. The prospectus is available from your investment professional.
40
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16049
Company: Westside Wealth Management of Raymond James Websites: http://raymondjames.com/los-angeles-complex/ http://www.westsidewealth.com
Global Leader in Diversified Liquid Alternatives
Westside Wealth Management is a team operating within the Raymond James diversified holding franchise. Seth Radow talks us through the firm and the investment opportunities it provides. Westside Wealth Management elected to join Raymond James in 2015 due to the firm’s truly independent culture and remarkably supportive infrastructure designed to promote and develop unique and creative intellectual capital toward the management of client financial affairs and of their incredible support of advisors and team such as that which we have built.
selection works and we believe that the prudent implementation of intellectual capital works. A bit more controversially, we have come to understand that most every index fund trails the underlying index it’s attempting to track. This is often caused by what we refer to as “slippage” that occurs during rebalances, fees and trading commissions. In addition, there are advisor fees for management of the pool of index funds within the model an advisor may be building. By the time one is done with slippage, commissions and fees, there is no possible way to track any index and the underlying portfolio falls further behind over time.
Given our team’s long time experience managing client capital using global multi asset class models utilizing a deep understanding of valuation and correlation analysis and how each of these asset classes help to diversify investment related risks, it should go without question that liquid alternatives should be a reasonable extension within our models. The term “liquid alternatives” deserves a common understand to be fully understood as an investable asset class. For some, liquid alternatives include asset classes such as real estate investment trusts, real estate operating companies, master limited partnerships, general partnerships of limited partnerships, infrastructure and more. We see these investment vehicles more as “real assets”, and we view these real assets as deserving a sustained allocation within all of our models.
We, however, take a more academically derived approach, as we are classically trained as intrinsic value investors. We view true intellectual capital as worth something and of absolute value. We view it as imperative to research and select managers who have track records of substantive performance above and beyond their respective benchmarks with a degree of consistency over time and who can do so with an impressive risk reward ratio. Pooling and pairing these managers into a workable and investable model is a bit of art and science. We have found and continue to believe that we can build portfolios of active managers, investing in an array of asset classes, each utilizing differing investment approaches that, over time, can achieve above benchmark performance on an absolute and risk adjusted basis and on an after fee basis.
We, however, we view true liquid alternatives as something else altogether. We see them as investments with the potential to have no correlation, not just low correlation over and throughout time, but with the potential to generate a return per unit of risk taken higher than what may be available using traditional investment vehicles. As such, we view managed futures, long/short funds, absolute return funds, global macro funds and the like as true liquid alternatives to traditional, long only, investment vehicles. At Raymond James, Westside Wealth Management has access to a deep pool of liquid alternative managers along with a dedicated research staff helping our team allocate capital to investment vehicles that make use of these strategies. We could not be more proud of the improvements we have implemented in our manager selection process as a result of our team’s move to Raymond James.
All of this intellectual capital is for naught without a dedicated team of advisors and support staff. Service is designed to be impeccable led by our mantra that our clients and their best interest must always come first. As such, we work slowly and methodically in the acquisition and installation of each client on to our team to ensure the highest level of service can be customized and achieved for each and every client. It is imperative that our advisors and support staff get to know every client personally to achieve our desired level of service. The fact of the matter is that every member of our team simply wants to know, appreciate and truly enjoy the relationship we have with each and every client. Once we get to know and appreciate each and every client as an individual and as a family, we have found that our team grows more invested in delivering the best possible service and support for them.
With regards to the future, we have found that no one can consistently predict the future with any degree of certainty or accuracy and therefore we work within the confines of that which we do know within our investable universe. We know the following to be true: prudent asset allocation works, prudent risk management works, prudent manager
41
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
AI16065
Company: Africa One Holdings Ltd Name: John-Ernest Fogwell Email: john@africa-one.net Web Address: www.africa-one.net Address: 34 Cybercity, 4th Floor, Ebène Heights, Ebène, Mauritius Telephone: +27 12 348 4701
Best Financial Services Law Firm - South Africa
Africa One Holdings Ltd Africa One Holdings Ltd is a private capital fund that provides investors a unique opportunity to enter the African investment market in industries that is typically only reserved for larger investors. John-Ernest Fogwell talks us through the firm and the services it provides in this area.
Here at Africa One Holdings we provide in house fund solutions as well as corporate advisory services to funds, corporates and high net worth individuals that wish to enter or are currently operating in the African business arena. Currently our service offering consists of three investment opportunities: property, mining and alternative investments. We also assist Fund Managers, Listed Companies, Corporates and HNI’s in structuring bespoke investments solutions for them utilising our own internal portfolio’s or by seeking specific investment opportunities for them. Moving forward, as Africa is blessed with a plethora of great business opportunities we will always remain focussed on growth of our funds under management, remaining focussed on not losing the intimate touch. We are actively seeking expansion opportunities and strategic partnerships within our Property Portfolio and will remain focussed on playing an active role in developing quality investments in the commercial and retail properties space on the continent. In addition, we are excited about hopefully partnering up with South Africa’s leading litigation funding company. This industry is still very young in SA and we believe that we will add great value to this sector of the legal profession. Our advisory services business is also ever expanding and we will hopefully soon be announcing two new great company launches into the continent.
42
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16074
Company: Ameriprise Financial/ Penica and Associates Website: https://www.ameriprise.com/
Best Private Wealth Advisor - Pennsylvania
Ameriprise Financial Penica and Associates Ameriprise Financial franchise, is among America’s leading financial planning firms, and has incorporated Penica and Associates to add value to its services. We invited Jay Penica to provide us with a unique insight into the collaboration and how it is benefiting investors.
As a financial leader with over 120 years in business, Ameriprise Financial has more than $800 billion in assets under management and more financial planning clients than any other firm. Integrity has been the core value of the company since its inception in 1894.
Jay has organically grown the firm almost exclusively through client referrals. This has enabled Jay to interact with individuals and families that share similar passions and values. Jay outlines how this approach ensure that the firm offer clients the very best service, and how, by drawing on their collective knowledge and experience, he and his team are able to ensure that investors’ ever evolving needs are met.
With a seemingly endless choice of financial institutions to back Penica and Associates, Ameriprise Financial was chosen because of the firm’s steadfast commitment to always put the clients’ needs first. Jay Penica, Senior Private Wealth Advisor and Leader of the team at Penica and Associates, explains how his firm came to be incorporated by Ameriprise Financial and the benefits this provides to both the firms involved and their clients.
“Previously within the financial market, high income earning individuals and families were excluded from being able to actively participate in a Roth IRA. With recent tax law changes, there are now certain instances that allow an affluent client to indirectly contribute to a Roth IRA. We can help our clients identify and implement a strategy to take advantage of the recent changes.
“A firm is nothing if it cannot fulfill its promises and financial commitments, and Ameriprise Financial prides itself on honoring every financial commitment and never receiving a bailout through the firm’s 120 years in existence. By aligning Penica and Associates with Ameriprise Financial, we can offer extensive experience with an established network of expert resources.
“Ultimately we can help clients achieve their version of financial success through many different strategies. This allows the client the confidence to pick the strategy that they are most comfortable with and best suits their individual or family needs. Our knowledge and expertise, backed by the financial strength of Ameriprise Financial, affords us the chance to help our clients identify financial opportunities and pitfalls.”
“As an Ameriprise Private Wealth Advisor, Penica and Associates has extensive experience helping affluent clients with their goals to preserve and grow their assets. We remain among the most qualified and credentialed advisors in the firm with an unprecedented team to support our clients.”
43
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
AI16041
Company: Brevet Capital Management, LLC Websites: www.brevetcapital.com Address: 230 Park Avenue, Suite 1525, New York, NY 10169 Phone: +1 212-313-5100
Best Mid-Market Private Debt Manager - USA (Brevet Capital Management, LLC) & Best Alternative Lending Fund (Brevet Direct Lending – Short Duration Fund, L.P.)
brevet capital Brevet Capital Management, LLC (“Brevet”) is an alternative asset manager based in New York City. Douglas Monticciolo, Brevet’s Chief Investment Officer, talks us through the firm and its investment strategy. About Founded in 1998, Brevet Capital is an alternative asset manager based in New York that focuses on providing senior secured loans to highgrowth, asset-rich middle market companies that are typically family or founder owned. Originally founded as an advisory firm, Brevet and its affiliates have advised, structured, or executed over $10 billion of client transactions in senior secured lending and structured finance since its inception. The Brevet Direct Lending - Short Duration Fund, L.P. (“Short Duration Fund”) has a strong six-year track record of providing senior secured loans to private companies against realizable collateral. Brevet’s Short Duration Fund returned 12.12% in 2015 and 11.74% in 2014, net of fees and expenses without the use of leverage, and is the winner of Wealth & Finance’s Best Alternative Lending Fund for 2016.
quality collateral, such as Federal and State government receivables, tax credits, and other government-backed obligations. As such, Brevet generally does not take credit risk, per se, but invests in assets in which the targeted risk exposure is the timing to repayment. In order to protect its principal while retaining the potential for upside participation, Brevet will take senior or structurally senior positions that are collateralized
Brevet’s seasoned team of principal finance professionals help its borrowers unlock hidden asset value and generate revenue growth. The firm believes that these loans will be attractive to investors who are seeking high-yielding assets with the downside protection of senior secured, collateralized loans, and a low correlation to the broader equity or fixed income markets.
Unlike most of its competitors, Brevet directly sources, underwrites, and structures its own loans on an exclusive basis - a robust process that underpins our ability to generate above-market returns for our investors.
through structured financings, alternative investment structures, or direct acquisition of assets. These provisions include, but are not limited to, bankruptcy remote vehicles, asset level overcollateralization (low LTV), originator co-investment, and/or first loss protection. Brevet structures its loans to be held to maturity with multiple forms of repayment and little reliance on capital markets events for refinancing.
Outlook & Conclusion Brevet is growing rapidly, and is attracting strong interest from wealth management firms, family offices, foundations, endowments, pensions, insurance companies and other institutional investors. Looking ahead, Brevet is enthusiastic about the opportunities that we expect to come to fruition over the rest of 2016. The firm has added to its staff in nearly every line of business with the anticipation of adding significantly to its AUM and deploying capital efficiently.
Opportunity Since the global financial crisis, increased regulatory oversight has caused many banks to withdraw from lending to middle market companies. The retreat of traditional capital sources created an unprecedented opportunity for alternative lenders to provide growth financing to middle and lower market companies. According to the National Center for the Middle Market, the United States’ middle market represents the fifth largest global economy and more than $10 trillion in annual revenue. Brevet feels that it has an established platform of financing solutions to serve this broad market segment, creating value for its borrowers and generating compelling risk-adjusted returns for its investors.
Later in the year, Brevet will be launching the Brevet Direct Lending Intermediate Duration Fund, L.P. (the “Intermediate Duration Fund”) which represents an extension of the Short Duration Fund’s success. The Intermediate Duration Fund will utilize the same strategy, team, and investment process but in a closed end structure (five-year term, threeyear commitment period.) The Fund will target loan maturities of two to four years, and have the potential to generate additional enhanced returns due to both its liquidity premium and its expanded scope for profit-sharing and other forms of upside participation. Brevet believes its Intermediate Duration Fund will address borrower demand for longer term capital, and will represent an attractive asset for investors with longer-term liabilities.
Strategy Brevet’s seeks to achieve superior returns through inefficiencies in segments of the middle and lower market that are underserved due to perceived complexity or lack access to financing. In general, Brevet does not engage in “cash flow lending” but rather lends against high
44
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16059
Company: Campbell Lutyens Address: 3 Burlington Gardens, London, W1S 3EP, United Kingdom Telephone: +44 (0)20 7439 7191 Web Address: www.campbell-lutyens.com
Best Global Fund Placement Agent 2016
Campbell Lutyens Campbell Lutyens is an independent advisory firm founded in 1988 focused on fund placement and secondary advisory. We profile the firm and explore the secrets to its success.
In its fund placement practice, Campbell Lutyens focuses on raising capital globally from limited partners and providing specialist advice to general partners. In its secondary advisory practice, it advises limited partners and general partners on providing liquidity solutions through the sale or restructuring of portfolios of fund or direct investments.
In recent years Campbell Lutyens has invested considerable resources developing market leading project management infrastructure. This allows it to track billions of pounds’ worth of capital efficiently on a global basis with a seamlessly integrated team, and to provide granular real-time detail of its activities to its clients.
The firm has offices in London, New York and Hong Kong and comprises a team of over 87 international executives, advisors and staff with global and broad-ranging expertise in the private equity, infrastructure and private debt sectors.
The success that Campbell Lutyens has achieved since the start of 2015 has required it to continue to recruit and grow as a business. Since the start of 2015 the team has grown 24% from 70 to 87 professionals. This continues a long-term trend that has seen headcount grow at over 15% p.a. over the past 13 years, from 13 people in 2003 to 87 today.
In 2015 the firm closed $12.9 billion of capital across 12 managers and raised four funds of over $1 billion.
In addition to the already astonishing growth and success of the firm, Campbell Lutyens has plans underway to expand by leveraging its market leading North American Infrastructure business in building out its private equity and secondaries businesses in the US.
Alongside this, the firm also maintained its position as the number one European-based secondary adviser in 2015 with 16 secondary transactions being completed totalling $4 billion. In 2016 the firm has already held 6 final closes representing over $7.2 billion of commitments to clients in its primaries business and has closed or is currently advising on 17 deals totalling a volume of over $8.2 billion in its secondaries business. Over the past 28 years Campbell Lutyens has developed its LP relationships into a global network, on a par with the largest asset managers or investment banks. Its independent status and local presence around the world has allowed it to develop trusted relationships with leading investors globally and to provide its clients exceptional LP access.
45
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
AI16001
Company: Carlisle Management Company Name: Jose C. Garcia Email: info@cmclux.com Web Address: www.cmclux.com & www.luxlf.com Address: 9 rue Sainte Zithe, 1st Floor Telephone: +352 268 453 59
Best Open-Ended Alternative Investment Fund Manager - Luxembourg & Best Long-Term Life Settlement Fund: Long Term Growth Fund FCP SIF
Carlisle
Management Company
Carlisle Management Company develops, initiates, distributes and manages yield-oriented and tax optimized investments specifically for institutional investors and financial intermediaries in the Life Settlements sector. We invited Jose Garcia to provide us with a fascinating insight into the firm, which has just been named ‘Best Open-Ended Alternative Investment Fund Manager – Luxembourg & Best Long-Term Life Settlement Fund: Long Term Growth Fund FCP SIF’.
Specializing in, both, open-ended investment funds and related private equity fund transactions, Carlisle Management Company considers itself to be a holistic alternative asset manager, assuming a wide range of tasks over the entire life cycle of the investment. Since inception the firm has grown rapidly, and now represents a widely diversified investor base, ranging from multi-billion dollar institutions to the most respected private banks and investment management firms in the investment community today.
management interaction and experience in a wide array of projects. We understand our clients’ key issues and needs. Variables such as regulation, transparency and structural integrity, we maintain as a top priority within our philosophy and protocols. When our clients talk about their needs, we listen very closely. This approach has served us well so far and we hope that it will provide us with exciting opportunities moving forward.
Carlisle’s award-winning flagship product, the Luxembourg Life Fund, is an investment fund that acquires, trades, and manages a portfolio of U.S. based life insurance policies issued by insurance companies with an average A rating. These policies generate investment returns for the fund based on the difference between the face value of each policy and the acquisition price plus accumulated premiums at the time of mortality. The fund’s open-ended structure allows investors to diversify their participation across a larger pool of life settlements while maintaining a higher liquidity profile than if they purchased them directly. Ultimately, our dedication to our clients is always our number one priority. Whether in terms of ensuring a seamless interaction with the company, providing a proper allocation strategy or by simply creating products that meet their tax and regulatory requirements, Carlisle always operates with the best interests of our clients at heart. Many of the key evolutions over the years have been based on global investor feedback as well as
46
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16031
Company: Cinnober Financial Technology Name: Fredrik Backlund Email: fredrik.backlund@cinnober.com Web Address: www.cinnober.com Address: Kungsgatan 36, SE-111 35 Stockholm, Sweden
Best Marketplace Technology Provider 2016
Cinnober
Financial Technology
Cinnober is a world leading independent supplier of financial technology. We caught up with Fredrik Backlund to find out more.
Cinnober was founded in 1998, and the company’s shares are traded on the Nasdaq First North in Stockholm. The firm operates as a number-one solutions provider on a global market with customers representing some of the world’s foremost financial players.
All solutions are based on our award winning TRADExpress™ Platform, which incorporates everything needed for mission-critical solutions in terms of performance, robustness, and flexibility. The portfolio of offerings includes price discovery and matching, real-time risk management, clearing and settlement, index calculation, data distribution, and surveillance. Our exceptionally strong balance sheet enables us to invest in the ongoing development of our offering and technology that is carried out in close collaboration with our customers. Much of this work is conducted in close collaboration with customers according to agile project methods.
Our home turf consists of trading and clearing solutions, where we are the inventor of real-time risk management and clearing. We provide the industry with paradigm shifting technology and we are a major driver behind the development of trading systems with singular micro-second response times. We are convinced that technology is the driver that will take the finance industry into the future. Innovation is in our DNA and as a world leading fintech supplier, we possess a unique blend of knowledge and experience in an industry that is currently undergoing a monumental shift.
Cinnober has three strategic priorities: 1. Developing the traditional market (i.e., exchanges & clearinghouses) 2. Broadening the customer base to new segments (i.e., banks & brokers) 3. Increasing the efficiency of the business
A unique advantage in the industry is that all our customers are truly reference customers. The list of customers includes the Australian Securities Exchange, BM&FBOVESPA, Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange, Euronext, Japan Exchange Group, Johannesburg Stock Exchange, London Metal Exchange, LME Clear, New York Stock Exchange, and Stock Exchange of Thailand.
Our offices in Stockholm, Umeå, London, and New York employ over 250 people. Close collaboration with customers paired with broad distribution of responsibilities and short decision paths make us dynamic and committed. We have a clear ambition to have a diverse workforce, which greatly benefits both our global customers and us. Our workforce has over 30 nationalities, a wide age span, and a good gender distribution.
We are dedicated to offering business-critical and tailor-made system solutions and services for exchanges and clearinghouses, where the requirements for reliability and quality are high. We don’t do anything else than delivering maximum quality to our long-term customers and learnt a lot from our latest outage – that took place more than 10 years ago. Quality always need come first if you’re an independent supplier of exchange technology.
47
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
AI16047
Company: ClusterSeven Name: Laura Whitehead, Marketing Director Email: lwhitehead@clusterseven.com Web Address: www.clusterseven.com Address: First Floor, 10 Throgmorton Avenue, London EC2N 2DL Telephone: +44 7939997059
Best Strategic Software for the Management of EUC Applications 2016 & Most Innovative EUC Management Technology
Cluster SEVEN ClusterSeven provides software for strategic End User Computing (EUC) management. We invited Laura Whitehead, the firm’s Marketing Director, to tell us more.
Established in 2003 and with offices in London and New York, ClusterSeven is the market leader in EUC management software. We offer an EUC governance platform which enables organisations across industries including banking and financial services, healthcare, energy and oil and gas to manage all their EUC applications and tools such as Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheets, Access databases and financial models.
Through the platform, our customer organisations are able to manage and mitigate financial, operational, regulatory and reputational risk – which is critical in the current environment of ever-growing and ever-evolving regulations such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, CCAR, DFAST, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), Solvency II, BCBS 239 and SR 11 7.
Some of the world’s leading banks, financial services organisations and corporates are our customers, with users spread across more than 20 countries in five continents.
As soon as an emerging technology is identified, the Agile Development methodology backed up with comprehensive automated testing, enables us to quickly incorporate it into the product offering. This kind of ‘iterative’ approach ensures that we continually evolve the code base whilst minimising the risk of regression.
Perhaps the single biggest issue that the finance industry faces is ever-increasing and ever-evolving regulation, making it extremely challenging for organisations to ensure compliance. Many of these regulations are driving organisations away from prescriptive rules-based compliance in favour of best practice process and continuous governance in an attempt to place the responsibility fairly and squarely on businesses. The financial penalties are potentially substantial, but the reputational damage could be far more crippling.
Our market leading position is maintained through the use of cutting edge technology. To remain at the forefront of emerging developments, we actively focus on education and training. Our employees engage with the technical community at technology events and ‘meetups’ in London and Silicon Valley as well as on social media channels. Looking ahead, following ClusterSeven’s acquisition by Azini Capital Partners less than 12 months ago, a number of plans are already in execution to make the company a formidable player in the industry. We have recently launched ground breaking research, in conjunction with Chartis Research, that establishes a methodology framework for the quantification of EUC risk. Overall the future will be an invigorating time for the firm and we look forward to the opportunities our growth strategy will bring.
Managing operational risk is of paramount importance. However, with financial organisations’ reliance on EUC applications and tools like Excel spreadsheets, which commonly run into millions in individual enterprises; understanding the internal EUC landscape is fundamental to mitigating risk. Only post an inventory of the EUC estate can organisations ascertain where the risk lies and therefore meaningfully determine where controls need to be applied for auditable, reliable compliance. The reality is that many organisations don’t undertake strategic EUC management. So while from an external perspective, organisations are challenged by regulation; internally they are beleaguered by a lack of visibility of the compliance risks they face.
48
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16042
Company: Computershare Name: Peter Duggan, Senior Vice President Email: peter.duggan@computershare.com Web Address: www.computershare.com Address: 480 Washington Street, Jersey City, NJ 07310 Telephone: +1-201-680-3935
Best for Global Shareholder & Stock Transfer Services
Computershare Computershare provides shareholder recordkeeping and investor servicing solutions for privately held companies and non-traded real estate investment trusts (REITs). Peter Duggan, the firm’s Senior Vice President, talks us through the company and the services it provides.
Computershare are the largest transfer agency service provider for publicly traded companies, having taken our expertise and proprietary, in-house technology to create a solution that address the needs of the alternative investment markets; including share valuation, subscription processing and period statements with valuation disclosure.
Computershare currently maintains records for hundreds of private issuers, but moving forward we anticipate increased activity as more issuers seek to raise funds using Regulation A+ which requires them to utilize a registered transfer agent such as Computershare. In addition, we have already seen an increase in filings for Regulation D private placements and are expecting a very significant uptick of Regulation CF (crowdfunding) offering following the May 16 live date for that regulation. Our dedicated private markets group was formed to serve the needs of these types of issuers and their investors. We look forward to participating in this new arena for capital formation and business growth and the exciting opportunities this will bring.
As an industry leader, we are involved in many industry organizations and maintain more than 6,000 client relationships - more than 1000 of these are microcap/private companies. We are uniquely positioned to assist clients in their journey from start-up private placement through the emerging growth stage, all the way to publicly listing and trading. We provide processing services for all types of corporate events such as mergers, acquisitions, stock splits and tender offers. Our experience allows us to support a wide spectrum of needs for our client companies throughout their business lifecycle. Working within such a highly competitive industry we need to diversify ourselves from our competitors. What sets us apart is our history and commitment to transfer agency as a core business. Computershare has the expertise to help clients large and small with any level of complexity. We are uniquely positioned to support private issuers and non-traded REITs in all aspects of the corporate lifecycle; from seed round through to IPO, merger/acquisition activity and corporate governance obligations.
49
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
AI16079
Company: Cornerstone Investment Services Name: John Riley, AIF Email: johnr@cornerstoneri.com Web Address: www.cornerstoneri.com Address: 245 Waterman St, Ste 301 Telephone: 401-453-5550 (972-563-8990)
Best Multi-Asset Portfolio Manager - Rhode Island & Most Innovative Emerging Market Growth Strategy: The Global Strategic Trends Portfolio
Cornerstone
Investment Services
Founded in 1999, Cornerstone Investment Services is an investment firm providing a wide range of services and investment solutions. We invited John Riley Founder and Chief Investment Strategist, to provide us with a unique overview of the company.
Cornerstone provides a variety of risk managed investment portfolios for IRAs, non-IRA accounts and trusts, as well as offering financial, retirement and estate planning. For pensions and 401ks, we also offer assistance with ERISA compliance.
Ultimately, here at Cornerstone we are true risk managers. We do not rely on just broad diversification to manage our risk, but instead utilize proactive strategies that include shifting asset allocations, negatively correlated asset classes, and strategic and tactical trading. We have several portfolio options from a model portfolio, to our global strategic trends portfolio to a tactical strategy.
This range of services is provided to clients from all walks of life, including professionals, business owners, middle class families, retirees, trusts, pensions- basically anyone that is looking for long term risk managed strategies for their money. What makes us unique is that I am a Registered Research Analyst. Money management firms usually rely on outside research, whereas we have one inside the company, and although we have subscriptions to many services, we do not have to rely on other people’s research. We do not have to wait to see if the analyst at an outside firm has changed his opinion on a stock we follow, enabling us to act quicker than our competitors. Flexibility and speed is important in our market, and we pride ourselves on offering clients the best of both worlds, being both small and large at the same time. We are a boutique money manager providing a personalized service to our clients, at a time when many others are automating their services. We are small enough to stay flexible in a changing environment, but some of the largest financial institutions in the world act as custodians of our clients’ investments, providing an additional level of security.
50
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16051
Company: CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust, Inc. Name: David Schulte, President and CEO Web Address: http://corenergy.corridortrust.com/ Address: 1100 Walnut St. Suite 3350 Kansas City, Missouri 64106
Best Real Property Asset Manager – USA & Best Energy Infrastructure REIT: CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust
CorEnergy
Infrastructure Trust, Inc.
CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust, Inc. primarily owns US infrastructure assets used by energy companies under long-term triple net participating leases. We invited the firm’s President and CEO David Schulte to tell us more.
CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust invests in utility-like assets including pipelines, storage tanks, transmission lines and gathering systems. Our structure as a real estate investment trust (REIT) offers US and non-US investors direct exposure to energy infrastructure in a tax-efficient manner. CorEnergy’s objective is to provide stockholders with a stable and growing cash dividend, supported by long-term contracted revenue.
Looking ahead, CorEnergy is still a relatively small company with a large opportunity for growth both on an asset portfolio basis and through an investor base. Therefore, providing investors with accessibility to information is key for us. As the first energy infrastructure REIT, there are many misunderstandings on how we are structured and CorEnergy is focused on growing our investor awareness and knowledge. It is our goal to have our stakeholders benefit in the growth of our stable dividend as we expand and diversify our portfolio.
For investors seeking access to energy infrastructure, their main option often comes in the form of purchasing units of an MLP. However, this type of investment also limits the type of investor who can purchase it (tax exempt accounts such as retirement, non-US investors and certain institutional funds are unable to invest in MLPs) and causes additional tax considerations, by issuing a burdensome K-1. As a REIT, CorEnergy issues a 1099 tax form, similar to investments in other corporations and can be held by all types of investors. We currently have three publicly traded financial instruments: convertible debt, preferred equity and common equity. Investors benefit from our management team’s expertise in structuring acquisitions and triple-net leases which provide stable cash flows on which CorEnergy bases its dividend. Lease agreements have base rents which are required to be paid, regardless of utilization, throughout the duration of the lease. This limits commodity price and volume risk, but a participating rent feature allows for CorEnergy to benefit from the upside of these two factors. Our structure is currently being tested in a stressed energy environment, however the criticality of our assets and the relatively low cost of our leases to operators supports our belief that our contracts will be honoured even in a bankruptcy scenario.
51
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
AI16002
Company: Drooms Address: Eschersheimer Landstr. 6 60322 Frankfurt, Germany Website: www.drooms.com Phone: +49 69 478 640 285 Fax: +49 69 478 640 1
Best Secure Virtual Data Room Provider - Europe & Most Innovative Asset Management & Due Diligence Products
Drooms Drooms is the leading provider of secure cloud solutions in Europe. The specialized software facilitates highly secure access to confidential documents, as well as the ability to exchange them safely with third parties beyond company firewalls. We profile the firm, which has just been named ‘Best Secure Virtual Data Room Provider – Europe & Most Innovative Asset Management & Due Diligence Products’.
Drooms allows for the transparent, efficient and secure management of confidential business processes such as mergers and acquisitions, commercial real estate sales, mergers and acquisitions, NPL transactions and board communications. Drooms’ clients include the world’s leading corporations, real estate companies and consulting and law firms such as Metro Group, Evonik, Morgan Stanley, JLL, JP Morgan, CBRE, UBS and Rewe. In 2015, Drooms not only accompanied the largest real estate transaction in Germany, it also accompanied nine out of the 15 largest transactions in the country.
Drooms has on-staff experts who will advise on the structure of the data room index and control that the important documentation is available. The incorrect setup of a data room, where important documents might be missing, are often responsible for transactions to cause delays in closing the transaction and end of costing more. On the vendor side, it is crucial to have all documents at hand to guarantee a fair evaluation of the asset. For the potential buyers, it is crucial to work with an efficient tool in order to be able to easily assess the value of the asset. Drooms data room allows for a seamless organisation of the transaction documentation, as well as for quick upload of documents in the data room. Even documents containing thousands of pages can be uploaded instantaneously and can be very quickly visualised. To this extent, speed allows all the parties involved in the transaction to work efficiently. In addition, users can access the data room without being bound to company premises. This is especially important to the ever-growing cross-border transaction market, which involves professionals working together from remote locations across the globe.
In 2001, Drooms began creating physical data rooms for M&A transactions. In a few years, by creating Drooms secure virtual data room solution, the company became a tech pioneer in the digitization of the European transaction industry. Understanding the evolution of the market before it happens and developing outstanding technological solutions has been at the core of the company’s focus. Nearly 100 employees across Europe represent the company’s values, convincing transaction professionals in all sectors to use Drooms to better manage due diligence. Drooms accompanies customers through the transaction journey, starting from the sourcing and scanning of documents through post-closing phase. Customers such as UBS trust Drooms for managing their documentation. M&A transactions require the prior collection of thousands of documents. Drooms sourcing and customer service departments take care of this process and will expeditiously setup a complete data room.
52
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16082
Company: Dynamo Software Website: www.dynamosoftware.com
Best Asset Management & Reporting Software Company & Best FoF Software Platform: Dynamo™ Fund of Funds Edition
Dynamo Software Dynamo Software provides configurable, industry-specific, asset management software solutions for alternative investment firms and investors. We profile the firm and explore the innovative solutions it provides over 97% also agreed that they would provide enthusiastic referrals for the company. An internal review of 2015 support tickets revealed that Dynamo Software’s client base reporting an aggregate 99% satisfaction rating with the resolution of support requests.
The Dynamo™ platform offers features for investment research management, targeted marketing, deal and acquisition management, fund manager due diligence, portfolio management and analysis, investor relations and reporting, and integration with premier back-office systems. Dynamo™ is currently entrusted by over 350 general and limited partnerships worldwide, including funds of funds, endowments and foundations, family offices, and alternative asset fund managers.
The Dynamo™ platform’s open architecture also enables Dynamo Software to stay ahead of emerging developments in alternative investments, and better support clients. Dynamo’s™ presentation and functionality can be configured specifically for a client’s unique operational needs and priorities. Client configurations are retained when regular product updates and new feature sets are released, ensuring a painless transition to the latest version of the platform.
The financial technology market for alternative investments has been defined by mergers and acquisitions in recent years. As more vendors are absorbed into larger entities, the acquired systems receive dwindling product development and service support. Dynamo Software has been privately and independently owned since 1998, and it has organically achieved consistent growth milestones and regular profitability. Committing to wholly organic growth has enabled Dynamo Software to maintain a product-oriented and customer-centric mission throughout the company’s history.
Dynamo Software is prioritizing a comprehensive front-end update to the Dynamo platform in 2016. The major changes include a modernized user interface that aligns with the presentation of premier business software, and streamlined navigation that reduces the activity needed to access and manipulate key data. Users adopting the newest Dynamo edition will also benefit from Global Search which enables users to find key terms in uploaded documents and correspondence, hierarchical lookups, conditional formatting, intelligent dynamic accounting, and enhanced ad hoc reporting.
Dynamo Software has remained at the forefront of the rapidly evolving alternative investment industry through a company culture that prioritizes active engagement with clients. The company regularly hosts client roundtables in the United States and Europe to learn how Dynamo™ can best address the latest challenges and issues impacting alternative investment firms. Clients are frequently surveyed regarding their implementation experience and usages of the platform, and feedback is delivered companywide. The firm’s dedication to active partnership with clients has resulted in new client service and support milestones in the past year. The company achieved 97% client satisfaction with the implementation of the Dynamo™ product suite in the most recent annual client survey, and
53
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
AI16004
Company: E Fund Management Name: Jessie Lam – Executive Director, Head of European Business Address: Suites 3501-02, 35/F, Two International Finance Centre, 8 Finance Street, Central, Hong Kong Phone: +852 3929 0960 Email: cs.europe@efundsglobal.com Website: www.efundsglobal.com/europe
RMB Asset Manager of the Year – China & Best Fixed Income Fund (Since Inception): E Fund RMB Fixed Income Fund
E Fund
Management (HK) Co., Ltd.
E Fund Management (HK) Co,, Ltd was officially established in 2008 and is licensed by the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong to conduct Type 1, Type 4 and Type 9 regulated activities. Jessie Lam, the firm’s Executive Director and Head of European Business provides us with a unique insight into the firm and the services it provides which have helped it to achieve industry leading success.
Established in 2001, the parent company E Fund Management Co., Ltd (“E Fund”) is headquartered in Guangzhou with branch offices in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Chengdu, Nanjing, and subsidiaries including E Fund HK. E Fund has grown tremendously in the past 10 years to become one of the largest asset managers in China. As at December 2015, E Fund mange assets for both institutional and retail investors total to RMB 964billion (approximately USD148billion). E Fund is also one of the largest segregated manager in China serving over 100 institutional clients mandate including pension fund for the National Council for Social Security Fund, and Stock Exchange of Shenzhen and major national banks and insurance institutions in China.
cific. As of 31 Dec, 2015, our total assets under management exceeded RMB 26 billion (over US$4 billion). Capitalizing the investment and research ability of our parent company, E Fund HK maintains three investment research teams, each specializing in RQFII/QFII, overseas and alternative investing. As part of its global expansion strategy, the company recently launched its first UCITS fund investing in onshore RMB high quality Bond via the Luxembourg SICAV platform to target international investors. E Fund HK is committed to providing quality asset management services for onshore and offshore investors in Greater China and US ADR markets. Via the construction of a global-facing asset allocation platform, E Fund HK serves as the ultimate window for investors in China to asset allocation exposures all over the world.
The firm is licensed to cover a full spectrum of asset management services in China including mutual funds, national social security fund, corporate annuities, discretionary accounts, QDII, QFII and RQFII, as well as being a qualified investment manager for entrust insurance funds. E Fund passed the independent verification of the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS) in August 2014, signifying an important step forward to becoming more internationalized with unified performance reporting. As a premier global business platform for the parent company, E Fund HK has listed a total of 18 RQFII ETFs and RQFII/QFII public funds, at six stock exchanges locations across the US, Europe and the Asia-Pa-
54
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16096
Company: EY Luxembourg Name: Laurent Denayer, Partner, Global Fund Distribution Leader Email: Laurent.denayer@lu.ey.com Web Address: www.ey.com/GFD Address: BP 780, L2017 Luxembourg, LUXEMBOURG Phone: +352 42 124 8340
Best for Global Fund Distribution Services 2016
EY Global Fund Distribution EY Global Fund Distribution (EY GFD) is a global online solution developed by EY that aims at supporting asset managers from all around the world in their fund distribution activities. Laurent Denayer, who leads the team, talks us through this innovative services it provides.
EY GFD works at the source of the product development and distribution strategies decision making process, showing and analysing investors’ appetite for investment strategies, understanding funds’ selection criteria and sales/marketing practices from distributors. Laurent explains how the firm aims to provide these cutting edge services to all clients in order to meet their needs.
“EY GFD analysis can be accessed on a web platform that includes a proprietary business intelligence solution enabling to understand the fund industry flows and assets per country of distribution. The tool is designed to perform market profiling and benchmarking along with competitors’ analysis.” Working in such a dynamic industry, Laurent adds that the firm is keen to continue to innovate in order to provide clients with the best possible service.
“Our services are of interest for all market players, from investment funds managers, to distributors, including asset servicers as we understand they have various needs and challenges to cope with. We also have a flexible approach enabling us to adapt to client size and growth strategies, including ad-hoc advisory and subscription based services.”
“Our objective moving forward is to improve the working process divided between research, analysis and decision making phases to allocate most of the time to the latter and empower our client with high quality information.”
“Further, our scope of services focuses on the entire value chain of fund distribution activities which makes our solution fully integrated. We offer our clients support at each step of their fund distribution, from distribution strategy design, market trends assessment, regulatory intelligence, market practices, fund product definition/funds range optimization, registration and maintenance, distributors’ relationship management and financial/tax reporting preparation. We also offer due diligence services on distributors.”
55
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
AI16036
Company: Exception Capital LLP Name: Adrian Fairbourn Email: adrian@exceptioncapital.com Web Address: www.exceptioncapital.com
Best Global Multi-Strategy Portfolio (3 Years): The Family Fund & Most Innovative Investment Boutique 2016
Exception Capital LLP Exception Capital is a boutique investment firm based in London and Los Angeles and was born out of a family office structure. Founder Adrian Fairbourn talks us through the firm and its investment strategy.
Exception Capital manages The Family Fund, a unique global multi-strategy portfolio that is designed to mimic the asset allocation of a classic Family Office. As such the fund invests globally in public equities, private securities, direct lending structures as well as external niche alternative managers.
Moving forward, we are keen to continue with our current approach as we have proven over a number of years that our repeatable process works. The year ahead means more hard work finding and working on opportunities and turning those opportunities into hard performance numbers.
Diversified by geography, asset class and positions it has, since inception in Q3 2012, outperformed all benchmarks and indices but with lower volatilities and reduced correlations. Our work revolves exclusively around the management of this fund and ensuring we generate the best risk managed returns possible for investors.
From a business perspective we will be looking to grow the assets under management and the infrastructure of the firm. I have sat across from many hedge fund managers over the years and have seen so many with say $50m under management and based on that an all-encompassing infrastructure – numerous analysts, a good sized office, numerous Bloomberg screens etc. A few poor months of performance and it becomes impossible to raise AUM and as result they soon go out of business. I have always said I would grow the infrastructure as we grow the AUM. I consider that prudent business practice and it considerable de-risks an investment in The Family Fund.
When managing risk, we take a view that you have to take some degree of risk in order to generate returns. We do not put ourselves forward as risk free, as we would not have been able to generate the returns we have if we were. Saying that we do have robust risk management controls and our main driver is diversification of the portfolio by strategy, geography, positions and size of positions. It has proved very effective and led us to having minimal correlation with the markets. Ultimately, as a business we have created a unique product within the financial services marketplace, which hasproven to be highly successful. We stand by our mission statement at all times based on Integrity and Trust. These factors pervade through everything we do.
56
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16078
Company: Eze Castle Integration, Inc. Email: sales@eci.com Web Address: www.eci.com Address: 260 Franklin Street, 12th Floor, Boston, MA 02110 Telephone: 617-217-3000
Award for Innovation in Hedge Fund Technology
Eze Castle Integration, Inc. Eze Castle Integration is the leading provider of strategic IT solutions and private cloud services to hedge funds and alternative investment management firms worldwide. We invited Katie Sloane, Senior Marketing Specialist, to tell us more.
For the better part of two decades, Eze Castle Integration has pushed the envelope for IT innovation and rebuffed the status quo. Since its launch in 2006 as a disaster recovery platform, the Eze Private Cloud has evolved into the highest performing, most secure cloud platform available and industry standard for financial cloud computing worldwide. We have successfully built a world-class reputation based upon our customer-centric approach, tailored solutions for the financial sector and team of more than 370 IT experts.
to educate firms on a wide range of topics, including cybersecurity, successfully launching a hedge fund, business resiliency and cloud computing. We also publish articles twice per week on our Hedge IT Blog on a variety of hedge fund technology and operational topics. Alongside this vast array of supplementary services, Eze Castle also hosts webinars and live events regularly to keep alternative management professionals informed and ahead of the IT and regulatory curves. At Eze Castle Integration, we are excited about the future of the global investment industry. Moving forward, the exponential progression of technology and market shifts offer infinite opportunity for innovation and growth, and we look forward to taking advantage of these.
The firm’s global presence spans eight offices in the United States, as well as locations in London, Singapore and Hong Kong. Our devoted team services more than 650 firms worldwide, including more than 100 firms with $1 billion or more in assets under management. From startups, to small and large established firms, Eze Castle Integration listens and caters to every client’s needs to ensure their businesses continue to flourish and IT infrastructures remain secure, resilient, available and robust. Additionally, our services extend beyond technology, connectivity, infrastructure and security. It is also the company’s mission to be a thought leader and trusted resource in the eyes of the financial sector on a global scale. The company provides an array of educational resources on our corporate website to reach not only our clients, but also the alternative investment industry as a whole. For example, we have an assortment of Knowledge Centers (http://www.eci.com/knowledge-center/) designed
57
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
AI16005
Company: Global Funds Registration Ltd Name: Martin Neason Email: info@gfreg.com Web Address: www.gfreg.com Address: 1st Floor, 10 New Street, London, EC2M 4TP Telephone: 0207 337 2286
Best Cross Border Fund Administration Consultancy
Global Funds Registration Ltd Global Funds Registration (GFR) provides a specialised consultancy and project management service designed to remove the administrative burden normally associated with cross border authorisation. We invited Martin Neason to talk us through the firm, which has just been awarded ‘Best Cross Border Fund Administration Consultancy’.
Global Funds Registration (GFR) supports cross-border fund registrations for clients in jurisdictions across the EU, MENA, Asia and North and South America, enabling our clients to distribute their funds in multiple jurisdictions while keeping costs to a minimum.
Communication is a key aspect of our approach, and GFR has an extensive network of lawyers throughout the 50+ jurisdictions covered by our service. This collaborative approach ensures we remain fully aware of regulatory changes and when they are implemented, the impact on our service as well as the registrations of our clients’ funds.
Ultimately our services are designed to relieve our clients of the administrative burden normally associated with the cross-border registration of funds. We provide information, advice and guidance regarding the regulatory requirements of our clients’ target jurisdictions, e.g. whether a fund needs to be registered to approach the target investors and if so, the anticipated costs involved.
Looking ahead, the future appears very bright for GFR. We continue to attract new clients and achieve an extremely high level of client retention from our existing client base. In order to better support these clients moving forward we are looking at a number of EU regulations, how they are changing and how we can assist our clients in meeting the new requirements.
GFR will then source, appoint and liaise with the necessary third parties, and with the Home and Host regulators, to secure the registration and then maintain it each year, with as little impact on our clients’ internal resources as possible. In order to ensure that clients receive the latest information and feel supported at all times, we use technology on a daily basis to keep our clients up to date regarding the project we are handling for them, to keep ourselves up to date with changes to requirements and regulations and to communicate with third parties and with regulators.
58
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16015
Company: Greiff capital management AG Website: http://www.greiff-ag.de/ www.paragon-fonds.de
Best Absolute Return Portfolio Manager – Germany & Best Total Return Fund: PARAGON UI Fund.
Greiff Capital Management AG Greiff capital management AG is a Freiburg, Germany, based regulated investment management company uniquely reflecting the spirit and requirements of today’s international financial markets dedicated to cater to its clients’ true and individual needs. Robert Habatsch talks us through how the firm has reached this enviable success.
Since its establishment in 2005 as an independent investment management company Greiff capital management has grown into a multiservice and product advisor to its clients and partners. Our clients are pension funds, banks, wealth managers, family offices, fund of funds, insurers, consultants and independent financial advisors.
With Tarek Saffaf and his fund PARAGON UI Fund joining our team we had the chance to add one of the most recognized derivative strategies to our fund range. Together with him we are looking forward to continue to deliver the highest asset management standards to our clients. Overall we are very pleased to receive the award which we see as recognition for our focus on long-term orientated quality standards in managing absolute return portfolios.
The core focus and strengths of the investment team are intelligent derivative, equity event driven strategies and disciplined fund of fund management in liquid financial markets. Greiff capital management AG is fully bank independent with the equity owned by its employees and its non-executive partners.
Within the last twelve months, Greiff has been growing fast and overseas approximately €0.6bn in AUM and moving forward we are keen to build on this success whilst continuing to provide quality services to our clients.
The investment team consists of a seasoned group of professionals with multi-year experience in fund of funds management, banking and asset management. The current division of responsibilities between portfolio management, trading, analysis and risk management is identical to the proven and successful structure which was implemented at our previous firm. In combination with our partner companies we have assembled a highly professional team and a state of the art infrastructure combining local expertise and global reach.
59
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
AI16081
Company: Host Capital Limited Name: Christopher Finch Email: cfinch@hostcapital.com Web Address: www.hostcapital.com Address: 73 New Bond Street, Mayfair, London W1S 1RS Telephone: 0207 290 9490
Best Independent Authorised Corporate Director – UK & Most Consistent Mixed Asset Equity Fund (Since Inception): HC Global Opportunities Fund Return
Host Capital Limited Host Capital is an independent Authorised Corporate Director and Alternative Investment Fund Manager, authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority since 2005. We invited Christopher Finch to talk us through the firm and how it supports investors through its diverse service offering.
Here at Host Capital, we offer investment opportunities in a multitude of asset classes and sectors, with each and every fund benefitting from a robust and efficient approach to risk management. Using the best available technology, together with the knowledge, skill and experience of industry professionals, we bring together the very best ingredients and framework to deliver the best possible outcomes for investors.
As alternative assets go this Fund ticks all the boxes. It shares a very low correlation to traditional asset classes, maintains a strong capital defence, and modest growth, through investment in fully-let high quality university student accommodation, and aims to deliver an income yield of around 6%. Overall the future looks set to be an exciting time for Host Capital, and we look forward to working with new partners who will help us to achieve our overall aim: to offer investment products managed and operated by some of the most talented names from the world of investment management.
Through the careful selection of our product partners we structure, deliver, launch, host and maintain specifically designed investment funds such as UCITS, NURS, QIS and PAIFs, to meet the needs of sophisticated investors, institutions, private and retail clients via IFAs. The IFA industry, having suffered a small number of high-profile failings and sweeping changes to the way it operates in the past few years, is now the best qualified and transparent it has ever been before and also the most cautious. Fundamentally, investors here in the UK and their intermediaries are increasingly conservative and looking for safety but also an attractive income from their investments, which is rarely available through high street banks these days. The challenge is clear. Product providers must continue to develop highly regulated products which seek to preserve and conservatively grow capital, whist delivering above average income returns, such as the Host Capital UK Student Accommodation Fund.
60
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16003
Company: International Financial Data Services Name: Julian Rice, Head of Marketing Web Address: www.ifdsgroup.co.uk
Excellence in Financial Data Services
International Financial
Data Services
International Financial Data Services (IFDS) is recognised as a leading provider of outsourced administration and technology solutions to the financial services market. We invited Julian Rice, the firm’s Head of Marketing, to talk us through how the firm came to win ‘Best Outsourced Fund Administration Services’ in our Alternative Investment Awards.
IFDS utilises its global footprint, proprietary technology and servicing expertise in order to enhance the customer experience, improve operational efficiencies and support product distribution for its clients.
years is to determine the most efficient processes that incorporate localised legislation and regulatory requirements, whilst also endeavouring to exceed customer expectations.
Unlike many of our competitors, we solely focus on outsourced technology and administration services. This focus helps us to continuously innovate and improve the customer experience, as well as enabling us to explore potential efficiency gains within our internal operations. Our clients benefit from the economies of scale we can provide and we have proven methodologies and vast experience of large-scale data migrations.
Other significant challenges include: continued regulatory developments; anti-money laundering and client money handling requirements; and the introduction of new data protection guidelines. These will provide us with exciting opportunities moving forward, as we work to overcome these challenges and continue to provide our clients with the quality, inventive services they have come to expect from us.
Looking to the future, we are heavily focused on several large-scale projects that will transform the operating and service capabilities of our existing clients, helping to position their businesses for future growth. Within our market currently, traditional transfer agency (TA) services are becoming ever-more commoditised, therefore we are concentrating on areas where we can add greater value to our clients, supporting them in areas such as distributor servicing, data analytics, regulatory compliance and operational risk management. In addition we continue to look at opportunities to evolve our operating models. Large asset managers are looking for TAs to provide a single, global operating models rather than managing several relationships across jurisdictions. Therefore, the challenge we face over the coming
61
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
AI16016
Company: Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP Website: http://www.kramerlevin.com/
Best Alternative Investment Fund Law Firm – USA & Private Funds Practice Group of the Year - USA
Kramer Levin
Naftalis & Frankel LLP
Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP is a full-service law firm headquartered in New York City with offices in Silicon Valley and Paris. One of the partners in the firm’s Alternative Investment Management practice, Kevin Scanlan, discusses the firm and the industry in which his department operates.
Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel has very strong corporate and financial services practices and is focused, in particular, on the private fund industry given the high concentration of private funds in our client base. The firm also has leading practices in the areas of securities litigation, bankruptcy and real estate.
As part of our effort to stay up to date with developments such as these in the private fund industry, the private funds team at Kramer Levin contributes to a monthly periodical published by Kramer Levin entitled “FundsTalk”, which is designed to educate our private fund clients about industry and regulatory developments affecting their business. In connection with this effort and as part of our overall service offering, the team monitors developments impacting the private fund industry daily and identifies issues for inclusion in the periodical. To the extent there are significant developments, we may issue a client alert shortly after the development instead of waiting until the next monthly publication date.
With regards to our private funds practice, this represents a broad range of private fund managers and investors and covers virtually every type of investment fund structure and strategy. Currently the private fund industry is continuing to adjust to regulations arising out of the Dodd-Frank Act and the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. It continues to be difficult for the small and mid-sized private fund managers to raise capital. However, we have seen it become incrementally easier to do so over the past few years.
Ultimately, the congenial and supportive atmosphere we cultivate within our practice leads to better service, and better results for our clients.
With respect to capital-raising by private funds, the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, or JOBS Act, was signed into law on April 5, 2012, and was intended to facilitate capital formation. However, the private fund industry has had very little interest in utilizing the capital raising flexibility included in that act. Another issue confronting small and midsized fund managers has been to find the money needed to maintain and build out their compliance infrastructure so that it can comply with the various rules and regulations coming out of the regulatory agencies.
62
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16035
Company: Kriya Capital Email: info@kriyacapital.com Location: Hong Kong Tel: +852-39831238 www.kriyacapital.com
Best Event-Driven China Hedge Fund (5 Years): The Kriya China Fund & Most Influential Woman in Hedge Funds 2016 - Asia Pacific
Kriya Capital The Kriya China Fund looks for multiyear landscape shifts in China, and the winners and losers that are most leveraged to those changes. Han Ching Choong, Co-Founder and Portfolio Manager at Kriya Capital, to get the inside story on the firm’s successful Kriya China Fund.
Han Ching Choong explains how changes to the investment landscape in China can be used to create profits for investors. “Historically, such changes have created anomalies that persist for a period of time, typically years, and at the right price and under the right conditions, these can create abnormal returns.”
necessarily correlated with optimal investments for their clients, even if it does protect the firm against a potentially irate customer and vigilant regulator. At the end of the day, people want sustainable returns on their savings and that is what we try to offer as that is also what we try to do for ourselves.”
“We believe that the most sustainable returns are generated by a portfolio of such positions. For example, the effect of a shift in China’s economic growth leadership away from ‘bricks and mortar’ towards higher quality, more sustainable drivers and the trend of capital being no longer free – the impact of these are significant and lasting, across many different industries from commodities to retail, affecting corporate and consumer behaviour overtime.
The regulatory standards for the investing industry in Hong Kong are high by global standards, and the regulators are vigilant, says Han Ching. “Investors should take more, not less, comfort from having their assets managed with the eye of the HK SFC on the manager. Hong Kong is getting more attractive by the day as a location for investing the way we do – as Chinese companies increasingly value investor relations, corporate access in Hong Kong has improved. While global companies are also increasingly valuing the potential investor base in China and access to them has also improved in Hong Kong.”
Asked about current industry trends, Han Ching says that, in terms of investing, there is currently a relative lack of sustainable trends, macro and micro, compared to the past.
Looking to the future, Han Ching says Kriya’s continuing success may see it grow over the coming year. “As investor interest is growing (both from institutions, family offices and high-net-worth individuals taking a more proactive approach to managing their wealth), we may need to expand the team in business development. As Hong Kong is a great place to manage money, we are also seeing interest in launching other funds.”
“In terms of business, absolute return funds still carry a stigma from 2008 and institutions that used to invest in smaller funds have largely changed or disappeared,” she says. “The investing institution as a whole seems to have migrated more towards a ‘self-protection’ mode, at least as much as helping clients to generate returns. In my experience, committees generally make decisions by defaulting to consensus and that sort of output is not
63
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
AI16055
Company: Langham Hall Email: marie.fitzpatrick@langhamhall.com Web Address: http://www.langhamhall.com/ Address: 5 Old Bailey, London, EC4M 7BA Telephone: +44 20 3597 7900
Best for Depositary Services – USA & Private Equity Fund Administration Firm of the Year - USA
Langham Hall Langham Hall is a bespoke owner-managed fund administrator and accountant with more than $70bn of assets under management across over 170 funds. We spoke to Business Development Director, Marie Fitzpatrick, to find out more.
Here at Langham Hall we specialise in providing services to alternative fund managers. Fund accounting, administration, depositary, and Annex IV reporting are our specialities.
Alongside our greatest asset - our staff - we have the advantage of an IT system that helps set us further apart from competitors. We have developed a real estate, private equity, infrastructure, and debt implementation of SUN systems, which holds both financial and non-financial data. SUN is the general ledger platform used extensively by Fortune 500 companies.
We work for more than 170 funds and special purpose vehicles and have an aggregate of $70bn of assets under administration, of which around $35bn are in real estate. We have offices in six locations (London, Jersey, Guernsey, Luxembourg, Hong Kong and Singapore) and employ more than 170 staff. As well as real estate, we work for debt, infrastructure and private equity fund managers.
Our system provides fast and flexible investor reporting, bespoke Excel-based templates for management fees and carry calculations, a platform generating pdf NAV statements, bespoke drawdown, distribution and equalisation calculations, consolidation, customer relationship management, and granular investment data.
Having established one of the strongest management teams in the industry, we have become global and are successfully providing a number of services to firms in the US, specifically depositary and Annex IV reporting that are required under Europe’s AIFMD.
Moving forward, the company expects to remain independent and to further expand in the future, both in terms of assets under management and service lines. This year we celebrated our 10 year anniversary and we think we are poised to grow in line with the industry.
One of our key strengths is our staff. Some 85% are qualified or part qualified accountants. We take pride in providing career development training leading to further professional qualifications. In line with the deep experience of senior management, we have built up a reputation for freely sharing our experience of establishing funds and we provide flexible support in terms of adapting services to best fit our clients. We make sure we propose solutions based on clients’ needs.
64
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16094
Company: Laureola Advisors Inc. Name: Tony Bremness Email: Tony.Bremness@LaureolaAdvisors.com Web Address: www.LaureolaAdvisors.com Address: 20 De Castro Street, Road Town, BVI
Best Secondary Life Insurance Asset Manager & Best Life Settlement Investment Fund (Since Inception): Laureola Investment Fund
Laureola Advisors Inc. Laureola Advisors is a specialist asset manager focused on Life Settlements. We invited Co-Founder Tony Bremness to provide us with an insight into the company and its award winning fund.
Laureola Advisors provide bespoke longevity investment solutions to investors seeking uncorrelated returns, striving for strong performance through original thinking and first-hand research. Tony outlines the firm’s history and the clients it supports.
“Beside using proprietary techniques to review and value each asset prior to purchase, we manage risk within the fund using all the traditional tools as well: diversification at multiple levels, conservative pricing and valuation, careful cash management.
“Laureola Advisors was formed by my Partner Chris Erwin and me in 2012 to take advantage of the exceptional opportunities in the niche asset class of Life Settlements. We work with most types of clients: our award winning Laureola Fund has been designed for HNW and smaller Family Offices; for larger clients we offer a separate Managed Account Service.”
“The Fund structure also offers above average protection for investors. The Fund has world class service providers for audit (Deloitte), Fund Administration and NAV calculation (Apex), custody (Bank of Utah Trust Division – a Life Settlement Custody specialist), and Lewis & Ellis is the consulting actuary. “Primarily, we designed the fund for HNW investors but the fund structure is of institutional quality.”
Life Settlements are the purchase of Life Insurance contracts by investors on the secondary market in the USA. They currently trade at Internal Rates of Return (IRR) of 12% to 15% on average, but there is a significant range of IRR’s from 10% to over 30%. However, the highest yielding assets are not available to all investors, and having privileged access to this deal flow is critical. It is a major competitive advantage at Laureola, as Tony outlines.
Looking ahead, Tony was keen to stress that managed growth was a key focus, both for the fund and the firm itself. “The future looks bright for Life Settlements in general, and for the Laureola Fund in particular. Interest is growing in the asset class as investors grow more and more concerned about the future performance of equities, bonds, Real Estate, Hedge Funds, etc. The Fund has passed the strictest institutional and valuation due diligence, and has attracted several institutional clients recently, with more registering interest. The Fund has always been and remains popular with Private Investors.”
“The Laureola Fund offers strong, consistent returns which are well loved by investors, but the most important feature of Life Settlements is their non-correlation with traditional investments and Hedge Funds. Life Settlement investors will make money when others cannot.
65
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
AI16091
Company: Makes & Partners Address: Menara Batavia 7th Floor Ji Kh Mas Mansyur, Kav 126 Jakarta 10220 Phone: +62 21 574 7181 Fax: +62 21 574 7180 E-mail: makes@makeslaw.com Website: www.makeslaw.com
Corporate Law Firm of the Year – Indonesia & Recognised Leader in Transnational M&A - 2016
Makes & Partners Makes & Partners is a professional corporate law firm based in Indonesia. We profile this dedicated legal practice and the services it provides.
Founded in 1993 by Yozua Makes, Makes & Partners delivers professional legal services and has grown to be a law firm at the forefront of the Indonesian corporate legal profession.
Banking Corporation (HSBC), Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich AG (RZB)-Singapore, United Overseas Bank Limited (UOB), DBS Bank Ltd., BNP Paribas Peregrine, Morgan Stanley, Barclays Bank, Deutsche Bank AG, West LB, Rothschild and Ancora Capital Management (Asia) Limited.
Since inception, Makes & Partners has had a history of forward thinking. As a trendsetter, Makes & Partners has achieved a number of ‘firsts’ in Indonesia. Advising on the first IPO of an Indonesian real estate investment trust on the Singapore Stock Exchange, advising in the first privatisation of an Indonesian state-owned company, the first voluntary tender offer, first non-cash settlement rights issue, are just a few example of the pioneering work that the firm has undertaken.
Ultimately, with a track record that shows a propensity for innovation and ground-breaking achievement, Makes & Partners is, undeniably, a formidable player in the Indonesian legal landscape.
Mergers & Acquisitions are a key focus of the firm, as it has extensive experience in the field of mergers and acquisitions. Makes & Partners has drawn on this vast knowledge to advise various reputable publicly-listed companies in their M&A transactions. The company has also carried out and seen through completion various projects of mergers and acquisitions for companies both national and multinational, with several deals requiring ingenuity, originality and innovation. Additionally, the firm has advised on some of the largest and most complex loan syndications and debt restructuring transactions in Indonesia. The firm has routinely advised corporate clients on their commercial borrowings and related matters, such as the granting of security interests. Makes & Partners’ client portfolio of international financial institutions includes leading players such as Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, UBS AG, Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), Hong Kong and Shanghai
66
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16010 Company: Managing Partners Group Name: Jeremy Leach, Chief Executive officer Email: jleach@managingpartnersgroup.com Web Address: www.managingpartnersgroup.com Address: United Kingdom Drayton House, Drayton Lane, Chichester, West Sussex, PO20 2EW, United Kingdom Telephone: United Kingdom +44 1243 785600
Best in Insurance-Linked Investments – UK & Best Diversified Fund (5 Years): The High Protection Fund
Managing Partners Group Managing Partners Group is an international investment house that specialises in alternative investments for all types of sophisticated investors, ranging from high net worth individuals to trust companies, family offices and institutions. We invited Jeremy Leach, the firm’s Chief Executive Officer, to talk us through the company and the investment opportunities it offers.
Managing Partners Group creates and manages mutual funds and securitisations, the latter being offered through our newest office in Malta. The addition of this new office is key to our plans to reach both the EU and Commonwealth markets. We are working with Finance Malta to promote the benefits of the country as a financial centre.
Moving forward, our focus for 2016 is to deliver more income products to the market, which we are approaching using two specific strategies. The first involves providing more products to experienced investors throughout the EU and the second revolves around providing a third-party service to other financial institutions that wish to do so but do not have the in-house expertise to package such products.
We offer a wide range of mutual funds that invest in specific asset classes, including property and life settlements, which are also known as traded life policies. We also manage hedge funds. Securitisations can be used for many different types of financing arrangements, from shipping, aviation and reinsurance structures to the creation of income bonds. Securitisations issue securities that may be listed on a bourse to become recognised as transferable securities and potentially UCITS eligible. They are particularly suitable for generating regular income to a target date, typically at least five years ahead. They provide security of capital by virtue of the fact that bond holders are ranked ahead of shareholders in having first call on the underlying assets. This affords a huge amount of protection for bond holders.
Additional Contact Details: Cayman Islands - Cayman Financial Centre, PO Box 2510, Grand Cayman KY1-1104, Cayman Islands Phone: +1 345 769 0030 Malta - Level 6, The Hedge Business Centre, Balluta Bay, St. Julian’s STJ 1062, Malta Phone: +356 278 63 100 Spain - Atico, Edificio 1, Urb. Alzambra, Nueva Andalucia, 29660 Malaga, Spain Phone: +34 952 819 195
What sets our firm apart from others is the depth and breadth of experience in our management team. Many boutiques have knowledge held by one person but we have a large, experienced team of professionals.
Switzerland - Rue du Conseil-Général 3-5, CH-1205 Geneva, Switzerland Phone: +41 22 518 1345
All of our staff is dedicated to meeting our exacting standards, and our ethos is customer service and integrity. As such our team works hard to ensure that we deliver the highest level of service possible. We also encourage our employees to develop themselves, especially through continuing professional development.
67
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
AI16067
Company: MCR Development Name: Russell Shattan Email: rshattan@mcrdevelopmentllc.com Web Address: www.mcrdevelopment.com Address: 152 West 57th Street 46th Floor, New York, New York 10019
Premier Hotel Management Company of the Year – USA
MCR Development MCR Development is a vertically-integrated investor and operator of extended-stay and select-service hotels with a successful track record of buying, building, managing and selling Marriott and Hilton branded properties as well as developing historic and iconic independent hotels. We invited Russell Shattan, MCR’s Senior Vice President – Acquisitions & Development, to tell us more.
In a relatively short period of time, we have successfully established MCR Development as one of the nation’s leading owners, operators and developers of extended-stay and select-service hotels, having invested with many institutional capital partners in 90 hotels across the country. This achievement is a testament to the success of our business model, entrepreneurial culture, strategic focus and the caliber and dedication of our entire team.
We are in a great place right now and believe we have a very exciting future ahead of us. Not only have we grown in scale, but we have also earned a reputation as a leading firm in the hotel industry. Because of this, we continue to get approached by various industry partners about opportunities for us to invest in premium branded assets. The universe of 6,200 Marriott and Hilton U.S. hotels will continue to provide attractive opportunities.
The fundamental component of our investment strategy is owning Marriott and Hilton branded, select-service and extended-stay hotels in secondary markets throughout the United States. The market for these hotels is very fragmented, with over 1,000 “mom and pop” groups owning two-to-20 assets, resulting in great opportunities for institutional investors.
Looking ahead, in addition to acquiring new hotels, we will continue to re-invest in our existing hotels through full-scale renovations, and savvy asset management initiatives to unlock value for existing investors and our guests. We remain steadfast in our commitment to prudently grow our portfolio and provide our investors with safe, reliable and attractive risk-adjusted returns.
Our focus on the select-service category stems from the fact that over the past 30 years, occupancy, ADR, and RevPAR growth in this segment have outperformed the upper upscale segment; select-service has also offered better margins, less volatility and more resilient demand. Furthermore, we employ modest leverage, cost management and geographic diversity to mitigate risk associated with individual assets and market cycles.
68
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16008
Company: RMB Capital Fund: Mendon Capital Email: krivers@rmbcap.com Web Address: www.rmbcap.com Address: 115 S. LaSalle, 34th floor, Chicago, IL 60603 Telephone: 312 993 5800
Best US Financial Services Investment Advisor 2016
Mendon Capital Established in 1996, Mendon Capital is an investment fund focused on the U.S financial services sector. We invited Portfolio Manager Anton Schutz to talk us through the fund and how it approaches investing to provide investors with the highest possible risk-adjusted returns.
Mendon Capital was initially founded with a focus on consolidation within the financial services industry, and we primarily specialise in intense fundamental research of investment ideas overlaid with an opportunistic approach that enables us to exploit pockets of inefficiency.
In our view, one of the underappreciated aspects of the financial services sector is the different characteristics of various geographic regions, each of which is constantly changing. A prime example is the fact that within the key energy producing states, such as Texas, there is currently a greater credit risk, and as such, we have to monitor this and other factors when considering investments. This trend may change moving forward, and it is developments such as this that we monitor through constant research.
Since its inception, the fund has continued to grow. In 2014 we partnered with RMB Capital, enabling us to bolster our infrastructure with operational expertise and capabilities related to technology, compliance, and other back office functions.
Looking ahead, we are always keen to grow as a business, developing new talent in order to drive expansion and improve our collective knowledge. In our view, there are always opportunities to capitalize on bank consolidation and M&A activities in the financial services sector.
Our clients range from qualified individual investors to larger funds, including pension plans, endowments, and fund-of-funds. As a fund, we aim to capitalize on current opportunities within the financial services sector, drawing on our in-depth knowledge and experience as we research potential investments. In addition to our equity exposure, we also utilize tools such as options to construct our portfolios. Over the last few years option volatility has been incredibly low, and we have been able to use put options to express many of our short views without the undue risk of positions moving against us in a takeover. In order to help ensure that we are aware of what is going on in the industry and ahead of emerging developments, we attend industry events, tap into our extensive network of contacts, and meet with management teams and competitors of companies to assess them against the market’s ever evolving priorities.
69
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
AI16025
Company: Meson Capital Partners Phone: (415) 322-0486 Email: info@mesoncapital.com Website: www.mesoncapital.com
Best Long-Term Activist Fund – USA & Award for Excellence in Capital Structure 2016
Meson Capital Partners Meson Capital Partners is a long-term activist fund that focuses on operationally transforming undervalued businesses. We caught up with Ryan Morris, the firm’s Founder and President, who outlines its investment strategy and how this serves to support both the firm’s investors and the businesses it invests in.
Meson Capital believes that tremendous value can be created for all shareholders at under-managed public companies with improved governance, management and investing in modern technology. This private equity approach to the public markets produces investment returns that are uncorrelated with the overall market.
In addition to our internal operating partners, we have access to leading consulting firms through our relationship with Involved Consulting. The firm provides a public “white label” for high quality work product to avoid conflict when difficult situations arise, for example when corporate business at top consulting firms prohibit direct relationships with activist hedge funds. This approach ensures that top tier operating partners can be retained on an at-risk basis (with repeat business discounts).
Small public companies are plentiful and often overlooked by competing investors and analysts, and as such we focus on the universe of companies with between $100mm and $2,000mm capital and eliminate those with concentrated external risks.
Ultimately it is our firm’s innovative strategy, collaborative approach and supportive work ethic that separates us from other firm’s operating within this market. Shareholder activism has been the best performing hedge fund strategy the last three years in a row, and moving forward we are keen to continue to capitalise on this amazing growth.
Our firm offers a unique approach to long term activism, taking a differentiated, entrepreneurial approach to actively improve and build businesses, partnering with world-class entrepreneurs, executives, and consultants to help companies invest in their strengths and create a high performance culture. This achieves financial and operating alignment from the board through the front lines. Unlike many purely financial-engineering activists, we believe in increasing investment in core strengths, which results in profits increases as the business quality improves. Our core strengths include deep humility, strong leadership techniques which break the anti- Darwinian cycle and empower leaders who put the company’s interests first and ultimately providing a detailed model of persuasion based on handson experience, with publicly highlighting management failures used exclusively as a last resort.
70
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16056
Company: Met Facilities LLP Name: Bhavesh Kotecha Email: bhav@metfacilities.com Web Address: www.metfacilities.com Address: Met Group, Julia House, 40-44 Newman Street, London, W1T 1QD Telephone: +44 (0) 207 604 5777
Best for Regulatory Umbrella Platform Services
Met Facilities LLP Met Facilities LLP is a leading FCA regulatory hosting platform providing umbrella solutions to a plethora of financial services firms including hedge funds, alternative funds, brokers, fintechs, and start-ups. We invited Managing Partner Bhavesh Kotecha to talk us through the firm and its innovative service offering.
Founded in 2002, the Met Group prospered through a diversification strategy that developed our expertise in a vast array of financial services activities. Met Facilities’ DNA evolved from the Group’s own commercial operations resulting in a service offering that far surpasses a standard regulatory hosting platform.
reporting and oversight as the Principal firm but primarily to assist clients in their trade management, risk management, reporting and performance analytics. Fundamentally it is only our direct experience in fund management, fintech and financial services that allowed us to tackle such an ambitious product innovation. Being able to understand the mechanics of a business to such a detailed level we believe sets us apart from other platform providers. We understand client businesses because we have done it ourselves. We know what to focus on. We know what matters.
Our experience and network of partners allows us to provide a comprehensive a la carte menu that can be packaged or tailored accordingly, across multi-asset classes, business models, sectors and jurisdictions. From regulatory solutions to office space, clearer setup to fund administration, back office management to accounting, we can facilitate all elements of our clients’ businesses.
Since I left Morgan Stanley for Met three years ago I have aimed to cultivate an institutional client focused culture and mind-set that is now imbued in everything we do. We believe we provide clients with the most attentive service coupled with a deep dive into their operations. We challenge ourselves to see how regulation can become a competitive advantage rather than an obligation.
It is this experience, commercial focus and attention to detail that makes Met Facilities a leading provider of umbrella services, enabling clients to have appropriate regulatory permissions. We are able to understand businesses quickly and ensure our regulatory hosting solution is tailored accordingly. By outsourcing their compliance obligations and the risk therein to our platform, our clients can be up and running within weeks with all the regulatory permissions required, allowing them to focus on building their business.
This award is a wonderful recognition of our efforts to differentiate ourselves and truly give the client what they need.
We also look beyond regulatory permissions to see how we can support our clients. Among our recent operational innovations has been the development of an in-house Business Intelligence and Order Management System. In conjunction with senior management and our clients, this bespoke product was developed to help improve our
71
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
AI16037
Company: Pacer ETFs Phone: 877-337-0500 Email: info@paceretfs.com Website: http://www.paceretfs.com/
Most Innovative Financial Products 2016
Pacer ETFs Pacer Financial, sponsor of Pacer ETFs, is an award winning investment firm specialising in providing strategy driven Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). We spoke to Sean O’Hara, President of Pacer ETF Distributors, to find out more.
Established in 2015, Pacer ETFs is a young company whose success is based upon the executive board’s vast experience working within the financial sector, which spans over 100 years collectively. My partner, and the firm’s founder, Joe Thomson and I have worked together for over 30 years in the financial distribution and marketing sector, achieving incredible success in our previous venture.
a figure which highlights the market acceptance our products have received. In order to maintain this growth we work closely with many of the leading financial advisory firms in America, with Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and many other investment platforms using our ETFs with their clients.
As such the firm is heavily focused on finding solutions to client problems and then educating our clients on how these products will benefit them, rather than taking the product led approach many of our competitors favour.
Looking to the future, we are keen to expand our product offering and develop new solutions. Our current strategy driven approach, which contrasts strongly with the industry’s focus on obtaining low cost Beta assets, has been successful so far and we are keen to continue with this and build upon our current achievements in the years to come.
Our investment strategy is a good fit for our market, as currently within the U.S. investment industry the main client demographic is the generation colloquially known as ‘Baby Boomers’. This generation has led the industry for several years and continues to be a predominant investor. These clients are now approaching retirement age, and therefore their focus is on high dividend investments which may offer low risk and risk management strategies.
Before investing you should carefully consider the Fund’s investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. This and other information is in the prospectus. A copy may be obtained by visiting www.paceretfs.com or calling 1-877-337-0500. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing.
Fundamentally our approach is ideal for these investors, who have lived through the major recessions in recent years and are keen to diversify their portfolios to complement the current ‘Buy and Hold’ strategy which many fund managers offer, in order to prevent extreme losses should a similar situation occur again. Our Trendpilot investment strategy is to participate in the market as much as possible when it is growing and avoid major declines. The firm began with just three offerings, which has now risen to six, with $625,000,000 in Assets under Management,
Investment products offered are: Not FDIC Insured • No Bank Guarantee • May Lose Value Trendpilot™ is a trademark of Index Design Group, LLC. Distributor: Pacer Financial, Inc., member FINRA, SIPC, an affiliate of Pacer Advisors, Inc
72
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16058
Company: Pacific Life Fund Advisors LLC Name: Ryan Smith, Client Portfolio Manager Email: Ryan.Smith@PacificLife.com Web Address: www.pacificfunds.com Address: 700 Newport Center Dr., Newport Beach, CA 92660 Telephone: (949) 219-4534
Best Total Return Diversified Fund of Funds: Pacific Funds Diversified Alternatives (PLDLX) & Most Innovative Fund of Funds Portfolio Manager – California
Pacific Life Fund Advisors LLC Pacific Life Fund Advisors LLC is a California based investment advisory firm offering a wide range of investment solutions. We spoke to Ryan Smith, Client Portfolio Manager, to find out more.
For over ten years, we have provided global multi-asset solutions through expertise in asset allocation and manager due diligence, and today we manage approximately $38 billion in assets. Our integrated team of investment professionals specializes in applying our global framework to portfolios we manage across active and passive, alternative and traditional, and strategic and dynamic investments. We manage alternative and more traditional strategies for both retail and institutional clients.
pure alpha. This approach can have difficult-to-predict results as manager alphas can sometimes be negatively correlated and cancel out one another or, inversely, become more positively correlated in broad sell-offs. By contrast, our objective is to balance alpha and beta2 across market cycles, which emphasizes the careful selection of absolute return strategies balanced with asset classes suited for different phases of the market cycle. This gives us greater consistency of returns and more control over drawdown and correlation, making it attractive for an investor looking to lower the risk and increase the return potential of their existing portfolio.
Our investment approach is to maintain independent teams responsible for Asset Allocation, Manager Research, and Risk Management and then integrate them through our Investment Committee. The Investment Committee then develops robust views that form our global framework and applies the framework to each portfolio’s investment goal. Specifically, the Asset Allocation team develops target models through investment views rooted in a combination of quantitative and fundamental analysis. Manager Research constructs the portfolio by allocating among managers to align with the target model and to seek to maximize alpha1. Manager Research also travels the world to seek out the managers the team believes to be the best fit for each asset class we utilize. The Risk Management team ensures that the portfolio does not have any unintended exposures by providing scenario analysis and stress testing. The collaboration of these independent teams plays a crucial role at all stages of the investment process. Our approach to alternatives allocation is innovative among multi-strategy or multi-manager alternative funds. Many firms take the approach of putting together alternative managers in a “bundled alpha” package, meaning they select only those managers they believe will generate
73
1
Alpha is a measure of an investment’s performance compared to a benchmark.
2
Beta is a measure of the volatility of a security or portfolio in comparison to the market as a whole.
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
AI16075
Company: Platinum Capital Management Ltd Address: 48 Dover Street Mayfair London W1S 4FF United Kingdom Phone: +44 (0)20 3655 7888 Fax: +44 (0)20 3655 7881 Email: info@platinumfunds.com Website: http://platinumfunds.net
Best Long-Term Multi Manager Fund: Platinum All Star & Best Single Strategy Fund Manager - UK
Platinum Capital Management Ltd Platinum Capital Management Ltd. is a global investment firm that manages single strategy funds and funds of funds for investors worldwide. We explore the investment solutions the firm offers which have led it to become the success it is today.
Founded in 1999, Platinum Capital Management Ltd. is based in London, with affiliate offices in Zurich, Isle of Man, and Los Angeles.
Among the largest and most experienced in the world, this elite group of alternative investment managers have typically maintained consistent track records of success for more than ten years, through complete market cycles, and are entrusted with more than $450 billion in aggregate assets under management – many are now closed to new investors.
Platinum’s expertise in the research, development and implementation of unique alternative investment products derives from the aggregate investment experience of Platinum professionals. Platinum funds offer investors a range of investment strategies built on Platinum’s commitment to delivering quality long-term investment success and a culture which embraces the continual enhancement of its investment selection, asset allocation and ongoing risk management capabilities.
Ultimately, with historically low correlation to bonds and equities, Platinum All Star Fund is well positioned to generate consistent returns going forward as the global investment landscape continues to evolve.
The company is Authorised and Regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Platinum Capital Management (USA) is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as an investment adviser under the U.S. Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Platinum is also member of many prominent industry associations, including AIMA, GARP and HFA, and a number of Platinum funds are registered with the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and are components of the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Hedge Fund Index. The firm’s award winning Platinum All Star is a diversified portfolio of alternative investments handpicked from a universe of the most successful investment managers worldwide.
74
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16027
Company: Portas Capital Ltd. Name: Beat Kunz Web Address: www.portascapital.com Address: Portas Capital Ltd., Kreuzstrasse 82, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland Telephone: +41 44 740 34 22
Best Hedge Fund Portfolio Manager – Switzerland & Award for Innovation in Tailor-Made Private Equity Portfolios
Portas Capital Ltd. Portas Capital is an investment advisor and asset manager based in Switzerland. Beat Kunz talks us through the firm and the services it provides.
Portas Capital are multi-family office and independent wealth manager with domiciles in Zurich, Switzerland. Our clients are predominantly wealthy families, private individuals, pension funds and endowments.
Moving forward, we are expanding our client relationship management team in order to better support our clients. In addition we continue to improve our investment process and selection skills in general. Our portfolio management and analysts’ team are exploring new investment strategies and broadening the universe of markets to be invested in. Geographically, we will expand via the opening of local offices, whilst ensuring that we still offer the same quality services to our clients.
Our hedge fund portfolios invest in funds and construct portfolios only through managed accounts. With the help of portfolio simulations as well as a top-down view by us and the bottom-up risk/return expectation of our client, we tailor-made the various hedge fund portfolios. Additionally, we apply quantitative tools to manage/reduce the risk of the portfolio. Within the private equity investment sector, we select funds which are focused on mid & small cap companies in Europe as we believe in the private sector growing despite all general concerns about Europe. Alongside this, we carefully invest in companies in specific sectors together with our clients. As a mid-size wealth manager we are fast in developing and implementing new innovative investment strategies. Additionally, we can provide competence and access to various frontier markets through partnerships for example, depending on the asset class, which sets us apart from our competitors.
75
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
AI16069
Company: Presidium Partners, LLC Name: Steve Farrell Email: steve.farrell@presidiumpartners.com Web: www.presidiumpartners.com Address: 2400 Camino Ramon, Ste. 178, San Ramon, CA 94583 Telephone: 925-790-0300
Most Sophisticated Multi-Family Office – California & Best Private Capital Investment Team - California
Presidium Partners, LLC Presidium Partners is a wealth manager to high net worth individuals and family foundations. We profile the firm and speak to Managing Partners Steve Farrell and Frank Newsom.
Traditional investments--public equities and bonds--have become increasingly fragile and unstable in recent years, so as fiduciaries and stewards of their clients’ assets, Presidium has turned to direct lending and private capital to mitigate risk and increase returns for client portfolios.
and legal advances. Farrell goes on to state that “In addition to asset protection, we also are mindful of liquidity needs. So we generally seek to cap our investment horizon (lock up) at under two years to maintain liquidity. Only in rare circumstances when an investment has unique merit will we consider going further out.”
Investing in private funds and single transactions on behalf of clients requires an expertise and level of due diligence that far surpasses that required of the traditional wealth manager. Managing partners Steve Farrell and Frank Newsom, graduates of Harvard Business School and The Wharton School respectively, are ideally equipped and committed to unearthing the gems that will protect their clients in the event of a public market dislocation.
The first major tests for their private capital portfolios occurred in August 2015 and Q1 2016, when the equity markets swooned 10+%. In both cases, Presidium Partners’ private capital investments continued to perform with no additional volatility. This was good news to their clients who have come to expect unique solutions from Farrell and Newsom in addressing the risks in today’s markets. Newsom closed the discussion by stating, “We are pleased to receive this award from Wealth & Finance International as it recognizes our efforts made in this space. We believe in time that more wealth managers will recognize the need to diversify into private capital to protect and grow their clients’ capital.”
As Farrell states when asked about the firm’s due diligence efforts; “Finding suitable investments in this space takes time. We look at 100 opportunities to find one that makes sense.” Newsom goes on to say when asked about what they look for when reviewing private investment opportunities. “The private capital we utilize has the enviable traits of returning double digit returns, paid either monthly or quarterly, with standard deviations in the low single digits. We also invest only in funds that have solid collateral coverage with first-lien positions to protect investor assets. Because above all, we want to first protect client capital.” Over the years, Presidium has found eclectic funds in niches such as life settlements, tax deed lending, medical receivables, small business lending, venture debt with warrant coverage and oil and gas royalties. In the direct space, they are currently involved in land transactions
76
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16052
Company: QQM Fund Management AB Name: Andreas Julin / Head of Investor Relations Email: andreas@qqm.se Address: Kungsgatan 44 Telephone: +46 8 407 50 54
Best Systematic Equity Market Neutral Fund (5 Years): QQM Equity Hedge & Best Independent Fund Manager - Sweden
QQM Fund Management AB QQM Fund Management is a fund management firm based in Sweden. We invited Head of Investor Relations Andreas Julin to talk us through the firm’s history and how this contributes to its investment strategy.
Established in 2010 by Ola Björkmo and Jonas Sandefeldt who created QQM Fund Management from the remains of another fund management firm. Ola and Jonas got to know each other at Öhman Kapitalförvaltning where they both worked between 2006 and 2009. Prior to this Ola was one of the founders and portfolio managers of the hedge fund Manticore at Brummer and Partner. Beside working as Portfolio manager and analyst at Öhman, Jonas has had positions as quantitative analyst at the First, Second and Third AP fund, Brummer and Partner.
Another unique feature of our strategy is that all investments are subject to ethical and norm-based screening by ISS Ethix. Very few hedge funds encompass an ESG component making QQM Equity Hedge attractive for investors with ESG and SRI guidelines in their investment policies. Moving forward, our Primary focus is to continue to deliver our investors best possible risk adjusted return. In order to meet investor demand for a EUR and USD share class the fund was just recently converted from an AIF to a Master feeder structure. The Master Feeder structure offers us greater flexibility and it will be easier to facilitate future client needs. As we have received requests for our strategy in the UCITS wrapper, setting up replica with a more generous liquidity profile is something we are evaluating and we look forward to the opportunities the future has in store for us.
QQM Equity Hedge fund pursues a systematic Equity Market neutral strategy. Quantitative models are used to screen a large European investment universe and to rank stocks on specific criteria’s, earnings momentum being one of them. As such the firm is heavily founded on vast experience across the financial landscape. Our investment models are based on behaviour finance principles and are supported by documented academic research and economic principles. These studies have shown that market participants often make mistakes because of cognitive and emotional biases resulting in the mispricing of assets. There are several drivers behind mispricing one of them being that investors often fail to absorb new information quick enough and tend to undershoot on positive company earning signals. Vice versa, market participants tend to continue to hold on to stocks that presents negative earnings data. Why these biases exist are hard to say, but our model attempts to identify and exploit these behaviour fallacies by creating a well-diversified portfolio of long and short candidates. The portfolio has pre-defined volatility target and a beta close to zero. The investment process is disciplined and we never aim to time the market.
77
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
AI16068
Company: Saltus Investment Managers Name: David Cooke Web Address: www.saltus.co.uk Saltus Partners LLP and Saltus Financial Planning Limited are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority
Best Risk Based Multi Asset Investment Managers – UK & Best UK Absolute Return Fund (Since Inception): S&W Saltus Multi-Asset Class Fund
Saltus
Investment Managers
Saltus is an independently owned investment management and financial planning company. We invited David Cooke, Chair of the Investment Committee and Manager of their award winning fund, to tell us more.
Saltus was founded in 2004 with the objective of challenging the norms in the asset management market. Today, Saltus remains an independently owned investment management company, managing and advising assets of over £800m. Our clients are private clients and family groups investing their pensions, trusts, investments and ISAs. Our clients come to us direct, typically through referrals from other clients or are introduced to us through financial advisers, solicitors, accountants and trustees.
Within our industry currently, we believe that the major issue facing investment managers such as ourselves is that we are entering a period of low investment returns and high volatility. This combination challenges managers to not only create adaptive and nimble investment strategies so that they can understand the ‘hows and whys’ of investment decisions better than in the past. Saltus has always aimed to offer complete transparency and for clients, providing regular information for them so that they understand exactly what we are doing with their money.
Our objective is to preserve and grow wealth for our clients over time, irrespective of investing conditions. We do this through risk based, multi-asset class investing, measuring investment risk principally (but not exclusively) by the volatility of portfolio returns over a rolling 36-month period. Our multi-asset portfolios are managed with a choice of distinct “risk budgets”, set with reference to the UK equity market, for example, the Saltus Multi Asset Class Fund targets 33% of UK equity market volatility.
Over the last two years we have launched Saltus Financial Planning to help clients plan their financial futures, which will be key focus as we move forward. We are also looking at ways to improve the client experience, from client take on to reporting.
Once this level of risk has been identified and agreed we construct and manage portfolios and Funds in accordance with this level of risk. It is important to note that although the risk relative to the equity market is fairly stable, the actual asset allocation changes over time. Although identifying and controlling risk is at the heart of what we do, it is necessary to take some risk to capital to generate returns in excess of cash over time. We invest in broad variety of asset classes to generate returns.
80
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16060 Company: Sibilla Capital Management LLC Name: Lorenzo Di Mattia Email: aroggio@sibilla.com Web Address: www.sibillcapital.com Address: 1700 Broadway, 21st floor, New York NY 10019 USA Telephone: +1 2122575700
Most Innovative Discretionary Global Macro Strategy 2016 & Best Global Macro Hedge Fund (3 Years): Sibilla Capital
Sibilla Capital Management LLC Sibilla Capital is a discretionary global macro strategy founded and managed by Lorenzo Di Mattia since its inception in 2007. We spoke to him to find out more about the firm and its investment strategy.
Sibilla Capital manages its fund by employing a disciplined investment process which discovers investment opportunities with asymmetric returns, using an overlay of fundamental and quantitative analysis. Many of our clients are institutional investors, but we also offer a UCITS product that attracts smaller investors.
Ultimately, our independent thinking, unique background, and our investment philosophy allowed us to generate great returns during the most difficult times such as the global economic crisis in 2008. This when many funds are performing at their worst. Our approach is typically more disciplined with respect to quality, therefore we do not invest unless we find exceptional, asymmetric investment opportunities.
Our overall objective is to generate superior risk-adjusted returns in all market conditions. This objective is met by avoiding crowded trades which are identified by relying on our original fundamental research and the fund’s proprietary technical model. At Sibilla we take pride in our strict adherence to our risk management policy. The fund only invests in liquid securities and employs stop-loss positions throughout the portfolio in order to eliminate unintended consequences. The “all-weather” nature of the fund provides investors with significant diversification benefits, as some of the fund’s best returns occurred during periods of severe market dislocation. Currently, a few key challenges we are facing are the onerous and ever-changing regulatory environment and the ongoing intervention in the markets by governments and central banks around the world. To overcome this, we are equipped with state of the art infrastructure with respect to connections, security and technology. We also have top vendors which can support us in serving investors with specific needs they might have. By utilising the latest technology and a collaborative network we are able to ensure that we are always ahead of the market as it evolves.
81
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
AI16098
Company: SimplyBiz Group Name: Dan Russell, Managing Director, SimplyBiz Investment Services Email: D.Russell@SimplyBiz.co.uk Web: www.SimplyBiz.co.uk Address: SimplyBiz Group, John Smiths’ Stadium, Stadium Way, Huddersfield, HD1 6PG Phone: 01484 439100
Best for Compliance & Business Advisory Services – UK & Most Innovative Fund Selection Software: SimplyBiz Investment Services
SimplyBiz Group The SimplyBiz Group was established in 2002 and has grown to be the largest provider of compliance support and business consultancy services for financial services, legal and workplace benefits professionals in the UK. We invited Dan Russell, Managing Director, SimplyBiz Investment Services to talk us through the company and how it has grown since inception.
Through the investment division of the SimplyBiz Group, Verbatim Asset Management, the firm offer a range of solutions including active and passive funds, model portfolios and discretionary portfolio management, all aligned with the advice process, designed to meet client expectations and integrated into front and back office technology. Dan explains how the company has worked hard since inception to ensure clients always receive the best possible investment options.
As his final comment, Dan makes it clear that the company is dedicated to supporting its clients and ensuring that they receive the investment advice, products and support that they require. “Ultimately, our propositions and services are designed with only one question in mind; what would be most useful to our members and the clients they serve? As the largest independent firm of our type, we work only for advisers and their clients, whereas many of our competitors have third party investment which means they are unable to provide balanced and unbiased solutions. Members of the SimplyBiz Group know that any guidance or recommendations it makes are done so without any incentive other than fulfilling their best interests.”
“Whilst the Group has grown exponentially in strength and scale since inception, we have never lost sight of our core vision; to ensure that every decision we make benefits the individuals and businesses that use our services and, in turn, their clients. “We help advisers power a compliant and profitable investment service for their clients. We make award winning planning tools available to firms to ensure advisers can robustly assess risk and keep their clients’ goals as a golden thread throughout the advice process. The integration of planning tools, back office technology and platforms increases business efficiency and allows increased focus on client relationships. We then curate a supply chain of leading investment solutions that work for the adviser, as part of their process, to deliver the mandate handed down by the adviser.
82
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16088
Company: Spell Capital Partners, LLC Name: William Spell Web Address: www.spellcapital.com Address: 222 S 9th St, Suite 2880, Minneapolis, MN 55402 Telephone: 612-371-9650
Best Mezzanine Capital Manager – USA & Best New Private Equity Buyout Fund 2016: Spell Capital Partners, Fund V
Spell Capital Partners, LLC Spell Capital Partners, LLC is an established manager of private equity and mezzanine capital with a history of providing strong returns. We profile the firm and explore the services it provides in this area.
Spell Capital was founded in 1988, and is one of the oldest private equity firms in Minnesota. The firm principals average 20+ years of leveraged buyout investing, and have successfully invested together for over 15 years.
Spell also has established relationships with professional advisors and service providers, so they are always working with people they know and trust and are able to move through due diligence quickly, seeking to verify the information they have been provided as opposed to looking for reasons to make a purchase price reduction. Intermediaries trust Spell for certainty of close, not to re-trade deals, and to work to close transactions in the most efficient manner possible.
Since inception, Spell has successfully raised five private equity funds and one SBIC mezzanine fund and has expanded from just two employees to a team of 20 professionals today.
Spell Capital is currently in the process of investing Spell Capital Partners Fund V, which launched in September 2015 with a fundraising goal of $50.0 million. The fund is currently oversubscribed, and will likely close around $70.0 million before the end of 3Q16. This Fund has a ten-year life and Spell anticipates investing in lower-middle market industrial manufacturing businesses. Additionally, Spell is investing out of its first mezzanine fund, and will likely raise a second mezzanine fund in the next 12 – 24 months.
The firm has completed 30 platform equity investments and more than 120 total transactions. On average, Spell completes 10 – 15 transactions per year between its mezzanine and private equity funds. Spell’s historical private equity investments have yielded cumulative aggregate returns of 26.3% gross IRR and a 2.47x cash-on-cash multiple as a result of its partners’ deep expertise in acquisitions and financing and ability to collaborate with management teams to grow businesses both internally and through add-on acquisitions. Spell Capital works with a wide variety of investors, including high net worth individuals, family offices, and institutions. Considering Spell’s successful 28-year track record, the firm has developed an extensive deal flow network and evaluates over 1,000 opportunities each year, many of which are proprietary. Intermediaries seek out Spell because of their certainty to close and outstanding reputation in the industry. As a result of existing long standing relationships with a multitude of financial institutions that can provide debt financing to support transactions, Spell is able to quickly and efficiently close transactions, which is appealing to both the intermediary and the seller.
83
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
AI16086
Company: StatPro Name: Neil Smyth Email: neil.smyth@statpro.com Web Address: www.statpro.com Address: Mansel Court, Mansel Road, Wimbledon, London, SW19 4AA Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8410 8747
Best Portfolio Analysis Software
Stat Pro StatPro is a global provider of award winning portfolio analytics solutions for the investment community. We speak to Neil Smyth, Marketing and Technology Director, about the innovative services the firm provides.
StratPro’s flagship product is a cloud-based platform that provides vital analysis of portfolio performance, attribution, risk and compliance. This multi-asset class analytics platform helps StatPro’s clients increase assets under management, improve client service, meet tough regulations and reduce costs.
Neil adds that the firm has a number of exhilarating plans for the future which will help it to better support its clients. “Moving forward, we will continue to develop our cloud-based platform to ensure that we’re delivering a truly scalable and functionally rich solution to our clients. We are launching StatPro Revolution Performance in Q3 2016 and this extension to the Revolution platform brings unparalleled power to the performance measurement process for asset managers of all sizes. We continue to integrate the Investor Analytics risk product into the Revolution platform after the acquisition of this New York-based cloud vendor in January 2016. The combination of StatPro’s historical risk model and extensive asset coverage with IAs Monte-Carlo and factor based risk analytics makes for a very powerful risk offering within the platform. We also continue to migrate clients from our on premise and hosted StatPro Seven product to the cloud-based Revolution platform, as we add more and more functionality bringing complete performance and risk management into a single system.”
Neil explains how the firm has grown immensely since establishment and how the firm is continuing to develop its service offering to better support clients. “StatPro has grown its annualized recurring revenue from less than £1 million in 1999 to around £32 million today (including Investor Analytics on a pro forma basis). The Group has operations in Europe, North America, South Africa, Asia and Australia, with hundreds of clients in 38 countries around the world. Approximately 80% of recurring revenues are generated outside the UK, and its shares are listed on AIM, highlighting how far the firm has come since inception. “However, we do not rest on our laurels. StatPro continues to work with the latest technology. We believe that combining the best technology with our in-depth industry knowledge is what makes us special and sets us apart from the competition. During 2015, we upgraded many components of our private cloud platform including the core network, which is at the heart of any system. In 2016, we are replacing the server hardware in our datacenters with more compact, more cost efficient hardware that will run the analytics engines, databases and web servers for StatPro Revolution Analytics.”
84
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16092
Company: Stratton Street Capital LLP Address: 200 Aldersgate Street, London, EC1A 4HD Phone: +44 207 7660 888 Fax: +44 207 7660 860 Email: sales@strattonstreet.com Website: http://www.strattonstreet.com/
Best Fixed Income Fund Management Specialists – UK & Best Asia Pacific Fixed Interest Fund (5 Years): Renminbi Bond Fund
Stratton Street Capital LLP Stratton Street is a London based fund management and advisory company founded in August 2000, specialising in fixed income markets. We profile the firm and explore its award winning Renminbi Bond Fund.
Stratton Street’s investment approach screens countries by their ability to repay debt, using the firm’s net foreign assets (NFA) model, and then credits are evaluated based on value for money and fundamentals of the credit. The company see this as a return to fundamentals of credit analysis for fixed income, rather than the indexed approach used by most other funds which encourages lending to heavily indebted countries like Greece and Ukraine.
Bond Fund. The fund is fully hedged into the renminbi. In addition to the USD class, currency classes are also available with exposure to sterling, Singapore dollars, the euro, the Swiss franc, the Australian dollar, Japanese yen and a Chinese renminbi class. The fund sits in a Guernsey PCC structure and is listed on the Irish Stock Exchange, with daily dealing.
Investing in fixed income based on index weights simply means having to buy more of a country or company’s debt as it becomes more indebted. The firm’s approach screens out the countries that are dangerously indebted, so our funds have never invested in Greece, Spain, Portugal or Ukraine. Instead Stratton Street have invested in the wealthy countries that in net terms are creditors internationally, not debtors. These countries include Germany, China, Norway, the Netherlands, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Korea. Launched in November 2007, Stratton Street’s award winning Renminbi Bond Fund provides investors with a relatively high income while enabling investors to gain exposure to the dynamic growth of the Chinese economy through bond and currency investments. The Fund has the same management team it has had since it was launched in November 2007. The strategy is the same mix of a top down strategy of only investing in wealthy nations (limited to Asia) that can repay their debt, combined with a bottom up credit analysis looking for underlying value that is used in the New Capital Wealthy Nations
85
wealth&finance2016
awards
alternativeinvestment
AI16030
Company: Synchrony Value Fund LP Website: http://synchronycapital.com/ Phone: 857-265-6753
Best Multi-Strategy Investment Management Boutique 2016 – USA & Best Option Strategies/Managed Futures Fund: Synchrony Value Fund
Synchrony Value Fund LP Synchrony Capital is a boutique investment management firm which offers the Synchrony Value Fund, a multi strategy fund offering unparalleled returns. We caught up with Founding Partner and Portfolio Manager Eric Lyons and Partner Michael Robinson to find out more about this innovative fund and its investment strategy.
Launched in 2012, the Synchrony Value Fund is dedicated to providing our investors with strong, risk adjusted returns. Our overall aim is to beat the stock markets and double our investors’ returns every five years.
We will continue to focus on the core strategies which have made the firm successful, as well as cultivating our attention on neuro-economics: the study of investor physiology and how sentiment affects investors’ decisions. Our CEO Paul Lyons, MD, PhD, has researched topics such as this for many years and it is fascinating to incorporate these ideas into our work.
In order to achieve this ambitious target, we operate a dual armed strategy, one focused on options and the other in the futures market. These two strategies are completely uncorrelated despite investing in the same asset classes, ensuring that clients’ investments are not exposed to unnecessary market risk. We are highly sensitive to changes in the market and have offices based in both Massachusetts and Virginia, providing us with two key locations which are both close to major financial hubs. Our innovative strategy, alongside the flexibility we achieve by being a small company, has enabled us to provide returns which have been far superior to our competitors’ in recent years. In 2015 we provided clients with 42% return on investment, and 2016 looks set to be even more as successful, with our current return standing at 29%. Currently the clients we serve are predominantly single investors and high net worth individuals, but our repeated success has gained the attention of the institutional investment market, family offices, and financial institutions.
86
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI16024 Company: TVM Capital Healthcare Partners Ltd. Name: Dr. Helmut M. Schuehsler, CEO Email: brandstatter@tvm-capital.ae Web: http://www.tvm-capital.ae/ Address: DIFC Gate Village, Building 4 PO Box 113355, Dubai, UAE Telephone: +971 (4) 401 9568 / +971 (4) 439 0220
Best Healthcare PE Fund Manager – MENA & Best MENA Healthcare Fund: MENA I
TVM Capital
Healthcare Partners Ltd.
TVM Capital Healthcare Partners is a specialist private equity investor that focuses on meeting gaps in healthcare provision in emerging markets, including the Middle East, North Africa, India and Southeast Asia. CEO Dr. Helmut M. Schuehsler provides us with a unique insight into the firm and the investment options it provides.
TVM Capital Healthcare Partners was established in Dubai in 2007 as part of the TVM Capital Group, an affiliation of global venture capital and private equity firms with an operating track-record of over 30 years.
Currently the firm is raising its third fund, TVM Healthcare III, which will invest in up to 12 healthcare companies in opportunities in Emerging Markets, including the MENA region, India and select Southeast Asian countries, providing TVM Capital Healthcare Partners with exciting future opportunities. In addition a number of highly attractive investment opportunities in all three regions have already been identified, enabling the firm to expand in the coming months and gain valuable new experience and knowledge.
The company was born out of the recognition of significant potential in healthcare investment in emerging markets, because rising incomes and, in some areas, aging populations mean that developed-country diseases are becoming more prevalent and government services are being stretched. At the same time, patients and policy makers are keen to raise the quality of healthcare provision. To establish a presence, firstly in the UAE and then further afield, it was necessary to develop a new licensing and payments regime. And to thrive, it was necessary to demonstrate that the care provided was as good as, if not even better than that provided in countries such as Germany and the United States.
HealtHcare Partners
The process of value creation was therefore holistic – and included building strategic partnerships with world-renowned Spaulding Rehabilitation Network and Joslin Diabetes Center to deliver the highest quality of care. The result was the provision of expert clinical care and therapy through a patient-centric approach, with a high ratio of carers to residents. An investment made by TVM Capital Healthcare Partners in 2010, and which we exited in 2015, is an excellent example of these dynamics at work. ProVita International Medical Center essentially created the long-term care market in the UAE and, with private equity investment, became the foremost provider of acute, ventilated care in the region.
87