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welcome
to the 2016 Hedge Fund Awards
The Hedge Fund industry has evolved at a dizzying pace over the course of the last decade, and with it, the demand for increasingly innovative strategies and the desire for speedier and more secure returns. With competition for investor capital increasing over the past 12 months, fund managers from around the world have seen the Hedge Fund industry undergoing drastic and far-reaching changes. Statistics show that, with over 15,000 Hedge Funds currently open in the marketplace, investors face an increasingly challenging decision-making process, which could have severe ramifications with regards to future growth. Additionally, investors are becoming increasingly wary of risk and market volatility, forcing many fund managers to re-think their investment strategy. Although these may seem like serious challenges, the Hedge Fund industry is notoriously resilient, and it is for this reason that, for the fourth year running, the 2016 Hedge Fund Awards have sought out the top funds and their managers from across the sector, profiling them in detail and exploring just what it is that has taken them to the top of their market.
contents 6. Candriam Investors Group has won Award for Excellence in Alternatives 2016 & Pan-European Multi Specialist Asset Manager of the Year & Pan-European Multi-Specialist Asset Manager of the Year 8. Candriam Investors Group has won Systematic Fund- Candriam Investors Group 10. Candriam Investors Group has won High Yield & Credit Arbitrage Management - Candriam Investors Group 12. Candriam Investors Group has won Alternative Strategies - Candriam Investors Group 14. AD Capital Management Hong Kong Limited has won Best Boutique Asset Manager - Hong Kong 16. APS Asset Management has won Best Long/Short Asset Manager - Singapore & Most Consistent Asian L/S Fund: APS Asia Pacific Long Short Fund 17. Argonaut Capital Partners has won Best Offshore Fund: Argonaut Pan European Alpha 18. ArthVeda Fund Management has won Best Long-Bias Equity Strategy - Smart Alpha ArthVeda Capital - Long Bias Asset Manager of the Year - India, Best for Alpha Generation: Investment Grade Equity™ & Best for UHNI & Family Offices: Smart Alpha 20. Ayaltis AG has won Best Independent FoHF Manager - Switzerland & Best Relative Value Opportunities FoHF (3 Years): Areca SICAV SIF - Value Discovery 22. Carlisle Management Company has won Fund Manager of the Year 2016 & Award for Excellence in Fund Structuring - Luxembourg 24. Castle Hall Alternatives has won Best Global Operational Due Diligence Firm 2016 26. Check Fund Manager has won Best Operational Diligence Background Investigation Report Database 28. Hathersage Capital Management has won Best Absolute Return Currency Specialist - USA 30. Merrion Investment Managers has won Best Active Fund Manager - Ireland & Best Global Macro Fund (1 Year): Merrion High Alpha Fund (RIAIF) 32. Paris Capital Relative Value Fund has won Best Volatility Hedge Fund Manager - UK & Best Market Neutral Hedge Fund: Paris Capital Relative Value Fund 34. Sterling Financial Group Inc. has won Best Fixed Income Mortgage Backed Fund (Since Inception): NPIF 36. Tarcan Capital, LLC has won Most Innovative Investment Advisor - Illinois & Best US Global Macro Hedge Fund (Since Inception): Eagle Rock Investments LLC 38. Timberline Fund, LP has won Best Early-Stage Investment Fund (Since Inception): Timberline Fund, LP 40. 50 South Capital has won Best for Multi-Manager Hedge Fund Portfolio Solutions - USA 41. AC Investment Management LLC has won Best Commodities FoHF Manager - USA & Best Commodities FoHF (Since Inception): AGR Master 42. Advent Capital Management, LLC has won Best Capital Structure Arbitrage Portfolio Manager - USA & Best Convertible Arbitrage Fund (1 Year): Advent Hedged Convertible Fund 43. Allianz Global Investors GmbH has won Best European Market-Neutral Manager 2016 & Best European Long/Short Equity Fund: Allianz Discovery Europe Strategy 44. Anchin, Block & Anchin LLP has won Best Hedge Fund Accountants 2016 - USA 45. Armstrong Investment Managers LLP has won Top 5 Global Multi-Asset Fund- FP Distinction Diversified Real Return 46. Barington Capital Group has won Best Long-Term Activist Investor - USA & Best Activist Fund (Under $1bn): Barington Companies Equity Partners, L.P. 47. BCM & Partners SA has won Best Swiss Credit Fund: Steli Fixed Income Opportunism Fund (EUR) 48. Boothbay Fund Management has won Emerging Hedge Fund Manager of the Year - USA & Best Emerging Multi-Strategy Fund (Since Inception): Boothbay Multi Strategy Fund 49. Core Capital Management has won Most Innovative Alternative Investment Firm 2016 - USA & Best Speciality Credit FoHF: Core Classic 51. C-QUADRAT Investment AG has won Best Independent Asset Manager - Austria & Best Absolute Return Fund (Since Inception): C-QUADRAT Absolute Return ESG Fund 52. DIX HILLS PARTNERS, LLC has won Award for Innovation in Global Interest Rate Alpha & Best Global Interest Rates Fund: DHP Absolute Return Strategies 54. Epic Partners Investments Co., Ltd has won Best Hedge Fund Manager – Japan 56. Federated Investors has won Best Alternatives & Managed-Risk Investment Group - USA & Best Variable Annuity Fund: Federated Managed Volatility Fund II 58. Finlabo Investments Sicav has won Best UCITS IV Collective Investment Scheme - Luxembourg & Best European Equities Fund: Finlabo Dynamic Equity 59. Finser International Corporation has won Best Fund Manager 2016 - Florida & Best Event-Driven Hedge Fund (2 Years): Corfiser Simi Fund 60. FTM Limited has won Most Consistent Offshore Fixed Income Fund & Most Dynamic Investment Product 2016 61. Fundadministration, Inc has won Best Full-Service Administrator 2016 - USA 62. Gatemore Capital Management has won Best Boutique Firm - UK & Best for Manager Selection - UK 63. Genesis Fund Services Ltd. has won Best for Boutique Administrative Services - Bahamas
64. Gen2 Partners Limited has won Best Asia Pacific Multi-Strategy Hedge Fund Manager, Best Asian Multi-Strategy Hedge Fund: KS Asia Absolute Return Fund IC & Best Asian Credit Hedge Fund: KS Korea Credit Fund 1IC 66. Gratia Capital LLC has won Best Emerging Manager 2016 - California 67. Greenhaven Road Capital Fund 1 has won Best Long Biased Emerging Manager 68. Harmonic Fund Services has won Best Hedge Fund Administrator 69. Hyperion Capital Advisors has won Award for Innovation in Systematic Strategies & Most Sustainable Quantitative Strategy Fund: Helios Fund 70. HELSINKI CAPITAL PARTNERS has won Best Multi-Strategy Asset Manager - Finland (HCP Black Fund) & Best New Sustainability Fintech (#HCPSPIRIT) 72. Imagine Software, Inc. has won Best Risk Management Product 2016 70. Independent UCITS Platform has won Best Fund Management Boutique & Best Emerging Market Focused Fund: Prodigy Asia & Emerging Markets Fund 74. Jabre Capital Partners SA has won Best Alternative Investment Manager - Switzerland 75. Jabre Capital Partners SA has won Best Long/Short Emerging Markets Fund: JABCAP EMEA Master Fund Limited 76. KPMG has won Best Hedge Fund Adviser - Ireland 77. lecocqassociate has won Best Swiss Banking Law Firm 2016 & Recognised Leader in Regulatory Finance Law - Switzerland 78. Ledgex Systems has won Best New Hedge Fund CRM Platform: Ledgex CRM 79. LionGuard Capital Management Inc. has won Best Long/Short Equity Manager - Canada & Best Canadian Long/Short Equity Fund (1 Year): LionGuard Opportunities Fund LP 80. Little Harbor Advisors has won Most Innovative Multi-Manager Fund 2016 & Recognised Leaders in Bespoke Composites - USA 81. LoPresti Law Group has won Best Securities Law Firm 2016 82. Lutetia Capital has won Best French Index Arbitrage/Multi Strategy Arbitrage Strategy: Lutetia Absolute Return & Best Volatility Arbitrage Strategy: Lutetia Volatility Advantage II Index & UCITS Fund 84. Luxembourg Fund Partners has won Best for Integrated Investment Fund Services - Luxembourg & Best UCITS Platform 2016 - Luxembourg 85. Macro Currency Group has won Best Currency & Macro Absolute Return Boutique - UK & Sustained Excellence in Currency Absolute Return Strategies 86. Moore Stephens has won Best Hedge Fund Accountancy Firm - UK & Hedge Funds Advisory Provider of the Year – UK 88. NAV Fund Administration Group has won Most Trusted Hedge Fund Administrator - USA & Recognised Leader in Multi-Advisor Platforms & Complexes 90. Oaks Field Partners has won Best Diversified Fund: OFP Optimal Value 91. Oesa Limited has won Best Niche Hedge Fund Consultancy 2016 92. Optima Fund Management has won Recognised Leader in Multi-Manager Hedge Fund Programs & Best International Equity Fund (3 Years): Optima Partners Focus 93. Orchard Global Asset Management has won Best Alternatives Asset Management Firm - Singapore & Best Credit Opportunities Fund (Since Inception): ChapelGate 94. Pavlik Capital Management LLC has won Best US Relative Value Fund: Pavlik Capital Partners LLC & Best Relative Value Manager – USA 95. Peak Core Hedge has won Best Asset Management Firm - Sweden & Best Market Neutral Fund-of-Funds (Since Inception): Peak Core Hedge 96. PEAQ Capital Strategies, LLC has won Recognised Leader in Managed Futures Quantitative Strategies & Best Quantitative Managed Futures Strategy 2016 97. Portas Capital AG has won Swiss Multi-Family Office of the Year & Best European FoF Portfolio Manager 2016 98. Pulteney Street Capital Management has won Best Multi-Strategy Fund Manager - 2016 & Best Ideas Fund of Hedge Funds: Pulteney Premier Fund, LP 99. QRMO has won Recognised Leader in Quality Risk Management Operations - Asia Pacific 100. Quotidian Investments LLP has won Best UK Balanced Fund - The Quotidian Fund PCC PLC & Overall Multi-Asset Fund; The Quotidian Fund 102. Red Rock Capital has won Best Tactical Commodities Portfolio Manager 104. Rivemont Investments has won Best Portfolio Management Firm - Quebec & Best New North American Hedge Fund: Rivemont Absolute Return Class F 105. Rotella Capital Management has won Best Diversified Investment Manager - USA & Best Diversified Trend Fund: Rotella Polaris Program 106. smn INVESTMENT SERVICES GMBH has won Best Systematic Manager - Europe & Best Diversified Futures Fund (Since Inception): SMN Diversified Futures Fund 107. STI Financial Group has won Best FX Arbitrage Fund (5 Years): Spectra SPC - Powerfund 108. Sycomore Asset Management has won Best Independent Investment Managers - France & Best French Equity Long/Short Fund: Sycomore L/S Opportunities 109. Taiga Fund Management AS has won Best Small Cap Investment Manager - Norway & Best Specialist Equity Hedge Fund: Taiga Fund 110. Third Eye Capital has won Best for Customized Lending Solutions - Canada & Best Private Debt Hedge Fund (5 Years): Third Eye Capital Credit Opportunities Fund - Insight Fund 111. Tomas Capital Pty Ltd. (GCAF) has won Best for Antifragile Trading - Australia & Best Managed Futures Fund (1 Year): Global Capital Allocation Fund 112. TrendConcept Vermoegensverwaltung GmbH has won Best Systematic Managed Futures Fund - Trend Concept Fund Multi Asset Allocator 113. Trigon Investment Advisors has won Best Discretionary Alternative Investment Manager - New York 114. Yulish & Associates has won Best for Fund Accounting - USA
http://www.acquisition-intl.com/hedge-fund-awards
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Award for Excellence in Alternatives 2016 & Pan-European Multi-Specialist Asset Manager of the Year
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Candriam Investors Group is a leading pan-European multi-specialist asset manager. As part of series of enlightening articles on the firm, CIO Fabrice Cuchet provides us with an insight into the firm and its work.
Company: Candriam Investors Group Web: www.candriam.com
Candriam is a pioneer in absolute return investments, having launched our first alternatives product in 1996. Today, 20 years later, we remain at the forefront of the industry with leading investment solutions and a total of 7bn Euros of assets under management in alternative products. Over the last two decades we have developed both UCITS and non-UCITS funds to help diversify the portfolios within our absolute returns strategy and have launched, on average, new a strategy every 18 months since then. Our first alternative investment fund was a convertible bond fund which was launched in 1996 by Naim Abou-JaoudÊ, our current CEO. I joined the firm in 1999 to launch the Long Short Equity process and became the firm’s CIO in 2006. Throughout this time I have seen the firm grow, thanks both to its individual boutique culture and dedication to the continual development of its fund managers. We strive to develop products for the varied and evolving needs of our clients and operate risk frameworks which are tailored their specific requirements. Our particular focus is on low and mid-volatility investment solutions that offer a good alternative both to bond and equity investing. This transparent, client-centric approach to product development helps ensure that investors are always satisfied with result. Our product range is very diversified and includes; long short credit, convertible bonds, long short equity, index arbitrage, risk arbitrage, global macro and CTAs. Each of these areas provides clients with different risk/return profiles and investment strategies. Whilst high returns are important, liquidity, which ensures these can be paid out, is also key. At Candriam we have adopted a credulous approach to liquidity since day one, offering solutions with daily, weekly or monthly liquidity across the range, putting us truly ahead of the rest of our industry. Another integral part of ensuring consistency and transparency for clients is take good care of our people. Excellent investment managers are vital to long term success in our industry and, as such, we work extremely hard to secure and retain the best in the business. The result of our strong focus on people is that, of the 45 fund managers in the alternatives business at Candriam, the majority have worked together for 15 years or more. We have gone through a number of challenging periods together, meaning we know and understand each other’s personalities and working methods. I truly value the strong professional relationships I have with my managers, as it makes working together both more effective and more enjoyable. Another important aspect of our organisational design is that our teams are relatively small, enabling them to work more cohesively and concentrate solely on their funds - defined predominantly by asset class. Each team is dedicated to just one investment process, creating a unique boutique culture which is almost unheard of in a large, diversified asset management firm such as ours. Supporting our investment managers, we also have an equity finance team which manages collateral and securities lending, an integral part of our firm which ensures that each investment team has enough cash to cover its investments at all times. In conjunction, a three-person quantitative research team work transversally with all fund managers to help identify new investment opportunities. I truly believe that the combination of our culture, organisational design and proximity to our clients is unique within our industry and is the reason for our success and longevity of our alternatives business. We offer an alternative to bond investment through our diversified portfolio which provides our investors with choice, something which is always welcome within the finance industry.
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Systematic Fund- Candriam Investors Group
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As part of an exclusive series of interviews with this innovative and exciting asset management firm, we speak to Steeve Brument, Head of systematic funds at Candriam.
Company: Candriam Investors Group Web: www.candriam.com
Candriam was one of the first firms in France and possibly in Europe to offer CTA strategies, which we first started in 1997, and CTA is now the main products offered within our systematic strategy. This strategy can be difficult for some investors to truly understand and therefore has often been viewed with suspicion. However, it grew in popularity following the 2008 global recession when the diversification benefits of CTAs became apparent with many funds posting strong gains in what was a very difficult year for most traditional asset classes. This trend was further supported by the strong continued performance of CTAs throughout the recession, highlighting the ability of systematic strategies to perform well in even in a poor investment market. In the 15 years I have worked for Candriam we have never stopped innovating and were one of the first to diversify from traditional ‘trend following’ by mixing this approach with pattern recognition and ‘counter trend’ models as well as being among the first to offer a CTA in UCITS wrapper. We have continued to stay ahead of the industry even as CTA products became more popular and at the end of 2014 we launched an innovative long-short equity global diversified strategy to take advantage of our strong expertise in exploiting market inefficiencies. Our approach toward innovation has allowed us to be more resilient than most of the CTA industry. Indeed in the aftermath of the financial crisis, many CTAs suffered from the very low market volatility, whereas our diversification both in term in strategies and risk allocation was key in delivering positive return in these difficult years such as 2009, 2011 and even 2015. In this very competitive market, being well established within the industry and being part of solid group with a AAA shareholder such New York Life is definitively an advantage. For the firm specifically, there are a number of exciting changes on the horizon, particularly involving our growing investor base, particularly across the US market. CTA’s strong performance over recent years has shown its potential and therefore many more US pension funds and investment institutions are looking towards this market, providing us with potential growth. The key for us will always be to provide our investors with uncorrelated return ultimately giving them a more attractive and resilient return over the long term. Our strategy needs a certain level of volatility to shine and we believe that the current market environment offers just those conditions.
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High Yield & Credit Arbitrage Management - Candriam Investors Group
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In this gripping series on how Candriam is changing the face of the alternative investment market Philippe Noyard, Head of High Yield & Credit Arbitrage Management and his Deputy, Patrick Zeenni provide us with an in-depth overview of their fund and the market it operates in.
Candriam has operated in high yield market since 1999 and we implemented our long-short strategies after the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2009. We have two absolute returns strategies. Our team is growing, with a diverse group of staff from various backgrounds with many of them that have been working together for many years. Today there eight of us working in the high yield and credit arbitrage management team. There are three main pillars to our investment approach. The first pillar is something we call our ‘helicopter view’ approach to the market. This essentially means ensuring we have a full global picture on our market to help us spot the best opportunities and trends enabling greater flexibility in our investments.
Company: Candriam Investors Group Web: www.candriam.com
The second pillar is our active and high conviction management. We are continually assessing the value of each investment in our portfolio and will look to increase the weight of these positions in-line with our increased conviction. Finally the third pillar is our disciplined risk management approach, which seeks to limit the key risks: macro risks; through dynamic tail risk hedging, and micro (idiosyncratic) risks; through strong sell discipline. We also always look at the underlying sovereign risk of any issuer. Currently, it is a good time to invest in high yield products, especially to benefit from high dispersion through active long/ short strategies. The high yield market is growing at a fast pace, as it is more and more diversified with increased number of players. Selectivity is more than ever needed, creating opportunities for us. Our mid-volatility strategy – Candriam bonds credit opportunities – has delivered over 5 years the same returns as a high yield market, with only 50% of the maximum drawdown of the high yield market and witch one third less volatility. We focus on delivering superior risk adjusted returns even in a volatile environments. Owing to our success we have won a number of awards from across the financial industry, which highlights how our three tiered approach is providing strong returns for our investors and bringing us industry acclaim. Working in a changeable market such as ours we always endeavour to be reactive to the market and are set up for all market conditions, which puts us in a strong position in today’s credit markets. Our strategy is designed to extract consistent alpha in credit markets, it offers good performance potential in a negative rate environment, along with disciplined risk management which is particularly key in today’s highly dispersed and volatile environment.
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Alternative Strategies - Candriam Investors Group
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In the last of our series of articles on this industry defining company we discuss the firm’s index arbitration work with its Deputy Head of Alternative Strategies Emmanuel Terraz, who has a strong background in this sector.
Company: Candriam Investors Group Web: www.candriam.com
In 2003 when I joined Candriam we noticed that there were an increasing number of index funds in the market, all of which are forced to buy and sell the stocks the same stocks at the same time in order to track their respective indices. This presented an ideal opportunity for market and pricing inefficiencies and therefore we created our index arbitrage fund that same year to capitalise on them. Index arbitrage exploits the fact that index funds are benchmarked to an equity index and therefore each time stock is added or removed from an index, these funds are also required to buy or sell the stock, creating significant volume of buys and sells in the market which often lead to large swings in price. Our fund seeks to take advantage of those alterations in price through a market neutral approach, exploiting the convergence or divergence in price. We target the main equity indices worldwide, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 etc. The fund is structured to work with low volatility, with the bulk the fund being pure cash. We have 20% long and 20% short invested in the index arbitrage strategy. Currently we have 1.2bn Euros in assets under management and have had a sharpe ratio of 1.3 since inception, which is considered strong performance. To achieve this our philosophy is to view index rebalancing arbitrage as a business of its own. We were pioneers in this area, as many firms previously viewed arbitrage as an aspect of other investments rather than an investment strategy in its own right. Now it has become a more mainstream aspect of investing, and we are at the forefront of the industry. Our fund is managed by a team of just three, all of whom have strong and experienced backgrounds. Our investment approach is a mixture of quantitative and qualitative investing. This is unusual in our industry, as often funds are either purely quantitative, and take a systematic approach to viewing the markets through their technology, or they are focused on qualitative investing and are dedicated to meeting with the management in the businesses they invest in to gain a thorough understanding of the firm’s prospects. We combine these approaches, which requires a very varied skillset but does reduce the risk of error by splitting the responsibility between the human brain and our technology. Many of our competitors only have one set of skills which they use to their full advantage, but we are able to combine these which creates a far superior level of market understanding. This is because each approach relies on a different asset; either the human brain or technology. Neither of these is infallible but they are complimentary, and by combining these approaches we are unique. This is particularly important to us because in the financial industry a lot of firms copy each other, but by being unique we have fewer competitors and are able to offer our investors a more individual service. This individual approach extends to our qualitative risk solution, which looks at every long-short position, and to always imagine the worst case scenario for each position we take and calibrate the position. This ensures that if this scenario happens we know how the portfolio would look. We then check that there is no specific risk that has been introduced, for example delta risk, which we cannot have in the portfolio as it is delta hedged. Overall the key to our department’s success is that it has been delivering long term returns for the last twelve years. I am fully accountable to our investors, and am keen to ensure they are always kept informed of the developments within the fund. As a company we are always looking to the long term, which is quite unique within our industry as often firm’s focus on short term gains. This has been our CEO’s strategy for all the previous years and I am grateful he has allowed us to follow this path.
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Best Boutique Asset Manager - Hong Kong
~ Established in 2004, AD Capital Management (Hong Kong) Limited, formerly known as Apex Capital Management (Hong Kong) Limited, is dedicated to utilising their strong performance history for the benefit of their investors.
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Company: AD Capital Management (Hong Kong) Limited Website: www.adcapital.com.hk Address: Level 10 Central Building, 1-3 Pedder Street Central, Hong Kong Phone: +852 3958 2861
The firm was founded by Tat AuYeung, a veteran fund manager with over 25 years of experience in the equity investment industry. In 2012, the firm was restructured, and both the firm and their flagship fund were rebranded as AD, which means anno domini; rich and abundant. The fund’s primary aim is to provide investors with returns which reflect this translation. Since 2013 the investment team has been led by portfolio manager Benjamin Cheng, in close partnership with the firm’s senior trader Gloria Kwok. Benjamin and Gloria have been with the firm for seven and nine years respectively, and as such, together with Tat, they draw on their wealth of experience to help them make the best decisions for their investors. Tat explains the firm’s overall aims and gives us an overview of the company’s flagship fund. “It is our aim to provide investors with access to the China equity market via our low-volatility fund, which comes with capital protection. The firm’s flagship fund, AD Greater China Alpha Fund (formerly known as Apex Greater China Directional Fund), was launched in 2005. “The fund’s core investment strategy is long/short equity trading, capitalizing on the inefficiencies presented by fundamental, tactical and event-driven catalysts. In light of macro environment developments, directional strategy may be used as well. A proprietary risk management system and dynamic exposure management are widely used across all categories to further enhance returns, as well as to mitigate the high volatility inherent in China equity market. Cross-border trading is employed as part of the strategy, and as a means to hedge. In addition the fund may also be hedged with local and non-local derivatives.” To enhance the scalability of their investment strategies, Tat points out that they have been investing mainly in mid- and large-cap stocks with ample trading liquidity. Since moving onto the international financial stage in approximately 1997, the Chinese market has been characterized by boom/bust cycles and wide vacillations in investor sentiment. Benjamin explains how the fund works around this fluctuating market to provide strong returns for investors. “The fund is designed to minimize volatility despite investing in markets known for their high volatility. To achieve this, exposure is dynamically adjusted to enhance returns during high-conviction scenarios and to minimize losses during adverse market conditions. “Using our strong industry knowledge, we identify business drivers across different industries and then employ a proprietary systematic approach, to search for fundamental catalysts that may potentially alter those business drivers, we thus buy and short-sell shares to capitalize on the mispricing of securities. Benjamin adds that the firm encounters both tactical and event-driven catalysts when investing in such an evolving market, but that they have a number of strategies to help them deal with these effectively and for the benefit of their investors. “Since our inception we have seen inefficiencies arise from time to time in Greater China securities market, mostly due to various technical constraints. Those inefficiencies demonstrate repetitive patterns. Therefore the success of our strategy hinges on the identification of such constraints and the resulting repetitive patterns, as well as back-testing. “Additionally, drawing on our established networks with various brokers, we participate in short-term opportunistic investments arising from events because we understand the market dynamics. On reflection the past year has been particularly positive for the firm. The biggest challenge the fund faced in 2015 was the huge volatilities caused by uncertainty of government policies. However, this was also the biggest source of profits. They attribute this to the consistently good entry points of trades alongside a robust proprietary risk management system. Moving forward the firm will continue to navigate the increasingly volatile Chinese markets and continue to offer high returns with minimal risk for their investors.
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http://www.acquisition-intl.com/hedge-fund-awards
Best Long/Short Asset Manager - Singapore & Most Consistent Asian L/S Fund: APS Asia Pacific Long Short Fund
APS Asset Management
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APS Asset Management was founded in 1995 by its CIO, Wong Kok Hoi, in Singapore. Since then, the firm has grown significantly, starting with assets under management of about USD15 million, which have since grown to USD2.8 billion as of the end of August in 2015.
CONTACT DETAILS Company: APS Asset Management Email: cs@aps.com.sg Web: www.aps.com.sg/ Address: 3 Anson Road #23-01 Springleaf Tower Singapore 079909 Phone: (65) 6333 8600 Fax: (65) 6333 8900
APS started with just seven staff in one office, which has now expanded to more than 60 staff and six offices worldwide. Despite these expansions, the core values and vision of APS have not changed. In the beginning, Mr Wong founded APS for three reasons. These include serving global institutional asset owners, specialising in Asian investments as well as employing investigative research and independent thinking in the investment process. All three foundations have remained constant throughout APS’ history. Today, nearly 80% of our AUM are from pensions, endowments and foundations and the rest are from family offices, financial institutions, sovereign wealth funds, corporates and high net-worth individuals. As mentioned before, APS’ investment decisions are predicated on investigative research and independent thinking. Our company research includes interviews with suppliers, competitors, peers, customers, former employees, industry specialists, management, employees and other relevant stakeholders. Through this process, our analysts walk the ground, visit facilities, test the products where possible and read the fine print. This process gives APS sufficient knowledge to make and, importantly, maintain high-conviction decisions even when the market temporarily runs against our contrarian stock selections for years at a stretch. Knowing each stock inside-out also allows us to revise our investment theses when circumstances change, and effectively value a stock and to set valuation targets. APS is a boutique in the sense that we are highly specialised, have our skin in the game alongside investors and are agile, decisive and bold. Our corporate infrastructure has the depth and breadth expected of a firm serving global institutional asset owners. We have fully staffed, in-house teams for investment, risk management, compliance, trading, investment administration, client services, marketing, sales and corporate functions. APS’ headquarters is in Singapore and we have three research offices in Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen, as well as an office in Tokyo and a representative office in New York.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Best Offshore Fund: Argonaut Pan European Alpha
Argonaut Capital Partners
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Argonaut is a London based asset manager that has built a strong reputation for investment performance across a range of European equity products. The company was launched in 2005 by Founding Partners Barry Norris and Oliver Russ and manages over £1bn of assets under management across Alpha, Income and Absolute Return strategies.
Company: Argonaut Capital Partners Web: www.argonautcapital.co.uk
Argonaut is majority owned by its key staff members and became operationally independent from Ignis, its founding partner, in 2012. The company has a distinct “earnings surprise” investment process. We believe that stock prices move up (or down) on the basis of rising (or falling) market expectations of future corporate profits. We therefore focus our research efforts on finding companies where consensus is significantly over (or under) estimating future profitability. We believe that if we invest in stocks with superior earnings momentum this will lead to superior investment performance. Our belief in the primacy of “earnings surprise” distinguishes us from the vast majority of fund managers who categorise themselves either as “growth” or “value” and believe either that investing in the best companies will generate superior returns or that the cheapest companies will generate superior returns. Although “growth” and “value” styles are capable of generating periods of significant multi-year outperformance, the obvious flipside of this is periods of significant multi-year underperformance. We also believe that this outperformance of “growth” or “value” stocks is primarily linked to corporate profits, not quality or cheapness, and that any periods of outperformance are purely coincidental with superior earnings momentum. During periods of anaemic economic growth, for example, more often than not, only high quality “growth” companies are capable of generating the earnings growth upon which equity valuations are so sensitive, leading to their outperformance. By contrast, in periods of more robust economic growth, the average (or below average) company can generate profit growth, thus negating any reason to pay a premium for higher quality companies, and leading to the outperformance of “value” managers. We believe that both “growth” and “value” managers are equally deluded and that our “earnings surprise” style has demonstrated more consistent and superior outperformance. We firmly believe that is our competitive advantage, and is what makes our company unique.
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Best Long-Bias Equity Strategy - Smart Alpha ArthVeda Capital - Long Bias Asset Manager of the Year - India, Best for Alpha Generation: Investment Grade Equity™ & Best for UHNI & Family Offices: Smart Alpha
ArthVeda Capital ArthVeda Capital is an innovative, top-ranked global asset management firm. Vikas Gupta provides us with a unique insight into the firm and the services it provides for investors.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
ArthVeda Capital is dedicated to supporting clients and creating innovative, unique asset management solutions. In our quest to provide our clients with superior investing products, we are ushering in a new era of investing with our proprietary ArthVeda Smart Alpha™ framework because we believe that one cannot tackle today’s problems with yesterday’s solutions. Smart Alpha is a patent pending, structured value investing™ framework that generates investment grade equity™ strategies for all market-caps across US and international markets. ArthVeda Capital has a wide portfolio and manages listed equity funds with a value-oriented tilt in the investment management process. Typically, our funds invest in a structured approach in high quality securities available at discounts to their intrinsic values. Our strategy aims to offer enhanced return potential coupled with risk mitigation stemming from a systematic reduction in business, financial, capital allocation and price risks.
Company: ArthVeda Capital Name: Vikas Gupta Email: vikas.gupta@arthveda.co.in Web Address: www.arthvedacapital.com Address: ArthVeda Fund Management Pvt. Ltd., Grd. Floor, HDIL Towers, A. K. Marg, Bandra (E), Mumbai 400051, India Telephone: +91 22 6774 8500
As such we primarily invest in high quality, undervalued listed equities. Our rigorous analysis across various time periods in history, multiple capitalizations and geographies is unique and insightful. Covering all bases and warding away many biases, we can observe that Smart Alpha, our over-arching structured value investing™ process is able to sustainably and systematically harvest pure alpha. Our backbone investment framework, Smart Alpha is a rules-based technique to systematically deliver investment grade equity i.e. a pool of risk-mitigated securities that at the same time is capable of potentially delivering robust returns going forward. Smart Alpha weeds out the various risks involved in the portfolio creation but instead of the conventional risk return profile of resulting in lower returns, actually delivers higher expected return. Overall our philosophy in terms of investing remains identifying mispriced pockets of inefficiencies in the market via a structured, rules-based approach. We uncover stocks with robust business model, competitive advantages and mitigated risks so as to create a systematic portfolio at a discount to intrinsic value boasting of superior fundamentals and inexpensive valuations. With regards to investor relations our key approach is integrity, thought leadership and execution. As a fund management company we promote and nurture innovation in an ethical framework while keeping clients at the core. We have exhibited high standards in investor servicing: • Conducting periodic portfolio review with investors. • Dedicated investor servicing team and call centre to provide support and address client queries. • Defined TAT’s for the different types of queries through an inbuilt escalation mechanism. • Transparent and clear operational process flows to ensure satisfactory experience for our clients. • Conducting various events, campaigns and roadshows to enable Investor education and use these events as feedback mechanisms. Moving forward we are entering the business of taking up global investment mandates. The funds will be managed across a mix of weighted ETFs (exchange traded funds), UCITS (for non-US investors) and separately managed accounts. We have taken our Smart Alpha suite of Indexes with the new Smart Style Box and the A-Z Guide to Investing to the market and are talking to several of the larger ETF issuers. Given the highly differentiated nature of the Smart Alpha indexes in terms of the robust value investing logic behind them and the resulting high risk-adjusted performance, a number of ETF issuers have shown interest. We are also getting interest from various other arenas including Options and Futures, UITs, Closed-Ended Funds, ETNs, and discretionary or managed accounts. Within 2016 we expect to carve out a strong niche in the investment management space in general and specifically within the ETF community. The last 3-5 years were the years of Smart Beta. In 2016 we expect to take the ETF community to the new era beyond Smart Beta, i.e. into Smart Alpha. Given the strong foundations of Smart Alpha in the Graham and Buffett style fundamentally-oriented value investing we expect Smart Alpha to be a better alternative than traditional active management providing replicable, rules-based adherence to sophisticated Discount to Intrinsic Value approach without the human behavioural biases of the active fund managers. We expect to continue our top performance in the hedge fund and private account strategies space using our Smart Alpha Framework. For the US markets, our framework is able to beat majority of mutual funds, conventional index ETFs, Smart Beta ETFs and the Value Master – Warren Buffett – himself. Specifically, our US large-cap index – AULVV (calculated by NYSE), over the nearly 11 year period since 2003, outperforms Berkshire Hathaway by about 2%-3% p.a. Further to attest to Smart Alpha’s market pervasiveness, the framework has been applied across geographies and market capitalizations, resulting in excess returns of 2%-10% p.a. over benchmarks coupled with high probability of outperformance and strong capital preservation. As per Preqin, the Indian alternative fund market has witnessed rapid expansion in the past year as a result of the growing opportunities in the region. It has been reported that the Indian alternative fund sector has nearly doubled over the course of 2014. Going forward, we are initially primarily targeting the US equity ETF market. As a precursor to this we have already launched eight indices maintained by NYSE (AULVV, AKLVV, ABLVV, AJLVV, AUTDI, AXLDI, AGLDI, AUTXA).
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Best Independent FoHF Manager - Switzerland & Best Relative Value Opportunities FoHF (3 Years): Areca SICAV SIF - Value Discovery
Ayaltis AG
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Relative Value is a frequently used term in the hedge fund universe, but there is hardly a clear definition. At Ayaltis, the term is a key element of the company’s investment strategy. It is not just a term, it is a paramount premise of how to select managers and construct portfolios. This principal, which is irrespective of asset classes, relates to a mind-set of putting downside protection first.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Company: Ayaltis Email: info@ayaltis.com Web: http://www.ayaltis.com/ Address: Lavaterstrasse 101 8002 Zurich, Switzerland Telephone: +41 43 501 37 60
Unique Company History Based on Long Term Hedge Fund Experience Ayaltis’ company history provides leads to a better understanding of this key connotation. The company was founded in 2008, which was a challenging time to raise assets, being in the midst of the financial crisis. On the investment side, however, Ernesto Prado, the Chief Investment Officer of Ayaltis, was convinced that the global deleveraging posed a unique investment opportunity. The firm’s two partners, Son Nguyen and Ernesto Prado, have had a long standing history in working together prior to joining forces to set up an enterprise. Moreover, both have been dedicated to the hedge fund field in their previous career paths. Having a strong pedigree within the hedge fund space, especially in the underlying asset classes, was paramount when it came to hiring the team members. Since 2008, the team has consistently grown and counts 12 employees at the end of December 2015. Despite the difficult environment, Ayaltis raised assets under management to the current level of USD 800m. The core of the client base is situated in Switzerland. While this will always remain the firm’s home turf, their investor base has expanded into Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Ayaltis’ focused business model is compelling to investors: The sole interest of the company is to provide fund of hedge fund products, which are managed in a transparent manner. Truly independent of any financial institution, the two founding partners hold the majority stake in the company. A Swiss family office is a key shareholder and acted as a seed investor. De-Correlation is the Key to Portfolio Management The concise product range encompasses three funds alongside the firm’s flagship fund: Areca Value Discovery. The flagship fund shows an impressive annualized return of 7.84% with a low standard deviation of 4.23% over its seven year life span with a correlation of almost zero to any asset classes. Areca Liquid Focus benefits from the rich opportunities in the liquid hedge funds universe. Narrapuno Spectrum has a concentrated and best of ideas portfolio. Narrapuno Convergence is a thematic fund focusing on direct lending. The investment approach is of course consistent across all portfolios and this is where the relative value component becomes evident: the emphasis within portfolio construction is on a sophisticated risk premia model, which focusses on correlation of the single hedge funds to the portfolio. The return expectation of the funds is put into a “relative value” context. The set-up of Areca Value Discovery substantially differs from many mainstream fund of hedge fund products in the sense that it does not follow a rigid, predefined style allocation. On the contrary, the funds are truly flexible to shift to the best opportunities within the hedge fund universe. Ernesto Prado, CIO, has proven more than once his ability to identify turning points in the market and to position the portfolio in the optimal way to benefit from these market opportunities. Driven by a fixed income mind-set, he holds the core principal at heart the “relative value” theme and therefore, reflecting a conservative investment style. The due diligence process is constructed to isolate managers, who excel in risk management and who are able to deliver fixed income like protection with equity upside. The predominant goal is to build a stable portfolio, where the single components complement each other. A Few Words on the Prevailing Environment The tremendous regulatory changes which were initiated after the financial crisis definitely had a lasting impact on the hedge fund industry overall. While the sentiment was for a long time very critical towards fund of hedge funds, investors’ interest has rebounded. The uncertainty of the economic environment poses challenges, which require experts. In late 2014, Ayaltis started to reposition the portfolio to deal with this elevated market volatility. Positions in structured credit, which were a core component earlier on, were continuously reduced. Hedge fund managers with a more liquid and market neutral stance now strongly contribute to the sound return figures. Relative value is again the main tenor.
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Fund Manager of the Year 2016 & Award for Excellence in Fund Structuring - Luxembourg Carlisle Management Company is a regulated investment management firm located in Luxembourg. The firm specializes in both, open-ended investment funds and related private equity transactions within the alternative space. Carlisle provides its global client base with access to insurance-linked investment products by offering intelligent alternative fund management solutions designed to work with a wide array of institutions, corporations, pension funds and high-net-worth individuals.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Company: Carlisle Management Company Name: Jose C Garcia, CEO Email: info@cmclux.com Web Address:www.cmclux.com www.luxlf.com Address: 9 rue Sainte Zithe. 1st Floor Luxembourg L-2763 Telephone: +352 268 453 59
Alternative assets Jose C. Garcia, CEO of Carlisle Management Company provides details about the funds Carlisle manages and the company’s approach to managing risk and ensuring the best possible returns for investors. “Carlisle specializes in the alternative assets sector. We believe that offering investors access to asset types outside the traditional range of choices (i.e. equities, bonds, money markets) helps further diversify their investment portfolios, and therefore helping to mitigate and diversify their overall risk level” he explains. “Our company’s flagship product, The Luxembourg Life Fund, focuses on life settlements, an asset class that holds minimal correlation to traditional economic drivers such as interest rates and other economic indicators. This allows us, to focus on minimizing the specific risks of the particular underlying assets and do so without an elevated degree of concern regarding what might be happening in the overall economy at any given moment. Through diversification, stringent quantitative analysis and stress testing, the Luxembourg Life Fund provides above average returns with minimal correlation. This provides investors with real value.” Alternative Investments Garcia then outlines his views on the state of the finance industry in the Luxembourg region at present and the major challenges it currently faces and the major external influence factors? “Alternative Investments, as an asset class, has received a significant increase in exposure and utilization since the financial crisis that began back in 2008” he replies. “The entire global investment community witnessed one of the worst financial breakdowns in the history of the modern world and quickly learned to appreciate the benefits of diversifying beyond the mainstream of the traditional asset classes. As investors and institutions seek out strategies with lower levels of correlation to traditional market drivers such as interest rates and geopolitical events, those offering well structured, quality alternative investment strategies have an opportunity to widen their investor base. “The biggest challenge remains, investor education. Alternative assets are by nature new and lack, standards and benchmarks, so it is challenging to provide the investment community with the information it needs to make investment decisions. However, as the alternative market continues to thrive, these obstacles are beginning to disappear.” Adapting to change In the view of Garcia, “proactivity is key to success in this industry”, when quizzed about the attributes a company in his industry should possess in order to become truly successful and be able to provide the best possible service to its clients. Going into more detail on this point, he explains, “A company must be willing to change as the marketplace evolves and becomes more efficient. That pertains to areas such as management strategy and technology as well as regulation and compliance. Offering fully compliant and truly transparent products demonstrates to existing and potential investors that, as a manager, you are committed to the best interest of your clients and are willing to provide them with all the necessary information in which to base their decision, even in the absence of benchmarks.” “The alternative assets industry is still in a period of growth in terms of exposure and overall acceptance. This means that the inner mechanics and regulatory environment for both funds and managers will continue to develop. Staying current and knowing when to get out in front of emerging trends will differentiate the true market leaders from the rest of the competition” he continues. Investment philosophy When asked about his firm’s overriding philosophy in terms of choosing funds to invest in, “Carlisle has always been considered to be more of a holistic investment manager, so the company’s philosophy reflects this perspective” explains Garcia. “We prefer to take a comprehensive view on the whole range of tasks that occur over the entire investment life cycle. You cannot build a truly superior product without a view of the full picture, and that’s important to us as a company. Carlisle’s values and therefore its mission, are relatively straight forward. To offer the most efficient and individually designed products and services to our clients, based on their unique goals and investment parameters. “It’s important that everyone at Carlisle shares these core values and paradigms and we’ve spent many years assembling the right blend within our management which represents nearly a century of cumulative financial management experience. Carlisle’s main approach is to empower the investor with the necessary information to make a wise investment decision, while having a tireless commitment to quality.” While the hedge fund industry is an incredibly diverse and fast-paced place to do business, in what way does Carlisle Management Company ensure it remains on the cutting edge of new developments and that they are always best placed to meet their clients’ needs? The last word goes to CEO Jose C Garcia who responds to the question on an upbeat note: “Carlisle prides itself in staying ahead of the curve in terms of evolutions within the investment industry and our specific asset sectors. Constantly monitoring economic conditions, market and sector developments and regulatory changes, the firm stays out in front of market trends. By listening to its investors and their needs, Carlisle designs investment structures that not only take into account the ever changing markets but that can keep investors requirements well into the future. Staying in the cutting edge and longevity within a market, comes from two sides, the investment proposition and the investor needs.” 23
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Best Global Operational Due Diligence Firm 2016
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~ Castle Hall Alternatives is a leading specialist in operational due diligence of alternative and traditional asset managers. Christopher J. Addy provides us with an insight into the firm and the role it plays in the financial industry.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Company: Castle Hall Alternatives Name: Christopher J. Addy Email: info@castlehallalternatives.com Web Address: www.castlehallalternatives.com Address: 1080 Beaver Hall, Bureau 904, Montreal, (Quebec), Canada, H2Z 1S8 Telephone: +1-450-465-8880
With a team of nearly 40, Castle Hall operates from offices in Montreal and Halifax in Canada; London in the United Kingdom; Zurich in Switzerland, and Sydney, Australia. This global reach enables us to support international clients. Castle Hall works with asset owners such as pension plans, endowments, foundations, sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions, family offices, or their advisors, to review and monitor managers and funds across asset classes and trading strategies. The firm is a dedicated operational due diligence consultant and does not manage or allocate capital ourselves, nor do we act as an investment advisor to make investment buy / sell recommendations to our clients. Our industry leading position provides us with a unique overview of our market. Recent trends indicate a growing focus on governance, risk and compliance best practices in investment decision-making and portfolio management by institutional and private investors alike. Allocators seek solutions that allow them to efficiently and effectively select and monitor all third party asset managers across their entire portfolio. 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 one to three years. Today however, governance, risk and compliance considerations require more consistent and dynamic, ongoing operational risk assessment and monitoring. Castle Hall is committed to building a transparent and cost-effective operational due diligence solution that responds to each client’s unique needs. Castle Hall’s core competitive advantage is OpsDiligence, our proprietary online diligence platform, which has helped our clients review diligence across more than 5,000 fund entities. This technology is the next generation in online diligence architecture. The guiding principle of OpsDiligence is flexibility. OpsDiligence 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. OpsDiligence procedures can be applied to any fund: we do not limit coverage to an existing database. OpsDiligence can also be applied across all asset classes - from hedge funds to private equity to long only – and all investment structures, including private funds, regulated, public funds, and managed accounts. With the launch of our OpsMonitor module, Castle Hall is working to take operational due diligence beyond traditional, “snapshot” due diligence to a real time risk management platform: we call this Due Diligence 3.0. 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. Operational due diligence is a highly specialized and evolving field. Our clients rely on Castle Hall to provide best-in-class services at all times to help them reduce and manage risks. We have remained at the forefront of this industry through decades of experience, significant investment in information technology infrastructure, ongoing internal research and constant monitoring of developments across industry legal, cyber security, regulatory and best practices issues. In addition, to remain abreast of emerging trends and regulatory developments for allocators and investment managers alike, Castle Hall provides and supports ongoing training and development, both internally and through external programs, to build on the skills and knowledge of our people. Overall Castle Hall has had a successful year, and 2015 has been a year of tremendous growth and accomplishment for the firm. Through the past twelve months we grew our team considerably, expanding office space in Halifax and Montreal. In October we were delighted to receive International Financial Centre accreditation to support our ongoing expansion. Looking to the future we will continue to expand our capabilities, capacity and service offerings. In 2016 we look forward to launching the next release of our OpsDiligence platform. In addition, we expect to continue growing our team of dedicated operational due diligence professionals. We seek energetic people for our IT and due diligence teams who thrive in fast paced environments and are dedicated to excellence in their work.
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Best Operational Diligence Background Investigation Report Database
Check Fund Manager
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Check Fund Manager conducts detailed international Due Diligence research for institutional investors and the alternative investment community. Our services include in-depth investigations, Quick Access reports from our library of more than 30,000 investigations and Ongoing Manager Monitoring. We help our clients by providing insight regarding the people behind their investments, enabling them to consider character-based risk factors as part of their overall due diligence. Check Fund Manager has a strong track record of alerting many clients to controversial manager issues, helping them to avoid high-risk investments. We serve institutional investors, fund of funds, university endowments, outsourced CIOs, foundations, pension funds, private equity investors, capital lenders, family offices, and many other types of firms that invest in or work with alternative investments.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Check Fund Manager offers a comprehensive menu of research services to help our clients tailor their due diligence investigations to their needs. Our US-based manager reports include very detailed write-ups of biographical, criminal, civil, regulatory, education, corporate, property and lien/bankruptcy records. Our clients can also choose report options that provide full proprietary media summaries, Freedom of Information Act inquiries, and in-depth employment verifications, which focus on exposing gaps and misrepresentations. Check Fund Manager operates a world-wide network of on-site investigators to perform detailed international research. We provide up-front consultation to help our clients learn what information is available in their countries of interest. When a subject has history in multiple countries, we can construct custom solutions for our clients to help them obtain detailed information from around the globe.
Company: Check Fund Manager LLC Name: Guy Simonian, CEO Email: info@checkfundmanager.com Web Address: www.checkfundmanager.com Address: 365 Willard Avenue, Suite 2C Newington, CT 06111 USA Telephone: +1 860-666-9595
The quality of our research not only drives our success, it is the crux of the value and the service that we provide to our customers. The risk factors revealed in our reports can be critical to decisions regarding major investments, as demonstrated by our history of helping clients steer away from investments that were compromised. Check Fund Manager’s independent boutique structure, along with our custom technology, makes us very nimble in terms of delivering out-of-the-box solutions. Many of our current offerings were developed because our customers expressed a need for services that were not satisfactorily provided elsewhere. Our network of contacts and accreditations, along with our close client relationships and awareness of industry news and trends, helps us anticipate developments that will best serve our clientele in the future. We developed our flexible service model to be very responsive to customer needs and styles. Clients can operate as independently as they would like, via our on-line tools, or they are welcome to utilize our account managers to assist with any aspect of our services. Very frequently clients ask us to provide significant research in very short time frames and we go out of our way to accommodate them so that they may present details to their investment committees within their very tight deadlines. Check Fund Manager differentiates itself in many ways that bring significant value to our clients. Our free WatchList™ service notifies our clients of new negative findings that we uncover on their managers as a result of subsequent investigations. Also, our database of existing reports is of extraordinary value to our clients because of the depth and breadth of information it contains (including historical and expunged records), the immediacy of customer access, and the significant savings. Another critical difference is that one experienced researcher conducts each investigation in its entirety, which produces more thorough results than splitting up research among multiple departments. Check Fund Manager has demonstrated many instances where controversial findings were only uncovered as the result of a dedicated investigator being able to piece together a critical larger picture by recognizing the importance of seemingly insignificant information from disparate sources. We also pride ourselves on discovering and reporting detrimental information before it becomes public. We always hope to forge long term relationships with our clients and employees. Many customers have been with us for the better part of a decade, or longer, which speaks to both the results we deliver for them and the level of personalized service we provide. We are also very fortunate to have an extraordinary staff retention rate, ensuring our clients benefit from highly trained, experienced and dedicated investigators. Check Fund Manager envisions that investors will need to be kept apprised of manager issues more frequently, and that is why we have developed our Ongoing Monitoring service. We re-investigate managers monthly and present the findings via streamlined technology that helps our clients immediately see which of their managers may be compromised by new “red flags.” Research has revealed that 17% of investigations reveal detrimental information. Check Fund Manager helps to protect the professional reputations and fiduciary responsibility of our clients by creating awareness of risk factors and minimizing exposure to headline and capital risk.
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Best Absolute Return Currency Specialist - USA
Hathersage Capital Management
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Hathersage Capital Management is a global macro investment manager specializing in G10 currencies – absolute return, not portfolio hedging, is the sole focus. Offered through Deutsche Bank’s dbSelect Platform, Hathersage’s flagship investment vehicles are up +66.46% and +15.87% gross over the past twelve months.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
In managing assets for pension funds, private banks, endowments, fund of funds, family offices and select high net worth individuals for nearly twenty-five years, the Hathersage team has consistently produced both strong absolute and strong risk-adjusted returns. The strategies offered by Hathersage express macro themes that are based on such drivers as momentum, a fundamental analysis of economic relationships, political events and financial market expectations. The firm takes both tactical and strategic directional market views in G10 currency pairs using interbank spot, forwards and options. The trading approach is discretionary. Philosophy Financial markets are uncertain and ever-changing. It is vital to stay close and react quickly. Process is essential.
Company: Hathersage Capital Management LLC Principal: Bill Lipschutz Email: info@hathersage.com
A substantive, repeatable process ensures profit maximization on good trade ideas and loss minimization on those views that do not work out as anticipated. Great trades are important, but rare, and simply relying on an ability to consistently generate great trade ideas is unlikely to prove successful over time - this is why process is so important. Investment Approach Hathersage combines bottom-up trade idea generation with top-down risk management. Utilizing a wide range of market data and analysis, the PM team identifies medium and long-term themes, and then constructs and manages a portfolio of trade ideas so as to deliver performance within a well-defined risk mandate. Uncorrelated Outperformance Hathersage generates true alpha: persistent returns that are not correlated with either equity beta or market sector (FX) return factors such as carry, trend, value and volatility. Since inception, the firm’s strategies have demonstrated superior returns through a variety of different economic and market conditions, with particular success during periods of extreme market (global equity) dislocation. What Sets Hathersage Apart Hathersage is a highly experienced and dedicated currency-only manager. The ability to adapt to changing market conditions, drivers and events and understanding when and what is an acceptable risk/reward defines a superior discretionary manager. The firm maintains a moderate-sized, flexible operation that is well-positioned to capture opportunities in a highly liquid and particularly rapidly moving market sector. All aspects of Hathersage’ s functional area structure: risk management, operations, information technology, and compliance, have been built around monitoring markets and positions on a continuous basis. At all times, exposures and opportunities are being considered by a team who has been fully dedicated to currency management from inception. Forward View Global financial markets are in the early stages of normalizing. We first wrote of this to our investors in September 2013, stating that because G10 FX is highly liquid and because exposures can be scaled quickly, Developed Market (DM) currencies would be one of the first market sectors to reflect this cyclical turn. With normalization and thus, currency realignment not a question of if but of when, we further wrote in May, and then again in December of 2014, that we saw no alternative but a return to the free market movement of capital and that, although this cycle could ultimately unfold over half a decade or more, the initial price changes were likely to be both rapid and large. Throughout 2014 and 2015, driven by a growing market realization that divergent central bank monetary policies and relative real interest rates were in play, the incipient leg of this necessary large and fundamental realignment in currency pairs began and has now firmly taken hold. A continuation of this move over the next few years will likely provide discretionary G10 FX managers such as ourselves with extraordinary investment opportunities. 29
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Best Active Fund Manager - Ireland & Best Global Macro Fund (1 Year): Merrion High Alpha Fund (RIAIF)
~ Operating since 1986, Merrion Investment Managers is an Irish based investment management firm with a global outlook. We spoke to David Conlon, CEO of Merrion, to find out about how they have become Ireland’s best performing independent pension and investment fund manager and to learn more about their flagship absolute return fund, the Merrion High Alpha Fund.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Merrion manages a diverse range of funds spanning across multi asset, equities, fixed income, absolute return and cash. We have a proven and robust investment process built around a clearly defined three pillar investment process based on macro, valuation and technical analysis. Our list of clients includes life companies, semi-state companies, private sector companies, high net worth and charities. As for our Merrion High Alpha Fund (RIAIF), this is a process driven global macro absolute return fund whose target is to deliver returns of at least 7% per annum. Our process based performance adds value in active asset allocation and security selection, and the fund offers the potential to deliver significant investment returns while aiming to preserve capital. The fund’s strategy is to aim to preserve capital by actively managing asset allocation between asset classes (including cash) to help preserve against capital loss. For example, in 2008 the fund returned 6.6% while the MSCI World Index fell by 38.1%.
Company: Merrion Investment Managers Name: David Conlon Email: info@merrion-investments.ie Web Address: www.merrion-investment.ie Address: 2nd Floor Guild House, Guild Street, IFSC, Dublin 1 Telephone: +353-1-6702500
Since its inception in August 2007 up until the end of quarter 3 2015, The Merrion High Alpha Fund (RIAIF) has delivered a return of 235.2%. The compound annualised return of 16.0% since inception compares favourably versus the MSCI World Index compound annualised return of 5.2% over the same period . In terms of managing risk, there are three strategies which we employ to protect capital. These involve using a tactical asset allocation approach, the use of stop losses and put options for portfolio insurance. Furthermore, the 5-year standard deviation of returns of the High Alpha Fund was 9.6% as at September 30th 2015 compared to 10.2%for the MSCI World Index . The fund focusses on its dual mandate of aiming to deliver returns of at least 7% p.a combined with a focus on preserving investors capital, the fund does not target a specific level of volatility. As a result the high alpha fund’s historical returns have exhibited a very low correlation with equities and other asset classes since its inception. As a company that’s been running for almost 30 years, we have come across myriad changes in our industry. Firstly, there has been an increase in globalisation, and economic cycles are becoming increasingly global. Lower trend growth is also a reality, which has meant that lower risk free rates have created pressure to deliver returns from other sources. This has resulted in the growth in absolute return funds like the High Alpha fund. Given the concerns around key man risk, we do not operate a star fund manager culture but instead are always focused on our long established and proven three pillar investment process as mentioned earlier. Looking ahead, we anticipate further growth in the Merrion High Alpha Fund in line with industry trends. There has been a steady growth in assets invested in alternatives amongst pension funds (institutional and retail alike) in Ireland over the last number of years. The Irish Association of Pension Funds Pension Investment Survey in 2014 showed that the allocation to alternatives in DC schemes has increased from 1.3% to 5.9% in the last 5 years from 2010 to the end of 2014. The same survey also highlighted that DB schemes have been gradually increasing their allocation to alternatives from 3.2% to 8% in the last 5 years. The strategy of the Merrion High Alpha Fund adapts to different market conditions and has a proven track record at protecting capital in volatile markets. In terms of managing risk there are 3 strategies employed to protect capital: • Tactical asset allocation approach • Use of stop losses • Put Options – portfolio insurance Alongside our three pillar process, we believe that there are a number of factors behind the success of our company. Firstly, active investment management is key especially given where we are in the current investment cycle. Secondly, an investment manager needs to have a proven and repeatable investment process. Our three pillar investment process has delivered exceptionally strong returns for our clients over different market environments since the fund’s inception in 2007. Thirdly, an investment manager’s values need to be aligned with those of their clients, and in our case this is in delivering the maximum return available within the market for our clients within a risk controlled framework. Last, but certainly not least, we believe that providing the highest standards of client service is fundamental, and is perhaps equally as important to providing competitive investment performance. With 2016 on the horizon, we have ambitious plans to grow the business in terms of AUM and a diversified domestic and international client base. In line with investor demand, the frequency of the fund dealing will also change from the current position of monthly dealing to daily dealing. We are planning for daily dealing of units in the fund to be available from the 5th January 2016. WARNING: Past performance is not a reliable guide to future performance. Merrion Capital Investment Managers Limited (trading as Merrion Investment Managers) is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. 31
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Best Volatility Hedge Fund Manager - UK & Best Market Neutral Hedge Fund: Paris Capital Relative Value Fund
Paris Capital Relative Value Fund
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Paris Capital Advisors is a Hedge Fund Manager that focuses on quantitative trading strategies in global option markets. Our targeted investors are pension and endowment funds, private banks, fund of fund managers as well as high net worth individuals.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Company: Paris Capital Advisors Name: Thomas Korossy Email: Thomas@parisca.com Web Address: www.parisca.com Address: 25 Cresswell Place, London SW10 9 RB Telephone: +44 207 730 8030
The Paris Capital Relative Value Master Fund Ltd (the “Fund”) is a market neutral fund which aims to generate repeatable and uncorrelated returns to global equity markets and has an inbuilt downside protection against major market corrections. The Fund trades exclusively in short dated listed index options (and futures) and implements a unique combination of Alpha and Protection strategies. The highly liquid strategies are transparent and easy to understand, have rigorous risk management via trading algorithms and a low risk of regulatory, reputational or operational issues. Risk Management and Systematic Execution “A key feature of quantitative systematically executed strategies is the fact that the future trading activities are clearly defined and can therefore be analysed against historical or simulated market data” explains Thomas Korossy from Paris Capital Advisors. “This allows a better definition of risk taking and the optimisation of the risk-return profile through detailed analysis of the life strategies (and their various combinations)” he continues. “The sizing of the individual Alpha strategies targets roughly equal risk contributions, with an emphasis on an anticipated max drawdown of the fund of less than 10%. The sizing of the Protection strategies is based on the overall risk of the alpha strategies. “The fund is delta hedged on a daily basis; volatility exposure is low and typically positive during high volatility periods. Any maximum VAR limit excess triggers automatic risk reduction, the sub strategies have individual loss limits. Major risk management decisions are built into the design of the individual strategies through clearly defined execution rules (timing, size, ratio, roll, etc) and a defined process to increase or decrease risk, depending on stress levels in the market. Each strategy has pre-defined exit (and re-entry) triggers. The systematic execution process tries to ensure consistent implementation of the defined strategies and avoid emotional trading decisions especially in stress situations” he explains. Alpha Strategies “The objective of the Alpha strategies is to generate income through systematically exploiting particularities in global options markets, which are - like other financial markets - driven by human behavior, and therefore not always efficient” reveals Carlo Georg from Paris Capital Advisors. “The Fund implements a diverse set of strategies designed for different geographies (US, Europe, Asia, Japan), products (index options and futures, VIX options and futures) and market environments (trending, mean reverting, momentum, crash). The Alpha strategies analyse the interdependence of implied and realised volatilities, options with different strike prices or tenors (term structure and skew) and different markets or products. Each of the strategies have in-built protection through combination of long/short positions or refined entry/exit signals” Georg continues. Protection Strategies Korossy then reveals that the objective of the Protection strategies is “to provide downside protection against major market corrections through a net long downside volatility exposure (convexity). The Protection strategies are designed to be self-financing, with an expected (almost) flat performance in ‘normal’ years and a potential for large returns in conditions experienced in 2008 or 2011. The protection strategies balance any short option positions of the alpha strategies and protect the Fund even if the exit signals of the individual Alpha Strategies don’t pick up the next market crash.” Working in such a competitive industry, it is worth asking how does Paris Capital Advisors differentiate their business from that of your competitors.”The Paris Capital Relative Value Fund has a clearly defined investment strategy that is different to most existing hedge fund strategies. Its investment returns are uncorrelated with major equity markets partly due to the fund’s in-build crash protection strategy” emphasises Korossy. Approach to staff and clients When it comes to Paris Capital Advisors approach to people, what excatly do they look for when it comes to choosing both staff and clients? “The two principals of Paris Capital Partners have extensive experience in trading and asset management businesses in Europe, the US and Asia. They have been working together for over 20 years in London, New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo, holding senior management positions at KBC Financial Products (KBC FP) and its sister company KBC Alternative Investment Management (KBC AIM), where AUM peaked at over $5 billion in global relative value and derivative based strategies. Prior to KBC the principals worked together at D. E. Shaw and Citibank in senior positions in London, New York and Hong Kong” Georg answers. The future “2015 was a good year for the strategy, as after 3 years of quantitative easing, volatility finally returned back to equity markets.” concludes Korossy. 33
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Best Fixed Income Mortgage Backed Fund (Since Inception): NPIF
Sterling Financial Group Inc.
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Sterling Financial Group Inc. (Sterling) is a regulated Securities Investment Manager and Advisor under the laws of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas operating as a boutique financial advisor covering the real estate debt and equity markets.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Company: Sterling Financial Group Inc. Contact name: David Kosoy Email: info@sterlingbahamas.com Web address: www.sterlingbahamas.com Telephone: 1-242-677-1900 Address: New Providence Financial Center, 81 East Bay Street, P.O. Box N1812, Nassau, Bahamas
Sterling concentrates its activities in the Caribbean, North American and lender friendly European countries such as the UK and Ireland, providing mid-market property developers and owners with quick approvals on flexible, short to mid-term financing on residential and commercial properties. Sterling provides investors the opportunity to invest in secure, high yield mortgage investments as well as equity participations. With a combined 140+ years of experience, the management team comprising of David Kosoy (Chairman and CEO), Steve Tiller (President and COO), Ross Brennan (Managing Director) and Thor Ibsen (Executive VP) have the depth and knowledge to manage the challenges of an increasingly complicated marketplace and regulatory environment. The principals of Sterling are significant co-investors and accordingly consciously aligned with fund investors for their mutual benefits. Sterling’s trading philosophy has evolved from over the four decades spent in the areas of real estate investment and lending by its management team. Our real estate mortgage fund, New Providence Income Fund (NPIF), invests solely in well-conceived loans to reputable property owners and developers. As an “asset-based” lender, Sterling only originates loans on properties with multiple exit strategies, which would include foreclosure, taking possession of underlying property/collateral and/or realization under guarantees. NPIF’s objective is to offer our clients an investment strategy that delivers consistent returns uncorrelated with the general markets together with enhanced protection of investment principal. Our aim is to achieve overall returns of between 10 to 15% per annum after management compensation and operating expenses. The portfolio is diverse and is built from individual senior and junior mortgages in the following categories: • Bridge Financing; • Construction and Development Financing; • Mezzanine Financing; • Joint Venture Equity; Loans advanced by NPIF are for retail, industrial, office, multifamily or other commercial properties as well as single family residential. Additionally, in some cases, the fund may participate or co-invest with other reputable lenders. Sterling has demonstrated over the years that its lending philosophy is robust as returns continue to be above market with a lower risk profile and no loan write downs. This is achieved by utilizing Sterling’s advantages for the benefit of the Borrower and Investor. These advantages include: • One of the few active lenders in the Caribbean with a historical record of success; • Due to our understanding of our markets we are able to be flexible and structure facilities to borrower needs; • Unique knowledge and contacts in the Caribbean allows for more thorough due diligence; • Speed and reliability from loan inception to funding; • Geographic flexibility allows the fund to compete in markets with less liquidity; • Origination of loans in the $2MM to $15MM level where competition is less intense; • All fees (up-front, standby etc.) are part of the investor return, Sterling does not keep any fees for its own book; better aligning Sterling with the investors • Trading flexibility; there is no pressure to lend to meet volume targets. Lending only occurs when a suitable opportunity is sourced. David Kosoy, founder, Chairman and CEO of Sterling comments: “Our focus has been to provide our investors with a favourable risk/return strategy. Since inception in 2012, NPIF has delivered a weighted average investor return of over 12% after all costs and management compensation, and 2015 promises to be another stellar year. In generating these returns we have always kept risk levels low by over collateralizing our loans, utilizing our intimate knowledge of our markets and only dealing with trusted business partners. Our goal is to continue the disciplined growth of NPIF over the next few years but still operate as a boutique fund in order to keep speed and flexibility. In addition, this strategy will allow us to continue to make decisions based on market dynamics, not volume targets. In this way we can maintain our superior risk/return performance and take advantage of opportunity at our discretion”
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Most Innovative Investment Advisor - Illinois & Best US Global Macro Hedge Fund (Since Inception): Eagle Rock Investments LLC
Tarcan Capital, LLC
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Tarcan Capital LLC is a Illinois Registered Investment Advisor and an exempt Commodity Pool Operator. The firm is founded to address the correlation between different types of investments during the 2008 Financial Crisis that rocked the Financial Markets. They believe that Long/Short Equity is not a diversification tool and therefore not an Alternative Investment. Their goal is to generate absolute returns in any market environment via uncorrelated investment strategies with equity markets. Their main target clientele are High Net Worth Individuals, Family Offices, Professional Athletes and Fund-Of-Funds.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Company: Tarcan Capital LLC Name: Erdem Tarcan, CFA, QFOP Email: erdem@tarcancapital.com Web Address: www.tarcancapital.com Address: 2932 Hartzell Street, Wilmette, IL 60091, USA Telephone: +(1)(312) 375 4881
When looking at the fund they manage, it is worth considering the firm’s approach to managing risk and ensuring the best possible returns for investors. “Tarcan Capital LLC is the manager of “Eagle Rock Investments LLC”, a systematic FX Hedge Fund. We combine artificial intelligence with mathematical pattern recognition. Risk management starts with managing liquidity. We only trade G10 currencies and mostly the major ones among them. We want to make sure pricing is competitive, commissions are not outrageous due to lack of liquidity” explains Erdem Tarcan. “Also some very basic trading principles work very well. Limiting leverage, position size, cutting losses fast, riding winners, etc. Let’s look at year 2008. What is the number one factor that brought down the whole financial system to the brink of collapse? Leverage. The actors of our financial system were leveraged from Wall Street to traditional banks all the way to the households” he adds. Alternative Investment Strategies When asked how they employ unique alternative investment strategies to help with manage risk, Tarcan explains, “number one we are not an equity shop. We are a currency shop. Therefore we do not have any correlation with equities, which has the highest allocation on most investors’ portfolios.” “Number two we keep leverage low. Number three we believe in science. Just like Billy Bean we believe it can offer a cure to the curse of Bambino. We use computer power to calculate the probability of a certain price pattern in sub-seconds time. We also believe there is information in every new tick data. The whole history has to be recalculated/analysed with every tick data for new price forecasts. To come up with new price targets within sub seconds by itself is a huge undertaking. Expertise in high speed data storage and retrieval is essential” he adds. Choosing funds to invest in When quizzed about the firm’s overriding philosophy in terms of choosing funds to invest in, Tarcan points out that they are quant shop. “Our edge is our skill to harvest our knowledge of financial markets along with artificial intelligence. If you have advanced programming and optimization skills along with machine power you can crunch hundreds of millions of tick data within sub seconds which is beyond any human power” he explains. “Another crucial advantage of using a model is, computers don’t get emotional. They do not have discipline problem. The reality is the human nature is flawed to an unbelievable degree. If EURUSD moved up for 75 ticks, it is hard for a human being to short EURUSD at that moment, but computers don’t care. One it can calculate probability of success looking back this pattern in previous history in sub seconds. Two, it executes the rules no matter what. Three, artificial intelligence gives you the ability to detect and extrapolate patterns before there is a breakout (just for simplicity).” The hedge fund industry is an incredibly diverse and fast-paced place to do business. How then can Tarcan Capital ensure that they remain on the cutting edge of new developments? “We try very hard to be on top of the environment that surrounds us be it the regulation front, the central bank moves, macroeconomic trends or technology” Tarcan responds. “The theme has a diverse background and all additions are made to bring a new perspective to the table. It’s the people that creates the value for investors” he adds. “As you know currency Hedge Funds basically follow three themes; carry strategy, trend-following, and value. This is why some big Currency Hedge Funds were shut down last couple of years. Central Bank interventions and zero percent interest rate environment killed the conditions where these three styles used to work. We are pattern predictors, we do not use macroeconomic factors into account. Our models’ only input is price data. Volatility helps us.” Approach to people On the firm’s approach to people, what do they look for when it comes to choosing both staff and clients? “When we look for a new team member we look for diversity” Tarcan explains. “We do not seek for likeminded people. I find army veterans especially valuable. They have the experience to make hard choices in stressful environments and have the patience to build a company that lasts. As for our clients we look for investors who believe in the talent pool of Early Stage Hedge Funds and are open to invest in smaller hedge funds.” Conclusion Looking to the future, the last word has to go to Erdem Tarcan who says, “Our models work for Equity Index Futures, Oil, Gold as well. We are considering to launch another Fund based on that. We are very pleased with this award. The fact that we were nominated to be in the list and won the award among so many others means a lot for our small team. It shows that our hard work to build a Hedge Fund that lasts from a Start-Up won’t get unnoticed” concludes.
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Best Early-Stage Investment Fund (Since Inception): Timberline Fund, LP
Timberline Fund, LP
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The fund, managed by Wynkoop LLC, is managed to generate the best possible risk-adjusted returns with muted volatility and little correlation to the equity markets. We speak to Founder Brandon Jundt about how the fund achieves this bold aim.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Company: Wynkoop LLC Name: Brandon Jundt Email: bjundt@wynkoopfinancial.com Web Address: wynkoopfinancial.com Address: 201 Jackson Street, Denver, CO 80206 Telephone: 303-459-7200
Established in 2009, Wynkoop LLC is dedicated to investing in distressed non-agency mortgaged-backed securities (MBS). After a number of locked-up funds, we launched Timberline Fund LP in April 2011 and continue to invest in MBS and some real estate whole loans. Timberline Fund is open to accredited investors and has had investments primarily from high-net worth individuals, and some from family offices, endowments and institutional investors. Timberline doesn’t attempt to beat the S&P 500 or make 10% per year; it attempts to generate the best risk-adjusted returns available. We are fundamental investors and spend our days analysing housing and mortgage markets, in addition to individual MBS positions. There are many tens of thousands of unique mortgage bonds, but only a small fraction of the number of investors and analysts as in the equity markets, allowing for genuine value-add analysis, even by smaller firms. The huge diversity in bond profiles allows us to fine-tune the portfolio and naturally hedge interest rate risk and credit risk. Starting in 1999 I worked at CoBiz Financial, which is a regional bank, where I modelled and hedged the bank’s interest rate risk and those lessons have stuck with me. We believe that cash is an asset class too, and at times maintain large cash balances. That creates drag on the returns, but is often worth it to preserve dry powder. MBS can sell-off in sympathy with other markets and we’ve maintained a conservative portfolio for some time because there are a lot of scary things going on out there. Stocks aren’t a bubble, but they aren’t cheap either and S&P revenues and net income are down year over year. Many sovereigns face crippling debt levels, ugly age demographics, and it isn’t written in stone that the EU has to stay together forever. Escalating violence in the Middle East could spiral and the larger economies there are printing amazing deficits with lower oil prices. Japan and Canada are in actual recessions are most other countries are barely growing. Any of these things could lead to a general risk-off trade. Moving forward we see a lot of reasons to stay focused on risk and not swing for the fences today. Separately from Timberline, Wynkoop has also bought about 800 single-family rental homes in Phoenix and Orlando since 2011. After selling several hundred homes, that business is currently $45mn in assets with a new rental home fund coming online now that will add another $25mn or so. This strategy has served the firm well as we have been financially stable for a number of years. Wynkoop came into business with an $11mn fund in May 2009, which lead to a series of locked-up funds which totalled about $50mn by early 2011. Timberline Fund was launched as an ongoing hedge fund with $6mn in equity in April 2011 and has grown to $60mn today. The rental home funds add another $45mn in assets for the firm. To this point, the firm has only raised capital by word of mouth. Ultimately we believe that the success we have achieved in the MBS markets is driven by two overriding principals. First you need to step away from the screens and models and understand what is happening in the housing market and economy. MBS analysts are prone to overreliance on complex models and missing the forest for the trees. For instance, we talk to homebuilders constantly to get a real-time sense of the market and also their building costs. Home prices are driven by population growth and the cost to build new homes, not supposed measures like inventory and months supply, which measure how much people want to move as much as anything else. Since 2009 the US has built 5.4 million homes and lost about 2.0 million to floods, fires and the like. The net addition of 3.4 million homes compares to population growth of 16.5 million people over that time. The cost to build new homes isn’t getting any cheaper and people have to live someplace. Non-agency MBS spreads remain very attractive, unless you think we’re in another housing bubble. If that’s the case, where are all these people going to live? Getting those big things correct is far more important than calculating an option-adjusted spread to the nearest tenth of a basis point on an array of supercomputers. Secondly, you need to have a thorough understanding of the bonds’ structures, which are varied and can be complex and unusual. Wynkoop’s two portfolio managers have both been in the business since MBS securitization was in its infancy and have a thorough understanding of the structures because we were investing in the space when they were being developed. Going forward there are a number of exciting developments for our firm which will provide us with new challenges. Our rental home business is not a permanent one and will be wound down in a few years. That will free up bandwidth for that side of the office, but we will likely continue investing in real estate in another form, allowing us to gain new experience in the market.
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Best for Multi-Manager Hedge Fund Portfolio Solutions - USA
50 South Capital
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50 South Capital Advisors, LLC is an alternatives asset management firm that strives to meet the core needs of investors seeking access to hedge funds and private equity. The experienced team works closely with a wide range of investors to fulfil their specific investment objectives and create lasting relationships. 50 South Capital’s investment specializes on providing access primarily to small- and mid-sized managers that offer unique and differentiated sources of return.
Company: 50 South Capital Advisors, LLC Name: Aimee Wight Email: aimee.wight@50southcapital.ntrs.com Web: www.50southcapital.com
Since 2001, the group has provided multi-manager solutions and advised on portfolios for institutions and wealthy families. 50 South Capital manages and advises on numerous hedge fund solutions ranging from multi-manager solutions to separately managed advisory mandates. The solutions are tailored to target differing client risk profiles but a constant throughout all programs is capital preservation and alpha generation. Proprietary qualitative and quantitative metrics are established which help to identify and combine managers in a way that seeks to offer attractive risk adjusted returns. 50 South Capital seeks managers that truly offer differentiated returns through concentration in underfollowed markets or unique trade structuring. At times, the managers selected by 50 South Capital are not widely known to larger hedge fund allocators. A combination of high quality managers, dynamic allocation of capital and a collaborative team approach is used at 50 South Capital. This approach to markets, along with an understanding of the market factors that drive performance in different environments, we believe helps provide a competitive advantage. The investment team continuously evaluates the landscape and opportunity set for hedge fund strategies. This diligence allows 50 South Capital to allocate resources to strategies that may have a tailwind while potentially sidestepping strategies that may face difficult times due to market and economic factors. Risk management is a key role within the business to ensure only compensated risks are taken. Detailed transparency is obtained which assists in the portfolio construction process. We believe that detailed transparency allows 50 South Capital to be more informed when making decisions, which in turn makes for more informed commentary to their investors. Knowledgeable investors are the foundation of a long term partnership. 50 South Capital has been named “Best for Multi-manager Hedge Fund Portfolio Solutions – USA” by Alternative Investments.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Best Commodities FoHF Manager - USA & Best Commodities FoHF (Since Inception): AGR Master
AC Investment Management LLC
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AC Investment Management, LLC (ACIM) is a private New York based investment advisor specializing in focused niche fund of hedge funds.
Company: AC Investment Management LLC Email: info@acimfunds.com Web: acimfunds.com Address: 1350 Ave of the Americas Suite 2300, New York, NY 10019, United States Phone: 001 212-245-8200
Currently, we manage two vehicles with a particular emphasis on active commodity strategies on a global basis. These vehicles include one dedicated to commodities and one dedicated to global power trading. ACIM manages capital on behalf of institutional investors, family offices, and high net worth individuals. AC Investment Management’s hedge fund of funds products invest across the commodities spectrum, including agriculture, energy, softs, livestock, and metals. The company focuses on identifying the premier specialist traders in niche commodity markets. Also critical is the identification of markets that are likely to provide future trading opportunities, as well as AUM appropriate for the underlying markets in which the managers trade. Furthermore, all of our trading is fundamental and discretionary. Our fund of funds products are actively managed and operate as a hybrid of single- and multi-manager products. AC Investment Management invests via an internal, separately managed account platform that provides a high level of transparency into the majority of the underlying funds. This allows for a significantly increased level of monitoring and risk management that is not possible in the traditional fund of funds methodology of investing in co-mingled hedge fund vehicles. Our flagship product is AGR, which is a multi-manager investment vehicle that capitalizes on definable inefficiencies and opportunities in global commodities markets by investing in niche hedge fund strategies. AGR seeks to deliver stable and consistent alpha generation with an uncorrelated return stream, while maintaining low volatility. Another highly innovative product of ours is AGR Power, which is a multi-manager investment vehicle that seeks to provide exposure to niche investment strategies in the global power sector and its related markets, including electricity and natural gas.
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Best Capital Structure Arbitrage Portfolio Manager - USA & Best Convertible Arbitrage Fund (1 Year): Advent Hedged Convertible Fund
~ Advent Capital Management, LLC (“Advent”) is a privately owned investment manager registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US and authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK. Advent spoke with us and shared some insights into their investment approach and their award-winning services.
Company: Advent Capital Management LLC Contact name: Michael Kane Email: clientadvisory@adventcap.com Web address: www.adventcap.com and www.adventucits.com
As of October 31, 2015, Advent managed assets of approximately $8.7 billion across a variety of traditional and alternative strategies on behalf of corporations, public and private pension plans, insurance companies, foundations, endowments and high net-worth individuals. Advent’s robust institutional infrastructure enables it to offer products in various formats, including separately managed accounts, private funds, and public vehicles such as UCITS, mutual funds, and closed-end funds.
New York Telephone: +1 212 482 1600 Address: 1271 Avenue of the Americas, 45th Floor New York, NY 10020
Since the firm’s 1995 inception, its focus on fundamental research has been a core driver of its investment success in both traditional and alternative strategies. Advent’s investment knowledge across the entire capital structure is driven by rigorous analysis and proprietary fundamental, bottom-up credit and equity research. The process helps identify the most attractive securities of companies with stable-to-improving fundamentals that offer upside potential and downside protection.
London Telephone: +44 (0)203 3579990 Address: 4th Floor Devonshire House 1 Mayfair Place London W1J 8A
In recent years, the global convertible market has undergone a positive structural transformation, including lower leverage, shorter maturities, and better indenture terms. This transformation has created attractive investment opportunities as the asset class continues to be overlooked by many investors. Advent’s global infrastructure supports a team of highly-talented investment professionals with an average of 25 years of experience across the entire capital structure in both global credit and equity markets. Capital preservation through downside protection is the cornerstone of Advent’s investment philosophy. The firm’s alternative strategies exploit structural and market inefficiencies, providing investors with compelling risk-adjusted returns regardless of market conditions. The Hedged Convertible strategy generates absolute returns by applying a multi-strategy approach that exploits market inefficiencies and the complexities of convertible securities. About the Strategy Hedged Convertible investing is one of Advent’s core competencies and the firm’s disciplined investment approach has delivered compelling risk-adjusted returns over multiple market cycles. Advent deploys a multi-strategy approach which takes advantage of relative value opportunities on a long and short basis to achieve absolute returns. The portfolio is constructed to generate uncorrelated returns by investing in credit and volatility markets with an event bias. The portfolio managers employ a dynamic investment approach to exploiting mispriced idiosyncratic volatility while capitalizing on market dislocations. Active trading and hedging techniques are used to monetize structural inefficiencies in global convertible securities. The strategy leverages the firm’s proprietary fundamental research capabilities to identify opportunities, often misunderstood by the marketplace, that offer attractive corporate valuations. Alpha generation is based on quantitative and fundamental analysis of event driven opportunities.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Best European Market-Neutral Manager 2016 & Best European Long/Short Equity Fund: Allianz Discovery Europe Strategy
~ Allianz Global Investors is an asset manager owned by Allianz SE, a global insurance group which is a market leader in property, casualty and credit insurance and one of the world’s foremost asset managers and life insurers. We got in touch with Harald Sporleder, European Equity Fund Manager at Allianz, who gave us his insight behind the successful performance of his pan-European equity market-neutral fund. Risk management is at the heart of Allianz’s investment management philosophy and we are always committed to delivering satisfaction for clients. Our client base is quite substantial, and we manage EUR 446 billion in assets for both retail and institutional clients worldwide. Our four pillars of equities, fixed income, multi-asset and alternatives allow us to provide solutions for clients across the full spectrum of asset management activity. Furthermore, our client centric approach means that we can develop a deep understanding of their needs in order to provide the strategies and customised solutions that deliver innovative and intelligent ways to achieve their objectives. As for my team, I manage a pan-European equity market-neutral fund. As such, we aim to generate returns for investors regardless of overall equity market direction and within tightly managed risk constraints – particularly low net exposure and minimal market beta. The combination of AllianzGI’s broad research capabilities, our blend of fundamental, thematic and restructuring trades, continuous re-assessment of our investment theses and a strong risk management framework allows us to generate strong performance on behalf of our clients. Company: Allianz Global Investors GmbH Name: Harald Sporleder Investment Style Leader Hedge Fund Email: Discovery@allianzgi.com Web Address: www.allianzgi.com Address: Bockenheimer Landstraße 42-44, 60323 Frankfurt/Main, Germany
Our investment strategy is based upon a marriage of fundamental company analysis and macro/thematic research. Our proprietary fundamental research identifies companies with upside or downside potential that is not fully reflected in the current price and our macroeconomic and thematic inputs are employed to complement the bottom-up idea generation and the portfolio construction process, especially when deciding the portfolio’s tactical market exposure and the overall quality bias. In order to ensure that we remain at the cutting edge of our industry, we work continuously to review our investment strategies and product offering against the market, regulatory environment and client demand. We are able to offer a number of our strategies in a variety of vehicles to meet specific clients’ needs and work to maintain and improve our standards of client care, coverage and support. Looking towards 2016 and beyond, we are optimistic that we will continue to deliver and exceed the expectations of our clients. We are confident that, despite the recent and ongoing difficulties presented by capital markets, changes to the global regulatory framework and the challenging macro-economic environment, we remain able to manage our alternatives business and the Allianz Discovery Europe Strategy in line with our clients’ expectations and our internal ambitions for both asset growth and risk adjusted performance. More specifically, we are incubating a number of alternative investment strategies (including within our alternative equity business) – and expect to make some of these available to clients during the course of 2016. Watch this space!
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Best Hedge Fund Accountants 2016 - USA
Anchin, Block & Anchin LLP
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Anchin, Block & Anchin LLP prides itself on providing a wide range of services which are tailored to the needs of their clients. We speak to Jeffrey I. Rosenthal who explains how the firm’s approach revolves around building a strong relationship with their clients in order to fully understand their requirements.
Company: Anchin, Block & Anchin LLP Name: Jeffrey I. Rosenthal Email: jeffrey.rosenthal@anchin.com Web Address: www.anchin.com Address: 1375 Broadway, New York, NY 10018 Telephone: (212) 840-3456
Founded in 1923 in New York, Anchin, Block & Anchin LLP is recognized as a top-tier firm nationwide in terms of its quality, management, scope of services and work environment. With a staff of approximately 350 and highly specialized industry and service teams, Anchin provides privately-held businesses and high net worth individuals with a wide range of traditional and non-traditional advisory services. Services include accounting and auditing services; tax planning and compliance services; tax credits and incentives; management and succession advisory services; litigation support, forensic accounting and valuation services; and merger and acquisition services. For more than 40 years, Anchin has offered customized accounting, audit, tax and consulting services to our financial industry clientele. They range from small, entrepreneurial startups to established funds. Financial Services is one of Anchin’s largest industry practice groups, with a team of 10 partners and directors and nearly 50 dedicated professionals. Our years of experience, extensive network, and comprehensive institutional knowledge allow us to offer clients perspectives and insights on the direction of their businesses. Working within such a highly competitive industry, we have worked hard to carve out a place for ourselves and like to consider our firm as the alternative to the larger firms. We pride ourselves on offering a customized service executed to meet the unique needs of each client. Our engagement partners are thoroughly familiar with the client´s business, the market environment in which they operate, and the unique features of its industry. By carefully selecting engagement teams to cater specifically to each client´s needs, we can conduct efficient and cost-effective audits, design and implement optimal tax positions, and provide valuable consulting assistance to management. Additionally, our staff retention rates regularly lead the industry, with the past year being no exception. This consistency of staff has yielded organic growth and high client satisfaction. Over recent years we have seen significant growth in the Private Equity sector and have thus expanded Anchin’s Private Equity Practice. Our Firm’s experts and thought leaders in the Private Equity space give us another avenue in which to assist our Financial Services clients. Moving forward we will continue with this growth strategy in order to consistently provide our clients with the best possible service.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Top 5 Global Multi-Asset Fund- FP Distinction Diversified Real Return
Armstrong Investment Managers LLP
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Armstrong Investment Managers LLP (“AIM”) is an FCA regulated asset manager based in the UK, focused on providing structured financial solutions to a diverse international client base. AIM has an in-house team of award winning fund managers and analysts that create excellent results for their clients. Their focus is to ensure that whatever solutions they provide to clients, that these solutions achieve a practical, successful and sustainable financial result for the future. Company: Armstrong Investment Managers LLP Name: Ana Armstrong Email: ana.armstrong@armstrongim.com Web Address: http://armstrongim.com/ Address: 1 Royal Exchange Ave, London EC3V 3LT United Kingdom Telephone: +44 20 7464 4330
Their team is expertly managed by Dr. Ana Cukic Armstrong, an investment professional with over 20 years of financial institutional experience. With her leadership, the Armstrong team strives to combine the experience and reliability of an institution, with the client-focus of a boutique firm. AIM Services can be summarised as follows: • Structured solutions to increase liquidity for existing portfolios • Liquidity solutions to private equity investors • Access to an existing Multi Strategy Fund, an award winning Global Macro Fund and a UK OEIC • Funds to an Irish UCITS/QIAIF platform Onshore • Segregated Managed Accounts Investment philosophy Their investment process is built on a set of key beliefs: • The pursuit of excellence requires significant investment in human capital; • The interaction of model driven trade and discretionary beliefs is the key to long run out-performance; • Peer reviewed research and development are required to identify strategic opportunities; • Their research mandate focuses on: o Generating superior alpha by identifying asset pricing anomalies; o Generating superior returns by harvesting risk premia within ex-ante volatility bounds. • Their investment mantra allocates between contrarian and trend following strategies, value/growth and carry investing, within and across asset classes; • Inflation is the ultimate destroyer of long run purchasing power. Real diversification is a key component of their investment beliefs.
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Best Long-Term Activist Investor - USA & Best Activist Fund (Under $1bn): Barington Companies Equity Partners, L.P.
Barington Capital Group
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Barington Capital Group, L.P. is a fundamental, value-oriented activist investor with a 15-year record of enhancing long-term shareholder value. Barington invests in undervalued publicly traded companies that the company believes could appreciate significantly in value as a result of changes in corporate strategy or improvements in operations, capital allocation or corporate governance. Company: Barington Capital Group Name: James A. Mitarotonda Email: jmitarotonda@barington.com Web Address: www.barington.com Address: Barington Capital Group, L.P, 888 Seventh Avenue, 17th Floor, New York, NY 10019 Telephone: 001 (212) 974-5708
Barington brings a private equity approach to undervalued companies. Barington’s investment team, senior advisors and network of industry experts draw upon extensive strategic, operating and boardroom experience to assist companies in designing and implementing initiatives to improve long-term shareholder value. In October 2015, HFM named Barington “Best Event Driven Hedge Fund Under $1 Billion” Barington seeks to deliver superior results through: • Identifying attractive undervalued companies with significant upside potential that is not being realized; • Developing a detailed plan to unlock value, encompassing operations, strategy and corporate governance; • Effectively engaging with board directors and management to support and execute their plan; • Taking further steps to improve a company’s long-term financial performance and corporate governance. Profile of James A. Mitarotonda, CEO of Barington James Mitarotonda is a highly regarded value-oriented activist investor. Mr. Mitarotonda currently serves as a director of A. Schulman, Inc., The Pep Boys - Manny, Moe & Jack, OMNOVA Solutions Inc., The Eastern Company and Barington/Hilco Acquisition Corp. He is also a former director of a number of publicly traded companies, including The Jones Group, Griffon Corporation, Gerber Scientific, Inc., Register.com, Inc., Sielox, Inc. and Ameron International Corporation. Mr. Mitarotonda began his career with positions at Bloomingdales and Citibank and subsequently was co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Commonwealth Associates (now Comvest). He received a B.A. in economics from Queens College, where he serves as a member of the Board of Trustees, and an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business. Barington is highly regarded for its effectiveness as an activist investor as seen in the following quotes... “[Barington] remains one of the longest-running governance-focused activist hedge funds in action today and has had a major impact on dozens of corporations….[Barington’s] primary focus is on having the company make structural, long-term operational improvements.” The Daily Deal, January 27, 2014 “Barington has a proven track record of successful investments. Barington....prefers to work constructively with the board and management to effect change....We highlight that this activist is not a ‘hit and run’ activist and instead has a history of working with companies over multi-year periods.” - APB Financial Group, January 30, 2015 “[Barington is] a realistic, long-term investor….[who] really represents the shareholder’s interests” - Joe Gingo, Chair and former CEO, A. Schulman, quoted in The Daily Deal, January 27, 2014
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Best Swiss Credit Fund: Steli Fixed Income Opportunism Fund (EUR)
BCM & Partners SA
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Founded in 2004, BCM & Partners SA is a multi-strategy asset management which manages both UCITS and alternative investment funds, and offers private wealth management solutions. Fabio Michienzi provides us with a unique insight into this exciting and evolving company.
Company: BCM & Partners SA Name: Fabio Michienzi Email: fabio.michienzi@bcmp.ch Web Address: www.bcmpartners.eu/ch/ Address: Rue du Général Dufour 12, 1204 Genève, Switzerland Telephone: 00-41-22-819.40.73
Both BCM & Partners SA, a member of the worldwide C-Quadrat Group, and our advisor Stelinvest SA have a very strong private wealth heritage. We manage investments funds dedicated to the private wealth management sector and our clients are typically small to medium sized wealth managers as well as our own private clients. The firms are also similar in that both invest mostly in securities utilising a careful process of top-down asset allocation and bottom-up security selection. The investment portfolio is finally structured by diversifying investments in order to insure a correct balance between yield and risk and deliver steady returns through different market conditions. One of BCM’s flagship funds, the UCITS Steli (Lux) SICAV: Fixed Income Opportunities Fund (Eur) is dedicated to the investors of our strategic partner Stelinvest SA in Chiasso (CH). Therefore it is managed following their investing philosophy: conservatively delivering long term returns above inflation while insuring stable performance even in periods of extreme volatility. The fund operates firmly within the UCITS regulatory environment and we firmly believe that superior returns come from superior analysis, not just from light regulation. Our clients feel safer investing in this environment and since they have trusted us with their money we are keen to ensure that our investment strategies are aligned with the philosophy of our clients, which ensures they are satisfied with the returns. Trust is a vital aspect of our work, and we apply this principal to our internal processes as well, only working with people we truly trust. We choose partners for the long term and expect a mutual effort to foster our work relationship through both good and bad times. The perfect example may be provided by the match met between BCM & Partners SA and Stelinvest SA. Moving forward it is our aim to offer dedicated fund products to more wealth managers. A pooling of resources between wealth managers and a centralised fund manager is the best solution to achieve at the same time superior returns and a tailor-made service for the final client.
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Emerging Hedge Fund Manager of the Year - USA & Best Emerging Multi-Strategy Fund (Since Inception): Boothbay Multi Strategy Fund
Boothbay Fund Management
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Boothbay Absolute Return Strategies LP is a market neutral Multi-manager Multi-strategy fund targeting traditional and non-traditional sources of Alpha, designed to deliver uncorrelated downside protected returns. We invited Frederick Richardson to provide us with an eye-opening insight into their award winning flagship fund.
Boothbay Multi Strategy Fund, our flagship fund, produces consistent Alpha which has led to a streak of 13 months of consecutive positive returns. In order to maximise returns for investors we believe in structurally minimizing beta to most known risk factors, and generating Alpha from a highly diversified group of managers producing idiosyncratic investment ideas. By combining proprietary quantitative methods of portfolio construction and risk management with qualitative judgement aided by senior management’s long and diversified industry experience, we produce a covariant matrix of positive expectancy and low correlated strategies generating a portfolio whose risk adjusted returns are greater than the sum of its parts. Intense focus on risk management has led to a worst monthly loss of less than 50 basis points. The transparency and statistical significance derived from the daily data allowed by allocating via managed account, drives the quantitative component of our portfolio construction and risk management. The structure also allows us to avoid many operational risks normally associated with emerging managers. Company: Boothbay Fund Management, LLC Name: Ari Glass Email: frichardson@bbaymgmt.com Address: 810 Seventh Avenue, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10019 Telephone: +1 (212) 332 2684
Under a single umbrella the fund currently allocates to portfolios across two platforms. Boothbay’s Multi-Strategy platform allocates to non-correlated portfolio managers with a focus on low net L/S Equity Fundamental, L/S Equity Quantitative and niche strategies. The second platform is a risk protected ‘First Loss’ managed account platform. Boothbay’s proprietary analytical tools facilitate an innovative approach to portfolio allocation and risk management. Very few funds are generally Alpha driven with such low beta, and even fewer combine the level of qualitative and quantitative analysis used to combine strategies in a portfolio whose sum is materially greater than the whole of its parts, making our approach both unique and successful. Looking to the future we have a number of exciting developments on the horizon as we move into 2016. As we spent the past 18 months building out our core portfolio, we will be opening to non-founders capital Q1 2016, which coincides with the launch of our offshore fund in January. This will allow us to make larger allocations to slightly more mature managers and will give us a number of invigorating new challenges.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Most Innovative Alternative Investment Firm 2016 - USA & Best Speciality Credit FoHF: Core Classic
Core Capital Management
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Company: Core Capital Management Name: Callie Heerwagen Email: bfriend@corecap.com Web Address: www.corecap.com Address: Core Capital Management, LLC, 300 N. LaSalle, Suite 2025, Chicago, IL 60654, USA Telephone: 001 312 346 2542
Core Capital is a provider of alternative investment services and finance research based in Chicago, and their work can be summarised as follows: • Differentiated investment approach based on empirical and analytical research; • Particular expertise in hedge funds, complex strategies and portfolios; • Specialty multi-manager funds and; • Advisor on rethinking portfolio analysis, construction and risk budgeting. Their team • • • •
Is a unique combination of academic and practitioner experience; Consists of two senior partners have been with the firm since founding; Has combined 50+ years’ experience and; Has been together for 5+ years (the entire investment team).
Their research philosophy is as follows: • Applied research = innovation; • Specialized funds with some of the longest track records in the industry and ; • Unique products in the industry. The firm’s Investment advice means customization not cosmetization • Fundamental finance research = thought leadership; • New concepts and methods; • New investment solutions and; • Publications and presentations in top industry conferences globally. Their investment philosophy is: • Alpha is generated in high conviction portfolios; • Alpha is not generated by being a follower; • Risk budgeting means first and foremost protecting against permanent loss of capital; • Maniacal about processes; an investment solution is robust if it relies on a repeatable process.
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Simple.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Best Independent Asset Manager - Austria & Best Absolute Return Fund (Since Inception): C-QUADRAT Absolute Return ESG Fund
C-QUADRAT – The Asset Manager
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C-QUADRAT is an international asset manager which seeks to realise continuous and sustainable growth for its investors. Its fund managers in Vienna and London use both quantitative and discretionary absolute and total return strategies to achieve this goal. Institutional and private investors have relied on C-QUADRAT’s expertise for many years now. Company: C-QUADRAT Email: c-quadrat@investmentfonds.at Web: https://www.c-quadrat.com/en/ Address: Schottenfeldgasse 20 A-1070 Wien Telephone: Austria: +43 1 515 66-0 Germany: +49 69 7104 989-77
The company was established in 1991 in Vienna. It has been listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange since 2006 and on the Vienna stock exchange since May 2008. Today, with offices in Vienna, London, Frankfurt, Geneva and Yerevan C-QUADRAT operates in 19 countries in Europe and Asia. Sustainable Asset Management by C-QUADRAT Sustainability is an increasingly prominent slogan. There is a growing need among investors for investments which fulfill environmental standards as well as social criteria. However, for C-QUADRAT sustainability means much more than just satisfying a momentary trend. For us, sustainability means handling the resources entrusted to us so as to ensure that they meet the needs of today’s generation without encroaching upon those of future generations. Some years ago, C-QUADRAT already established its Vision Microfinance brand which is operative in the field of microfinance. Microfinance offers people in emerging markets and developing countries the chance to bring about a long-term improvement in their own circumstances and thus also in the opportunities for future generations. C-QUADRAT’s ESG funds are the second key area of focus for sustainable investment opportunities. As well as financial indicators, they also consider non-financial factors (ESG criteria). What does ESG stand for? ESG stands for environment (E), social criteria (S) and governance (G). Companies are analyzed on the basis of these three aspects, providing potential investors with a detailed picture of a specific company and its commitment to operating in a responsible manner. ESG thus encompasses much more than just financing of environmentally-friendly technologies. A company which is guided by ESG criteria undertakes to operate ethically and sustainably. Companies with high ESG scores have a proven track record of superior long-term performance by comparison with their competitors with lower ratings. ESG funds support responsible activities, generate non-financial returns and also offer the opportunity for long-term above-average yields. C-QUADRAT ESG Investment Process The C-QUADRAT ESG funds are based on a sophisticated investment process that ensures exclusive investment in sustainable companies combined with attractive returns. During the initial selection process, C-QUADRAT excludes all companies that violate international accords, for instance the UN Global Compact (human rights violations, child labour, corruption) or any of the so-called ILO labours standards. C-QUADRAT also excludes companies in ethically or morally questionable industries from its investment universe. The approx. 900 companies worldwide which are still in the running after the initial selection are the assessed according to their financial indicators. The asset managers focus on first-class companies with long-term successful track records featuring high capital gains and low financial leverage. Investments in companies aiming to generate growth and profits at any price can thus be avoided. The quality screening is followed by a third stage during which risk optimisation techniques are applied to avoid cluster risks and build a balanced portfolio. 51
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Award for Innovation in Global Interest Rate Alpha & Best Global Interest Rates Fund: DHP Absolute Return Strategies
DIX HILLS PARTNERS, LLC
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A Global Interest Rate Strategy for an Uncertain Future
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Company: DIX HILLS PARTNERS, LLC Email: wgordon@dixhillspartners.com Web: http://www.dixhillspartners.com/
Dix Hills Partners: A Global Interest Rate Strategy – Taking a Short-Term Approach Our systematically-based investment philosophy is derived from our extensive research studying up to 50 years of interest rate movements across the largest sovereign bond markets. We have generated an attractive risk-adjusted return over 12 ½ years for investors by assessing the short-term direction of major sovereign bond markets using a systematically integrated set of macroeconomic, valuation and technical factors. For maximum liquidity, we use exchange-traded 10-year note futures across the four most liquid interest rate futures markets (U.S. 10 year Treasuries, German Bunds, U.K. Gilts and Japanese JGB’s). The strategy is designed to be independent of interest rate direction with a time-weighted duration exposure of approximately zero to each debt market. This helps explain the consistent lack of correlation to fixed income benchmarks. We have achieved this over a challenging period with both rising and falling interest rates, a global financial crisis combined with government market intervention that fostered historically low global yields across the four market yield curves. Our Solutions are Aligned with Today’s Investment Needs • A “Liquid Alternatives” absolute return strategy to improve diversification through non-correlation • An “Opportunistic” or “Unconstrained” Fixed Income alternative to enhance return and gain better control of interest rate exposure risk Given today’s depressed global yield levels and consequent interest rate concerns along with credit and liquidity challenges, we believe Dix Hills’ solutions present an opportunity for both alternative and fixed income investors. Our solutions may play a valuable role in helping investors to meet their longer-term return and risk objectives. Incorporating Attractive Strategy Attributes Demanded By Many Investors • High-quality global sovereign exchange traded futures o Highly liquid, transparent and scalable • Consistently uncorrelated alpha over time o Minimal correlation to traditional and alternative benchmarks o Potential to improve diversification and a higher overall Sharpe ratio when added to a portfolio o No long-term consistent beta exposure • Alpha generated using true skill, not excessive leverage • Fundamentally based approach with highly disciplined implementation o Strict risk management discipline and parameters • Customizable to specific return and risk parameters Our Philosophy: Quality Research, Consistently Applied Partner Backgrounds: • 18 years of institutional management experience employing a similar approach to fixed income portfolios • Partner experience includes: o The Federal Reserve Bank of New York o UBS Global Asset Management o PaineWebber Economic Research o Merrill Lynch Capital Markets
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Best Hedge Fund Manager – Japan
~ Epic Partners was founded in April 2005 to provide investment advice to funds which are offering their investors exposure to Japanese long/short equities. Mitsuhiro Matsunaga, head of investor relations gives us an overview of the firm and the services it offers.
Epic Partners are a Japanese Equity Long Short manager, specializing in a market neutral strategy, operated by the nine professionals of its investment team with a 16 years investment experience on average. Our investment strategy revolves around trying to extract alpha and eliminate market beta in a neutralizing process, focusing on diversification in risk factors, in addition to direct hedges such as using index futures or combining long and short so as to achieve a high quality of risk-adjusted-return. We have also developed new investment approaches over the years following the global financial crisis, and have carved a niche for ourselves as a market neutral specialist. In this capacity we provide investors with a wide range of equity market neutral products. One of our young managers has honed his skills with us in this area and is now posting a three year performance record with more than 3.5 sharp ratio.
CEO: Hidematsu Take Company: Epic Partners Investments Co., Ltd Web: http://www.epic-partners.jp/english/ Address: 32F Kasumigaseki Common Gate West Tower 3-2-1 Kasumigaseki Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 100-0013 Japan Contact: Name: Mitsuhiro Matsunaga Email: matsunaga@epicgroup.jp Telephone: 813-5521-9157
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The firm’s client base includes institutional and individual investors. These investors require a secure investment strategy, and as such we endeavour to offer a portfolio which avoids unnecessary risk. Therefore we implement hedging techniques to reduce market beta and other major risks. Looking to the future, we have a number of exciting plans which will help our firm to expand as a business. Now that our investment skills have been developed and established, we are making efforts to hire talented people to learn Epic’s skill and develop it so as to create excellent performance records.
Smart.
WINNER OF THE BUSINESS EXCELLENCE AWARD FOR A VDR SOLUTION 2015
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Best Alternatives & Managed-Risk Investment Group - USA & Best Variable Annuity Fund: Federated Managed Volatility Fund II
Federated Investors
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Since 1955, millions of investors in the United States and around the globe have relied on Federated Investors, Inc. for world-class investment management.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Company: Federated Investors Web: www.federatedinvestors.com
A global investment manager and one of the nation’s largest, with $351 billion in assets under management, Federated Investors is a financial pioneer. Known for both stability and innovation, it always has taken the long view, believing that diligently doing business the right way over time will present the opportunity for growth. Headquartered in Downtown Pittsburgh with operations in four states and five countries, Federated has honed its disciplined investment process over a half-century to deliver style-consistent investment products, including 129 domestic and international equity, fixed-income and money market funds, as well as a variety of separately managed accounts. Federated’s investment solutions span domestic and international equity, fixed income, alternative and money market strategies, with a diversified product line that is distributed through more than 8,400 financial intermediaries and institutions who assist investors in meeting their unique objectives. John F. Donahue and Richard B. Fisher, two former high school classmates, founded Federated with the assistance of outside legal counsel Thomas J. Donnelly. The entrepreneurial spirit of these three men helped build what Federated has become today and is reflected in the company’s early entry into alternative strategies. Although the concept of alternative products as a “fourth asset class” is relatively new to investors, Federated has had a focus on such products for more than 15 years. We believe investors can benefit by diversifying their portfolios beyond traditional asset classes as a way to potentially reduce volatility without sacrificing long-term returns. Federated’s approach to alternatives Active risk management and risk-versus-reward analysis are the guiding principles of Federated’s alternative investment approach. This investment discipline includes bottom-up fundamental security and industry research paired with top-down credit, global macro insights, market liquidity and policymaking analysis, and the daily use of downside risk management techniques. Federated’s alternatives/managed-risk team oversees a series of managed-risk strategies, including the award-winning Federated Managed Volatility Fund II, which pursues current income and long-term growth. The fund seeks to manage portfolio volatility by using equity index futures, targeting an annualized fund volatility of approximately 10%. It also provides a highly diversified approach to income, investing in high-yielding stocks of undervalued mid- to large-cap companies that are likely to maintain and increase their dividends and in a range of fixed-income sectors that include U.S. government, investment-grade and high-yield corporate, mortgage-backed, international developed and emerging-market bonds. Federated’s stable of alternative funds and products also includes managed risk, trade-finance and absolute return strategies. For more information, please feel free to visit our website, FederatedInvestors.com.
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Best UCITS IV Collective Investment Scheme - Luxembourg & Best European Equities Fund: Finlabo Dynamic Equity
~ Finlabo is a Luxemburg Ucit IV Sicav, offering a set of long short equity funds focused on different geographic areas. Its flagship fund, Finlabo Dynamic Equity, has been one of the best performing fund in the European Long/short Equity category since its inception in 2006. We spoke to Alessandro Guzzini, Co-founder and CEO at Finlabo SIM, investment manager of the fund, to find out how they consistently provide returns in spite of market conditions. The key success factor of our firm is the technological platform that we’ve built in more than 10 years of research in financial markets, that allows us to consistently achieve positive results, through a highly active portfolio management and a non-discretional quantitative approach. Our investment strategy is supported by an extensive level of analysis and research and by a strong risk management framework. The stock selection is supported by a proprietary stock picking model that evaluates about 2,000 stocks daily based on fundamental and technical variables such as valuation multiples, earning momentum, price momentum, etc. Typically, we go long on stocks that are fundamentally undervalued which we believe will bring a positive momentum in terms of price. At the same time, we dynamically hedge the equity portfolio through futures and options. The net exposure of the fund varies depending on the signals of our trend following model, so the fund is net long during bullish trends while maintains a low level of net exposure during bear markets.
Company: Finlabo Sicav Contact Name: Paolo Lo Grillo (Finlabo SICAV), Alessandro Guzzini (Finlabo SIM) Email: info@finlabo.com Web Address: www.finlabosicav.com , www.finlabo.com Address Finlabo Sicav: 42, Rue de la Vallée, L-2661 Luxembourg R.C.S. Luxembourg: B 110 332 Telephone: +352 27 726 100 Addess Finlabo SIM: Corso Persiani, 45. 62019. Recanati. (MC). Italy. Telephone: +39 071 7575053
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This approach has allowed us to generate an average annual return of 6.5% in almost 10 years of activity, outperforming both equity market and hedge funds indices by a very large amount, while maintaining a much lower volatility. In terms of clients, we are mainly targeting institutional investors who are willing to improve the risk/reward ratio of their portfolio by investing in alpha generating funds. Currently, our customer portfolio covers banks, foundations, asset management firms, pension funds and family offices, with activities in UK, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland and other European locations. Looking towards 2016 and beyond, we are very optimistic about the future of our business. An increasing part of our assets under management comes from international clients and we are planning to expand our international presence by appointing distribution partners in the most important European investment centers. On the whole, we believe the post-crisis period is bringing interesting opportunities for the European equity markets and we want to exploit the “new normal” scenario by providing a constant source of alpha to our clients.
Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Best Fund Manager 2016 - Florida & Best Event-Driven Hedge Fund (2 Years): Corfiser Simi Fund
Finser International Corporation
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FINSER International Corporation is an SEC-registered independent investment adviser based in Miami, Florida, with over 20 years of experience. The firm provides portfolio management services to investors, as well as venture advisory services to entrepreneurs. Andrew Jacobus took the time to share with a more detailed look into their services.
Company: Finser International Corporation Contact name: Andrew H. Jacobus Email: ajw@finsergroup.com Web: http://www.finsergroup.com/ Address: 9100 S. Dadeland Boulevard. Suite 1500. MIAMI, FL 3315 Telephone: 001 786 497 7289
Our goal is to provide an unparalleled level of service and wide range of investment of opportunities to our clients, regardless of investment size. We strive to provide important valued added product to our clients, custom made to their specific needs, with emphasis on high quality and personalized attention and believe that there is no substitute for integrity and embrace transparency of information, as well as open, honest communication with our clients in order to make it easy for them to do business with us. Our staff of, professional and experienced, financial advisors are at your service in order to provide you with exactly what you need in terms of your specific objectives. At FINSER International Corporation we are committed to providing you with the service that will make you feel comfortable and secure. We provide personalized investment management and advisory services, and offer our clients the possibility of opening individual investment accounts through our partnerships with leading North American and European banks. We also manage fixed-income and equity investment funds, employing long/short strategies, and focused on the North American and Latin American capital markets. Our value-driven approach combines intensive due diligence with precisely defined risk controls. Moreover, we provide consulting and capital-raising advisory services to entrepreneurs, helping them launch and grow venture projects. We work with our entrepreneur-partners to design growth plans and financing structures, and leverage our investor base to raise funds. We pride ourselves in the expertise which we bring to each engagement and are guided by the words of Benjamin Graham for ‘The Intelligent Investor’; “The art of investing has one characteristic that is not generally appreciated. A credible, if unspectacular, result can be achieved by the lay investor with a minimum of effort and capability; but to improve this easily attainable standard requires much application and more than a trace of wisdom.”
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Most Consistent Offshore Fixed Income Fund & Most Dynamic Investment Product 2016
~ FTM was founded in 2009 as a direct response to the global financial crisis. It was created as a way for family, friends and clients to be able to sleep at night no matter what was happening throughout the broader global economy and still generate consistent returns. Endre Dobozy took some time to speak with us, sharing some insights into the firm’s award winning work.
After seeing global markets tumble, we stepped back, looked at what worked and what didn’t and decided to create an investment strategy that could generate returns commensurate with the markets long term averages, avoiding the rollercoaster ride generally associated investing. Despite many hedge funds struggling this year and most markets being down FTM has remained unaffected. FTM Class A launched in March 2010 has just had its 70th positive month in a row. In fact, we have never had a negative month and our return net of fees to November is 62.81%. Our approach is to never forget that we are dealing with client’s money and that they trust us to grow their wealth. Accordingly, we don’t take unnecessary risks, always ensuring the safety of their investment first. We don’t worry about remaining on the cutting edge; we stick to what works for us, looking at the ways we can expand business while keeping risks to a minimum. Our job is to eliminate as much risk as possible but continue to generate returns for our clients. Company: FTM Limited Contact name: Endre Dobozy Email: endre@ftmmutual.com Web: www.ftmmutual.com FTM YouTube video presentation http://youtu.be/-oQ2wSRKdJ0 Telephone +678 238 39
FTM differentiates itself from other funds in that we don’t employ leverage instead we purchase receivables at a rate of $3 for every dollar invested. The other way we differ is through our consistent returns which, since inception, equates to an annualized return of 8.84%. When it comes to staff, I look for people who genuinely have a passion for investing, think outside the box and genuinely want to help our clients reach their goals. As for clients, my number one criteria is, if I saw you walking down the street, would I happily have a conversation with you or would I cross the street hoping to avoid you? Our goal is to expand our assets under managements but we can only do this by using a waiting list. The reason is if we have good quality receivables but no cash to fund, then we may not get an opportunity to deal with this company again if we have too much cash and no good quality receivables to purchase when we dilute our clients returns. It’s a bit of a tight rope which is why I would like to implement a ‘waiting list’ approach, so I know I can fund when I need to without diluting our existing clients returns.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Best Full-Service Administrator 2016 - USA
Fundadministration, Inc
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Fundadministration specializes in working with emerging and established Hedge Fund Managers, particularly with clients who are overlooked by larger administrative firms. Denise DePaola, Chief Executive Officer and Nick J. Neri, Chief Operating Officer provide us with a fascinating insight into this dedicated company.
Company: Fundadministration, Inc Website: http://www.fundadministration.com/ Address: 4175 Veterans Memorial Hwy, Suite 204 Ronkonkoma. New York 11779 Tel: (631)737-4500 Fax:(631)737-4513 Nick Neri nneri@fundadministration.com
Fundadministration provides professional advice and hands on support to help their clients grow their assets and build their business. The service is tailored to each client’s needs to ensure they receive exactly what they need. Nick explains how the firm has stayed at the top of their industry despite facing stiff competition. “As a firm we have stayed ahead of the competition by providing exceptional leadership and a proactive approach to supporting our clients.” Alongside their dedication to client service, the firm has enhanced its technology in order to offer clients better quality service. Denise explains how this technology has helped the company to support their clients and stay ahead of emerging legislative changes: “There are a number of new industry regulations which we have had to contend with in recent years, and in order to adapt to these we have implemented new software called KYCSphere, which is an advanced AML system that tracks our investor base in real time. We have also implemented Appasure technology for redundancy as well as develop XLM files for FATCA reporting. This new technology is particularly vital as regulations are changing our role in the industry, which is proving a challenge for our clients. Here in the US, auditors cannot edit the financial statements of Registered Financial Advisors, so we have taken on that responsibility. Therefore our workload is becoming greater but this enables us to add value to our services, so while the firm is in a period of change we are pleased to be able to offer further support to our clients.” Success within the financial industry comes in many forms, but Denise highlights that there are two vital factors to ensuring it: “People and technology are vital to ensuring our success. We have seasoned professionals and state of the art technology.” Nick adds that the firm’s superior staff and technology enables them to offer world class service, which is how they have stayed ahead in their competitive industry. “We believe in partnering with our clients, not just serving them. The support we provide for our clients goes above and beyond the call of a fund administrator.” These additional services include offering quarterly roundtables for investors where experts provide advice to investment managers on how to raise capital and enhance their marketing. Additionally the firm sponsors an asset allocator summit to assist clients in this area. Ultimately both Nick and Denise agree that their overall client service strategy is epitomised in their firm’s tagline: “Anyone can be a service provider. Let us be your service partner.”
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Best Boutique Firm - UK & Best for Manager Selection - UK
Gatemore Capital Management
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Gatemore Capital Management is an investment advisory firm working primarily with pension funds. We invited Mark Hodgson to give us an insight into the firm and the work it does.
Company: Gatemore Capital Management Phone +44 (0) 20 7580 0300 Fax +44 (0) 20 7990 9469 Email info_uk@gatemore.com Address: 33 Cavendish Square London W1G 0PW
Established in 2005, Gatemore began in the US as a multi-family office but soon after launch began working with a UK pension scheme. Following strong returns through the crisis and a service orientated business model we formally launched a London office in 2009. Over the last six years we have built up a strong business with over ÂŁ1bn under advice, the foundation of which involves differentiating ourselves from our competitors by building up diversified portfolios and focusing on fund managers who are under the radar of lager investment advisors. This approach has proven successful, and our client portfolios have been performing well year on year, holding up particularly well in times of crisis. This can also be attributed to our portfolio construction and attitude to risk. We build portfolios from the bottom up, with a real focus on finding tomorrows performers. We undertake deep diligence on managers who operate in specialist areas away from the herd and who have a real competitive advantage. Those managers are then added to portfolios only if they bring something different and we can demonstrate that risk-adjusted returns will be improved. This is true diversification across drivers of return and across manager styles. Our track record has shown that this is a successful approach and intuitively it makes sense. Finding managers that are rewarded by return not AUM and where the PM is still at the coal face, should result in performance. However, this year we really wanted to quantify what we had seen in portfolios and so we commissioned a study by CASS Business School, which showed that smaller funds do in fact outperform the larger and more established funds particularly within the long/ short space, and especially in times of market stress. This proved what we were seeing and that size was, indeed, the enemy of performance. Looking to the future we are keen to grow organically as a business, whilst continuing to offer sound advice and support to our clients. Our investment approach and service model has served us well, and we will continue to develop and search for new fund opportunities as we look towards 2016 and beyond.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Best for Boutique Administrative Services - Bahamas
Genesis Fund Services Limited
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Genesis is a leader in the fund services industry, providing financial services support to individuals, family offices and institutions world-wide.
Company: Genesis Fund Services Limited Website: http://genesisfundservices.com/
The firm’s specialized capabilities include accounting, back office operations, corporate services and RTA services. Serving a wide range of clients the firm provides boutique administrative services to hedge fund managers, commodity pool operators, family offices, banks and trust companies, and high net worth individuals from within The Commonwealth of The Bahamas. Clients appreciate the firm for their consistent high performance and value-driven services, ensuring lasting relationships which are the hallmark to the firm’s successful approach. Additionally the firm’s underlying corporate culture considers client needs first and foremost, and relationships are built on a warm but disciplined approach. The firm delivers timely solutions based on customer-defined criteria and always strive to exceed expectations. The Bahamas has long been recognized as a leading destination for wealth oriented investors. The region’s legal system and cultural heritage foster unprecedented investment value, privacy and security for people throughout the world. As an independent international financial centre, the Bahamian legal system and cultural heritage foster unprecedented investment value, privacy and security for people throughout the world. As such it is the ideal area for Genesis to operate, working within this dynamic and invigorating industry to deliver excellence constantly. While Nassau is the firm’s home base, they serve a diverse clientele with the stated commitment to deliver true customer satisfaction through performance. To achieve this, Genesis administers a wide range of Cayman and BVI domiciled funds, but more fund managers are looking to the firm for fund administrative services in view of The Bahamas’ favourable legislation and sovereign status.
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Best Asia Pacific Multi-Strategy Hedge Fund Manager Best Asian Multi-Strategy Hedge Fund: KS Asia Absolute Return Fund IC Best Asian Credit Hedge Fund: KS Korea Credit Fund 1IC
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We invited Kyle Shin to provide us with an overview of the firm’s newest venture into credit investing.
Company: Gen2 Partners Limited Phone: 852 37274500 Fax: 852 3727 4545 Website: www.gen2ks.com
Gen2 Partners is one of the 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. Our investment team is highly experienced and work collaboratively with a network of industry contacts to support growth across our fund portfolio. As a company we have a Pan-Asian multi-asset strategy fund with flexibility across capital structures with a niche and focus on Korean corporates and investment grade credits, especially Asian bank capital. This move into Korean credit investing has resulted in fruitful results following our identification of an innovative point of entry into this market. We are able to offer a unique service to investors in Korea, because we are based in Hong Kong and are therefore not subject to Korea’s stringent investment regulations. These regulations, which I believe are inefficient, state that onshore credit investors cannot invest more than 20% in offshore foreign currency denominated Korean bonds in primary issuance. Therefore firms such as ours are able to offer Korean investors a solution to these regulations. This supports both our clients and our firm, as we now have a strong position in the premier offshore foreign currency denominated Korean bonds market in Hong Kong. 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 exclusively in investment grade fixed income funds based in Asia, never 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 six 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 in these poorly rated bonds and reap benefits accordingly. 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 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. In the last month the Korean government changed the regulations in the hedge fund market, allowing offshore firms such as mine to set up subsidiaries within the Korean market. Therefore moving forward I am keen to take advantage of these regulatory changes and directly access offshore Korean investors by creating a branch of the Gen2 Group in the region. We are currently in discussion with a major bank to set up the fund in Korea, and they will supply us with the capital we initially need for this venture. The new laws will make it much easier for us to achieve success in the Korean market, as they have lowered the bar and we are eager to take full advantage of this. There will be many other asset managers moving into Korea and this will provide us with new challenges, but overall these developments are very exciting and provide us with invigorating new opportunities. In addition we are planning to invest in one of the reputable asset investment firms in Korea, seeking to hold a 20% equity stake and become the second largest stake holder in the firm. Overall I believe that these developments will make 2016 an exciting year for Gen2.
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Best Emerging Manager 2016 - California
Gratia Capital LLC
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Gratia Capital is a multi-strategy value/event-driven hedge fund seeking to maximize risk-adjusted returns through opportunistic investments across the capital structure in its focal sectors - Consumer, Industrials, and Real Estate
Company: Gratia Capital LLC Address: 2029 Century Park East Suite 1180 Los Angeles, CA 90067 United States Phone: 310-733-2500 Fax: 310-843-9414
Established in 2012, Gratia Capital, LLC is an employee owned hedge fund sponsor primarily providing its services to pooled investment vehicles. Currently the firm has 590 MM dollars in regulatory assets under management and has 10 employees, of which six perform investment advisory functions. The firm invests in the public equity markets across the globe with a focus on United States. The firm invests in value stocks of companies. Additionally it also employs event-oriented and opportunistic strategy. The firm uses fundamental analysis to make its investments. By combining in-house and external research to make its investments the firm reduces the risk for investors. It typically invests in companies in consumer, industrials, and real estate sectors. Gratia Capital, LLC was founded in April 2012 and is based in Los Angeles, California.
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Best Long Biased Emerging Manager
Greenhaven Road Capital Fund 1
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Greenhaven Road Capital is a long-biased, concentrated hedge fund. They invest only in their very best ideas – typically 15 long positions and a handful of opportunistic short positions. At a time when the S&P 500 is invested in fewer than 10% of listed companies, opportunity is ripe for a fund to examine the other 90%. In a world of high frequency trading and passive strategies, they believe there is a place for patient capital focused on old fashioned stock picking.
Company: MVM Funds Name: Greenhaven Road Capital Email: scott@greenhavenroad.com Web Address: www.greenhavenroad.com Address: 8 Sound Shore Road, Suite 190 - Greenwich CT, 06830
Greenhaven Road Capital doesn’t want to own the same ideas and get the same returns as everyone else in the market. “We carefully cultivate the unusual to create a lasting, uncommon portfolio” explains Scott Miller of Greenhaven Road Capital. He adds that company is “not constrained by size and as a result can invest in smaller companies” which are more likely to have these three characteristics: • Limited Analyst Coverage; • High Insider Ownership; • Higher Growth Potential. “Historically these companies have outperformed the broader market, particularly when selected with a value focus” Miller underlines. Looking to the future for Greenhaven Road, he says the company “is and will be a boutique asset manager with an investment committee of our aspirations are to remain small, not to manage billions”. He adds that, “our satisfaction is gained by the amount of outperformance, not the size of the paycheck. Any growth that occurs will be measured with a returns first philosophy. This is not a 2/20 hedge fund where a team is feasting off of management fees. The portfolio manager and his family are the largest investors in the fund. The fees are modelled after the early Buffett partnerships. Greenhaven Road makes money with limited partners, not off of them. “ “Our limited partners are typically high net worth individuals and family offices that appreciate independent thinking and a portfolio with very little overlap to their existing holdings” Miller concludes. To learn more about the fund and read investor letters please visit www.greenhavenroad.com
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Best Hedge Fund Administrator
~ Harmonic Fund Services is an independent financial services firm specializing in the global alternative investments industry. It was established in 2003 by industry practitioners from a leading alternative investments manager and a well-established fund services provider. They offer services and technology to hedge funds, funds of funds, private equity funds, private banks, pension funds and family offices. Company: Harmonic Fund Services Name: Allen Bernardo Email: Allen.bernardo@harmonic.ky Web Address: www.harmonic.ky Address: Cayman Corporate Centre, 27 Hospital Road, 4th floor, P.O. Box 940 GT, KY1-1102 Cayman Islands Telephone: +1 345 949 0090
Clients benefit from years of buy side experience and insights gained during a period of rapid growth in the industry that began in the early nineties. Clients range from emerging managers that engage in relatively simple trading strategies to large well known financial institutions that invest in a broad range of complex trading strategies through various collective investment structures. Their working relationships are collaborative using dedicated teams organized to suit any manager, trading strategy or fund structure. They work closely with prime brokers, technologists, lawyers and accountants to deliver a seamless service. The firm’s industry professionals bring extensive experience in the areas of fund administration, accounting, risk, asset management, banking and technology. A combination of top calibre staff and a progressive infrastructure enables Harmonic Fund Services to deliver a premium service. They currently operate offices in Cayman, Geneva, Dublin and Toronto. Fund Administration Harmonic offers a comprehensive range of fund administration services for alternative investment managers. Additionally they offer hybrid solutions that typically involve some combination of technology, custom development and services based on FM3, their asset management platform. The firm’s experience and expertise combined with a culture of collaboration accrue to the benefit of managers and their investors that wish to achieve today’s expected institutional quality operating construct and best practice standards. In-house development capability allows us to respond rapidly to new business initiatives, market and regulatory changes. Harmonic’s processes are SOC 1 certified. Operations Outsourcing Harmonic’s outsourcing operations allows managers to reduce costs, mitigate burdens associated with internal infrastructure, or enhance an existing implementation. They offer full middle and back office services in addition to trade desk support. Clients may choose to fully outsource their operations or select specific services on an à la carte basis, for example assistance with a treasury function such as collateral management. They help to address challenges faced by start-ups, emerging and emerged managers, private banks, pension funds and family offices with customized services, infrastructure and software. Deployed on their institutional-grade FM3 platform, Harmonic service level partnerships deliver dedicated operations excellence across the entire investment process. FM3 Technology The firm provides comprehensive fund management technology for portfolio management, investor management, multi-currency accounting, compliance and risk. Developed in-house, FM3 was designed to support the range of services they offer and is made available to clients either bundled with fund administration, as stand-alone software or as a software plus services arrangement. It supports front, middle and back office functions and is integrated with a number of third party systems. Among many unique features, it supports specialized functionality for fund of funds and private equity management.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Award for Innovation in Systematic Strategies & Most Sustainable Quantitative Strategy Fund: Helios Fund
Hyperion Capital Advisors
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Company: Hyperion Capital Advisors LLC Name: Chris Sullivan AWMA, CMT, and CRPC - Portfolio Manager Email: csullivan@hyperioncp.com Web: www.hyperioncp.com Adrress: 270 W. New England Ave Winter Park, Fl 32751 Telephone: 407-935-1040
Hyperion Capital Advisors, LLC is a quantitative based investment manager with the following objectives, typically working with high-net worth individuals, family offices, and small institutions: • Provide investors with empirical-based investment solutions combining technology and machine intelligence with human awareness and oversight; • Provide competitive equity returns with reduced risk and volatility of the broader equity indices; • Provide long term capital appreciation via the compounding of high probability, short duration trades. Helios Fund is a multi-strategy systematic quantitative long/short equity fund. The strategies include unique proprietary methodology in trend following, mean reversion and our approach to managing risk include disciplined and defined process. Position limits, cognitive self-evolving stop losses, and static model max loss stop losses of 10%. Chris Sullivan Portfolio Manager at Hyperion Capital Advisors LLC goes on to explain that for example, “trading objectives; profit targets and stop losses, for example on Costco, differ greatly than those on Amazon. In addition, we also reserve the discretion to sit out or delay trading signals for up to two days to ensure good execution and potentially to avoid systemic events.” He then goes on to outline how the firm’s approach is “to allow the algorithmic system to allocate trades across the strategies in an overweight/underweight fashion that capitalize reactively to trend, momentum, and mean reversion. We strive to have low correlation to the broader equity markets and seek to manage risk simply by having days where the model is out of the market (which YTD has been 27% of the time)” Sullivan details. “Further, we’ve designed cognitive algorithms to recognize optimal risk reward ratios based on an individual security basis. Lastly, liquidity matters, as we rank the top 500 most liquid constituents of the Russell 1000 (on a 30 day basis) before they enter the model. Our overriding philosophy in terms of choosing funds to invest in would be diversify via strategy. Data suggests that combinations of strategies such as value and momentum yield more alpha with lower volatility for long term investors” he adds. One step ahead To remain on the cutting edge, Chris Sullivan explains that “we keep track of trends within technology specifically machine learning and data, as well as have strong industry strategic partnerships that help uncover development and investment opportunities in process and infrastructure. These strategic partnerships such as our Administrator Kaufman Rossin Fund Services, auditor PWC, brokers Cantor Fitzgerald and Goldman Sachs, ensure that clients receive the highest service, transparency, and best execution.” Furthermore, Sullivan believes that the diligence and humility of his company as well as our constant willingness to evolve help differentiate us from competitors. “For staff, we are looking for folks with pedigree, determination, and skill but people who can also thrive at filling niches within our practice to ensure diversity in viewpoint and application with each role definitive in adding value” he says. “For clients, we are looking for gaps in portfolio allocation, specifically when it comes to equity exposure. Clients who are looking for the growth potential of equities, but prefer accessing it through a highly disciplined investment vehicle with defined trading goals and objectives” he explains. Days to come Ending the interview on a positive note, “the future is exciting, as technology evolves trading methodologies and applications evolve with it” Sullivan conveys. “Our focus is on the combination of traditional trading disciplines with the evolution of technology. To clarify, our position is that the combination of human and machine may outperform purely black-box machine only strategies over time” he continues. “We are grateful for our near term achievements and our focused on serving our clients capital to the best of our abilities and earning the right to grow.”
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Best Multi-Strategy Asset Manager - Finland (HCP Black Fund) & Best New Sustainability Fintech (#HCPSPIRIT)
HELSINKI CAPITAL PARTNERS
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Helsinki Capital Partners (HCP) offers service for four different partner groups. Of the four products of the company three are investment funds and the fourth service is separate managed accounts. HCP operates mainly in two countries, Finland and Sweden and has clients in eight different countries.
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HCP Black is a multi-strategy fund managed by CEO Tommi Kemppainen who develops this point in an exclusive interview with AI Global Media. “HCP Black aims for high risk-adjusted returns through active diversification. Instead of trying to buy as many assets within as many asset classes as possible, or analysing the historical correlation between securities, work is done on the fundamentals of each investment, estimating future returns and differences in risks to achieve as wide a diversification as possible” he explains, before giving a number of instances of the type of investments they deal with. Private Investors The biggest project in 2014 was launching the HCP Quant fund with Pasi Havia. “Pasi was the most widely read finance blogger in Finland, with his original approach to investing and saving, and his focus on increasing financial literacy. The launch of HCP Quant rebuilt this private investor partner group. Numerically this is our largest partner group, and measured in AUM it is also one of the most important. The service offering has also evolved to include a monthly newsletter and virtual meetings held by Pasi” details Kemppainen.
Company: Helsinki Capital Partners Name: Tommi Kemppainen Email: tommi.kemppainen@helsinkicapitalpartners.com Web Address: www.helsinkicapitalpartners.com Address: Kaapelitehdas inner court, Tallberginkatu 1 D 5th floor 00180 Helsinki, Finland Telephone: +358 9 689 88 481
Institutions The institutional partner group is built mainly on HCP’S work with Finnish foundations. This partner group differs from the private investor partner group in that the total amount of AUM is large but the number of individual clients is relatively small. “Working with the third sector (the non-profit sector) is an important part of our business. Ernst Grönblom is in charge of this partner group. Ernst has published papers on how foundations may optimize their investing to better support the purpose of the foundation. At the end of 2014 our institutional client base included six major charitable foundations as well as a large number of smaller investment companies (e.g. family offices)” Kemppainen explains. Professional Athletes Kemppainen then highlights that HCP offers a service for professional athletes that is “customized to take into account the athlete’s season and other aspects specific to their careers. Everything in the service is built to support the athlete’s life and performance. Great attention is paid to make sure that HCP avoids unnecessary disturbances of the athlete’s work and season. Timo Vertala is responsible for this partner group together with Josef Boumedienne, both of which have made a career in professional ice hockey” he Kemppainen explains. Artists “Our collaboration in cultural projects is mainly carried out on a pro-bono basis. The relationship with artists and cultural producers creates an interest in our values, reputation and economic performance. The whole process of collaboration defines the social responsible relationship of a company and the surrounding society. HCP listens, observes and investigates its surroundings and creates possibilities for artists and cultural producers on demand, when it seems that with a reasonable effort and limited amount of money HCP can enable an already very valuable project to thrive. Elias Koski is responsible for this partner group and works together with Farrél Boussir from #HCPSPIRIT Label.” The hedge fund industry is an incredibly diverse and fast-paced place to do business. How can HCP ensure they remain on the cutting edge of new developments are best placed to meet their clients’ needs? “We seem to have gained a reputation as a collective that is ready to look at all new ideas as long as they are in line with our values. This year we had two summer interns and one 14-year-old trainee and the third trainee will start at year-end. Many people wanting to pitch their investment strategies to us, in case we would want to start working on it together.” Working in such a competitive industry, how does HCP differentiate your business from that of your competitors? “Having all three HCP fund in the best 25% of their peer groups differentiates us from the rest. Within that group of 25%, all reflections from the strong values steering everything we do is an increasingly visible thing that also differentiates” Socially Responsible Investing (SRI) is the future HCP are working hard to gain more tools for responsible investing. “Currently 31% of HCP Black is impact investing and the 16% allocation into HCP Focus is following the negative screening method for SRI” Kemppainen explains. “For HCP Quant the challenge is that it holds stocks typically only six months and also focuses on small and midcap companies that do not typically find the resources for even reporting on sustainability. We are right now in a process to start a research project with an outside partner company to enable small and midcap companies to more efficiently and with less recourse communicate on the sustainability issues. This would enable us to test SRI through negative screening into HCP Quant funds multifactor model in some year’s time. The hypothesis being, that it would increase profits of this strategy” he adds. “It is naturally important to have our funds performing well. Best Multi-Strategy Asset Manager - Finland (HCP Black Fund). Still after reading your publication, I think that the way we have incorporated CSR into all we do through the #HCPSPIRIT work, is something that your readers would probably be even more interested to read about and also a theme that we very much like to talk about as it can work as a good example for someone and perhaps instantiate some new sustainable business models and some new sustainable financial innovations. Best New Sustainability Fintech (#HCPSPIRIT) is best explained on www.hcpspirit.com in the CSR Audit (GRI4) and ‘What is it’”.
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Best Risk Management Product 2016
Imagine Software, Inc.
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Established in 1993, Imagine is the leading provider of real-time portfolio, risk management and regulatory solutions for financial services companies worldwide. Imagine works with firms of all sizes and complexity, including banks, brokerage firms, asset managers, funds of funds and pension funds, including Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale, Macquarie Bank, Invesco, Millennium Partners, Arrowgrass, BlueBay Asset Managers, Henderson Global Investors and Nine Masts Capital among others.
Company: Imagine Software Name: Scott Sherman Title: Co-Founder and Head of Business Development & Sales Web Address: www.imaginesoftware.com Address: 22 Cortlandt Street, 32nd Floor, New York, NY 10007 Telephone: 001.212.317.7600
Imagine is the risk technology engine that drives entire front-to-back office operations. Firms use the Imagine platform as a traditional enterprise installation or as a full-service, cloud-based ASP. From real-time ticking prices, yield curves, volatility surfaces and correlations, to a global security master and corporate actions processing, Imagine delivers all of the data and analytics needed for daily operations and management. In an interview with the firm’s Co-Founder and Head of Global Business Development and Sales, Scott Sherman, he explains the current state of the industry, including how it has changed over recent years, as well as the most significant developments and challenges facing the business. “Increased regulatory scrutiny has become a significant challenge for all hedge funds, and Imagine is playing an instrumental role in helping firms meet data management and reporting requirements,” Sherman said. “Imagine has been processing real-time data on every listed product globally and all major asset classes and trading strategies for 22 years, so we are perfectly situated to help our clients keep pace with any risk and compliance demands,” added Sherman. In 2015, for example, Sherman added, Imagine created a margin calculation tool “that gives financial practitioners the ability to independently predetermine and confirm prime broker margin requirements and efficiently deploy capital.” With Imagine’s margin solution, said Sherman, firms can calculate the margin requirement on a portfolio utilizing various exchange rules, Reg T. or even “house rules” that a prime broker would use. “Managers can stress test up to fifteen factors simultaneously, custom-build their own tests and create user-defined views. The margin tool enhances managers’ ability to anticipate, prepare for an event and avoid untimely margin calls” Sherman said. The hedge fund industry is incredibly diverse and fast-paced, so how does a firm such as Imagine remain on the cutting edge of new developments and ensure that they are best placed to meet clients’ needs? “The Imagine system was built to help firms respond to and manage changing market conditions. For hedge funds that do not have internal risk management resources – and even those that do – Imagine can help manage every facet of risk management, from monitoring and assessing risk, to identifying breaches in real-time, evaluating exposures, conducting stress tests and more,” Sherman responds. “Imagine’s responsive and flexible platform allows clients to tap directly into our technology platform – particularly valuable for firms without robust internal systems – to build proprietary applications with or without our assistance – which is, and will continue to be, a great differentiator going forward” Sherman explains when quizzed about working in such a competitive industry and distinguishing the business from that of Imagine’s competitors. “Today, more than 85% of Imagine’s clients access our platform to create bespoke applications for a full range of risk, portfolio management and compliance operations, as well as proprietary functionalities” he adds.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Best Fund Management Boutique & Best Emerging Market Focused Fund: Prodigy Asia & Emerging Markets Fund
Independent UCITS Platform
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The Independent UCITS Platform is a Luxembourg based fund infrastructure created to address the needs of specialist managers/entrepreneurs who wish to retain flexibility, freedom and independence when they establish their own UCITS funds.
Company: Independent UCITS Platform Name: Hugh Hunter Email: hugh.hunter@prodigycapital.net Web Address: www.independentucits.com Address: Suite 3A, 17-20 Ironmonger Lane, London, EC2V 8EP United Kingdom Telephone: 020 7495 9605
The Platform is designed to make it quick, easy and cost effective to set up a UCITS fund, without undergoing the time and expense of establishing and maintaining a new SICAV vehicle. The structure is particularly suitable for managers wishing to re-engineer an existing offshore fund or to replicate an offshore strategy in a UCITS fund. Key benefits They manage and provide assistance in the take-on process, ensuring that the launch of new funds is quick and easy. • Their extensive experience of fund launches and complex transactions (such as re-domiciliation and cross-border mergers of UCITS) simplifies the daunting task of adapting existing strategies to the UCITS framework; • Fund costs are tightly controlled, to ensure the Total Expense Ratio (“TER”) of a fund with assets of €15m is below the crucial level of 1% ex-management fees. The Platform makes no claim on management, performance or distribution fees, so managers keep the revenue they earn; • Investment managers have control over branding, distribution and management of their own funds*. The underlying administrative and legal structure is designed to be invisible so each fund on the Platform is effectively fully independent and appears to investors as a stand-alone product; • Funds on the Platform benefit from world class service providers, including Citi which acts as the custodian and fund administrator. The principals at Andbank were pioneers in the creation of platform structures in Luxembourg in the late 1990s; • The Platform is also independent of distributors, marketing firms, large asset management companies and investment banks. Therefore, managers can choose who will distribute their funds and which counterparties will execute their trades. Platform-level arrangements have been established for execution, derivative transactions and, critically, distribution. There is no need for managers to spend valuable time “reinventing the wheel”; • Independent UCITS has quickly become a leading provider of platform services in Luxembourg since it was established in September 2012. The Platform has achieved a critical mass of five funds and assets over US$120m. A further five new funds will be launched in 1H 2014 and there is a pipeline of new funds to be launched later in the year. Hugh Hunter (Founder) Hugh Hunter, CFA graduated from Plymouth Polytechnic in 1981. His career has involved quantitative analysis and emerging market investment management at Baring Asset Management, LGT and WestLB, before being appointed as CEO of Blackfriars Asset Management. In 2011 Hugh was appointed CEO of Prodigy Capital Partners LLP and has responsibility for the Independent UCITS Platform. Hugh has been a CFA Charterholder since 1993.
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Best Alternative Investment Manager - Switzerland
Jabre Capital Partners SA
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Jabre Capital is an Alternative Investment advisor based in Geneva. Cofounder Mark Cecil provides us with a unique insight into this exciting and dynamic company.
Company: Jabre Capital Partners SA Name: Mark Cecil Email: mark.cecil@jabcap.net; yassir.rezqi@jabcap.com Web Address: www.jabcap.com Address: 1 rue des Moulins – 1204 Geneva - Switzerland Telephone: +41 22 556 22 00
Jabre Capital was established by Philippe Jabre in 2007 and invests globally across a broad range of liquid equity related products. We serve a wide client base extending from family offices through to sovereign wealth funds. Currently the firm manages approximately USD 1.8b across a number of offshore and UCITS regulated funds. Across all strategies, the investment process combines a thorough stock selection process with a broad based macro overlay. The firm employs approximately 50 people with investment specialists split across asset classes and regions. We manage risk by focussing on liquidity, active asset management and using cash as an asset class. We optimise returns by taking a non-benchmarked absolute return approach and investing opportunistically with a clear entrance and exit strategy. Looking towards the future we are excited about the medium term prospects for our firm and fund. At the firm level, the investment community have been too focussed on low volatility low return strategies and are now realising that they are not well positioned to take advantage of a higher growth environment. At the funds level, our markets have been in the doldrums for several years and valuations are heading towards compelling levels. As we move to a higher growth environment, we can expect a focus and rerating of certain markets which could be very rewarding.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Best Long/Short Emerging Markets Fund: JABCAP EMEA Master Fund Limited
Jabre Capital Partners SA
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An Alternative Investment Advisor based in Geneva, established by Philippe Jabre in 2007, Jabre Capital Partners invests globally across a broad range of liquid equity related products with a diversified client base extending from family offices through to sovereign wealth funds. Mark Cecil from the firm made himself available to us to tell us about the firms work and what winning this award means to the firm. Company: Jabre Capital Partners SA Contact name: Mark Cecil Email: markcecil@me.com; yassir.rezqi@jabcap.com Web address: www.jabcap.com Telephone: +41 22 556 22 00 Address: rue des Moulins – 1204 Geneva - Switzerland
The JABCAP EMEA Fund is an emerging market fund with a focus on the EMEA region. The investment objective of the JABCAP EMEA Fund (the “Fund”) is to target capital appreciation with an absolute return focus through a top-down investment approach. The Portfolio Manager’s macro view will determine the strategy’s asset allocation and both long and short investments may be made across asset classes, although mainly in equity and debt securities. In addition, the Fund may also use futures and options as well as FX. We manage risk by focussing on liquidity, active asset management and using cash as an asset class. We optimise returns by taking a non-benchmarked absolute return approach and investing opportunistically with a clear entrance and exit strategy. JABCAP has a large infrastructure that ensures we are able to keep pace with the rapidly evolving Market, Risk, Legal and Regulatory environment. It also ensures that our managers can focus on the investment side of the business. Our key differentiation from other businesses within this competitive industry will always be based around strong out-performance against both that of the underlying markets and our competition. Our belief is that experience is key to building up a strong team. There is no shortage of smart motivated people; however, finding people with a deep understanding of our markets is more difficult. We have been fortunate to have built up such a strong team. Although our clients choose us and not the other way round, we do spend as much time getting to know them as we do when screening potential employees. When engaging with a new client we spend a great deal of time ensuring that they understand the nature of the markets in which we invest and the return profile they should expect based on our joint work. We are excited about the medium term prospects for our firm and fund. At the firm level, investors have been too focussed on low volatility low return strategies and are now realising that they are not well positioned to taking advantage of a higher growth environment. At the Fund level, our markets have been in the doldrums for several years and valuations are heading towards compelling levels. As we move to a higher growth environment, we can expect a focus and rerating of certain markets which could be very rewarding. We are very proud to be recognised for outstanding performance during such a difficult period and look forward to fully taking advantage of a hopefully easier period ahead.
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Best Hedge Fund Adviser - Ireland
KPMG
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KPMG is a global network of professional firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. They operate in 155 countries and have more than 162,000 people working in member firms around the world. The independent member firms of the KPMG network are affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such. Company: KPMG Name: Feargal O’Reilly Email: feargal.oreilly@kpmg.ie Web Address: www.kpmg.com Address: 1 Stokes Place, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin, Ireland Telephone: 00353 1 410 1000
KPMG Ireland KPMG Ireland work with clients in all sectors of Irish business, helping ambitious companies and individuals make the most of opportunities through their range of audit, tax and advisory services. Their 87 partners and over 1900 people are based in conveniently located offices in Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Galway. Values & culture At the core of KPMG’s culture is a set of values that bring out the best in their people and help contribute to their clients’ success. These values help the firm work together and bind themcloser as a global organisation They lead by example at all levels and they act in a way that exemplifies what they expect of each other and of their clients. They work together to bring out the best in each other and create strong and successful working relationships. They respect the individual. They respect people for who they are and for their knowledge, skills and experience as individuals and team members. They seek the facts and provide insight by challenging assumptions and pursuing facts they strengthen their reputation as trusted and objective business advisers. They are open and honest in their communication. Also, they share information, insight and advice frequently and constructively and manage tough situations with courage and candour. They are committed to their communities and act as responsible corporate citizens by broadening their skills, experience and perspectives through work in their communities. Above all, they act with integrity The firm consistently strives to uphold the highest professional standards, provide sound advice and rigorously maintain their independence. Their values are at the heart of their Global Code of Conduct. The code defines the standards of conduct they require of their people in KPMG member firms worldwide. Transparency Report 2014 Their vision is one that sees KPMG as the Clear Choice professional services firm in Ireland. Being that benchmark requires them to be, amongst other things: • The Number One Firm by Reputation; • A firm that is Significantly Differentiated by Quality, and; • A firm with the very Best People. At the heart of that vision is quality - quality which maintains and builds further the trust that their stakeholders have in the firm’s ability to provide services of the highest quality. In providing statutory audit services, KPMG Ireland’s partners and their teams are governed by one overarching goal - which is bound up in their public, professional and deep personal interest - that is, to provide audits of the very highest quality. It is the benchmark by which they measure themselves.
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Best Swiss Banking Law Firm 2016 & Recognised Leader in Regulatory Finance Law - Switzerland
lecocqassociate
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‘Lecocqassociate’ is a boutique Swiss law firm with its main office in Switzerland, and with corporate and finance regulatory presence in Malta and United Arab Emirates. Dominique Lecoq, Managing Partner, spoke with us recently to give us further insights into his Law Firm
Company: lecocqassociate Contact name: Dominique Lecocq Email: drl@lecocqassociate.com Telephone: 0041 22 707 93 33
We specialize in selected areas, including regulatory banking, collective investments, corporate finance, regulatory insurance, Islamic finance and private equity. With regulatory banking and broker-dealing operations in Malta, the UAE as well as here in Switzerland, we are fully prepared to offer services in structuring operations including maintaining compliance and anti-money laundering functions. We also advise on all banking regulatory aspects such as including drafting of all internal required directives, best practice circulars, internal controls and risk management, banking secrecy and cross border transactions and solutions. When working in collective investment schemes, exchange traded funds or exchange traded commodities, our services revolve around the incorporations, structuring and licensing of Swiss, Maltese, Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, the United States and Emirates (mainland and Free Zones) funds. We advise on investment management and investment advisory agreements. Additionally, we review and advise on all service provider agreements including prime brokerage agreements, ISDA, OSLA, custodian agreements and administration agreements. Rounding out our services in this area we prepare fund prospectuses, term sheets and all other related documents. Switzerland is the ideal location for making our headquarters. The Swiss private banking model is based of two regulatory licenses. A banking license will allow the bank to take deposit from the public and extend credit (by exposing its balance sheet) to refinance or bank or to finance customer. A broker dealer license will allow the bank to operate private banking and asset management operations, including by trading on a professional basis as agent on behalf of customers and becoming clearing member of clearing houses and regulated exchanges. This allows the private bank to operate accounts for these customers for the settlement of securities transactions, and hold securities of these customers in safekeeping or in their own name with third parties. The brokerage license will allow the bank to underwrite securities. Because the broker dealer license encompasses the type of work many private banking and asset management undertake, a private bank will inevitably have to apply and obtain both the banking license and the broker dealer license. Dominique Lecocq graduated from the School of Law of the University of Geneva in 1999 and obtained a Master of Laws in Securities and Financial Regulation from Georgetown University in 2005. Before founding Lecocqassociate,inj 2007, Dominique served with the London office of Radcliffes Solicitors, worked as a foreign associate with Pinheiro Neto, Advogados in Brazil; joined the Regulatory and Capital Market Practice Group of Pestalozzi law firm in Geneva and Zurich as an associate and interned with the Commodities Futures Trading Commission in Washington DC; he served with the Corporate Finance and Regulatory Practice Group of Schellenberg Wittmer, in Geneva.
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Best New Hedge Fund CRM Platform: Ledgex CRM
Ledgex Systems
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Ledgex Systems is transforming the way hedge funds, fund of funds, endowments & foundations (E&F), private equity and wealth advisors manage their portfolios, make investment decisions, manage investor relations and meet investor demands. The powerful Ledgex platform is an integrated technology suite that streamlines front and middle office functions of investment management firms. The hedge fund industry is an incredibly diverse and fast-paced place to do business. What then does the firm do to ensure that they remain on the cutting edge of new developments and to ensure that they are always best placed to meet their clients’ needs? Jaime Bean explains: “Ledgex Systems continuously invests in its products and team to ensure that it’s providing financial firms with premier services that will enable growth, foster relations and increase operational efficiencies. The company constantly evaluates its portfolio of services to stay ahead of the technology curve and offer the transparency, innovative technology, reliability and security that is demanded by the financial sector.” Competition Speaking about the role of his organisation in such a competitive industry, Jaime Bean explains that, “Ledgex Systems differentiates itself from competitors by focusing on the evolving needs of its clients and the financial market as a whole.” This client-centric approach is conveyed in the company’s product enhancements, business objectives and day-to-day operations.
Company: Ledgex Systems LLC Name: Jaime Bean Web Address: http://ledgex.com/ Address: 260 Franklin Street, Floor 12 Boston, MA 02110 Telephone: +1.877.700.1921
Going into more details on this point, he explains about “the launch of Ledgex CRM, a solution developed to fill a void in the market that called for a sophisticated, tailor-made Client Relationship Management tool for alternative investment managers. Ledgex CRM streamlines investor relationship management and capital activity, providing the flexibility to support unique and complex relationships across all organizations.” Infinite Potential Concerning the future of the firm, Jaime Bean paints a positive image and says that, “The future holds infinite potential for Ledgex Systems. We are proud of the positive impact we have made thus far in the financial industry, and are excited to further augment those successes through an unfailing commitment to excellence and genuine passion for technology.” The Ledgex suite features six modules: • Ledgex Portfolio Manager, a comprehensive portfolio management (PM) system that allows managers to easily manage complex portfolio structures and evaluate portfolios for exposure, performance and manager concentration; • Ledgex Liquidity, an advanced liquidity modelling utility and reporting engine that, given certain conditions, generates all available options for accessing assets by processing each tranche and their respective trade characteristics with a manager’s liquidity terms; • Ledgex Research, a customizable module that combines CRM, document management and research management capabilities within a single system that removes silos and puts manager research in context with the entire PM strategy; • Ledgex Investor Relations, a highly configurable tool designed specifically for managing communications, capital movements, meetings and client interactions in a centralized system that brings organization to the investor relationship management (IRM) process; • Ledgex Due Diligence allows firms to more effectively manage the complete manager due diligence process by standardizing and uniformly recording the quantitative and qualitative due diligence information gathered on a manager; • Ledgex CRM is a powerful web-based solution ideal for managing and tracking investor communications, sales opportunities, client relationships and capital movements. For more information, visit www.ledgex.com or call +1-877-700-1921
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Best Long/Short Equity Manager - Canada & Best Canadian Long/Short Equity Fund (1 Year): LionGuard Opportunities Fund LP
~ LionGuard Capital Management Inc. is a Canadian based investment management company. Andrey Omelchak provides us with a fascinating insight into the firm’s exemplary funds.
Here at LionGuard Capital Management Inc. we specialize in fundamental bottom up research on small and medium capitalization equities. Our primary focus is to generate positive risk-adjusted returns for our clients, who range from high net worth individuals to family offices, endowment funds and institutional investors. Our flagship fund, LionGuard Opportunities Fund LP (the “Fund�) is a long/short equities Fund focused on small and medium capitalization stocks. We believe that this is a fertile ground for mispricings and therefore is an excellent source of alpha generation for knowledgeable and experienced investors. The Fund invests in high quality companies, which generate high levels of free cash flow, have high return on equity and return on invested capital, have limited amount of leverage, have solid management team with history of accretive capital allocation and other characteristics. We invest on bottom up basis by selecting best available investments as determined through rigorous internal fundamental research and analysis. Company: LionGuard Capital Management Inc. Name: Andrey Omelchak, CFA Email: lionguard@lionguardcapital.com Web Address: www.lionguardcapital.com Address: 1010 Sherbrooke Street West, Suite 1800, Montreal (Quebec), Canada, H3A 2R7 Telephone: 1 (514) 448-6442
Risk management is a vitally important aspect of our work, and as such we manage the Fund with conservative gross and net exposure. Our primary risk management tool is to make sure we understand very well underling operations of the companies we invest in. To accomplish this, we invest solely in companies that are part of our circle of competence. We also seek to invest in businesses that trade at a sizable discount to their intrinsic values. Our other risk management tool is to limit exposure to single risk factors such as exchange rates, interest rates, commodity prices etc. which is impossible to predict accurately on a consistent basis. We believe that our way to view risk taking (level of confidence in our investment thesis vs. distribution of intrinsic value calculations under varying set of assumptions) has a lot to do with our ability to deliver leading risk-adjusted returns. The New Year holds a lot of exciting prospects for our company. We are excited to have been selected as one of the participants in Quebec Emerging Managers Program, which adds a lot of credibility to our organization and opens many avenues for future growth and development. It will help us in our ultimate quest to become one of the most reputable investment managers in Canada and internationally.
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Most Innovative Multi-Manager Fund 2016 & Recognised Leaders in Bespoke Composites - USA
Little Harbor Advisors
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Little Harbor Advisors is an investment advisor, registered with the SEC, exclusively focused on alternative investment funds. We speak to Moses Grader from the firm who provides us with a unique overview of this dynamic investment firm and their flagship investment product.
Company: Little Harbor Advisors, LLC Name: M. C. Moses Grader Title: Managing Principal, COO and Co-Portfolio Manager Email: mgrader@littleharboradvisors.com Web Address: www.littleharboradvisors.com Address: 30 Doaks Lane, Marblhead, MA 01945 Telephone: (781) 639-3000
Little Harbor Advisors selects and works with independent managers who have track records usually in excess of ten years to construct innovative investment vehicles we call “Composites.� These composites can be constructed for the private institutional market or for the registered ‘40 Act fund market, so we work principally with institutional investors, other eligible investors, and RIAs that are seeking hedge fund solutions for their clients. The officers of our firm have extensive investment management experience, with an average of 26 years in the industry, and founded Little Harbor to focus on composite investing. Our flagship product, our registered composite fund, pursues its investment objective through sub-advisory agreements with a select group of global hedge fund managers in hedged equity, global trading, and distressed strategies. Rather than rotating hedge fund styles or changing manager allocations based on market timing, the composite fund allocates to a fixed set of underlying managers whose independent strategies are expected to deliver a multi-strategy investment thesis that seeks to provide a strong performance in a wide range of potential market conditions. The composite fund systematically re-balances allocations among its underlying managers, forming a consistent diversification framework that seeks to provide performance stability in periods of economic uncertainty and stock market volatility. By combining the discrete disciplined mid-sized managers into a single diversified Composite investment, investors may enjoy the benefits of strong performance and clear diversification, combined with transparency of underlying holdings, mature operations, sophisticated risk management at both the underlying manager and Little Harbor levels, and efficient management and incentive fee structures. Going forward, we have some exciting plans for the fund and the firm. We intend to develop a series of thematic composite funds and bespoke solutions, each offering a dedicated investment and diversification theme that allows investors to position the composite clearly within their firm and client portfolio frameworks.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Best Securities Law Firm 2016
~ LoPresti Law Group, P.C. is a leading corporate and securities law firm providing comprehensive legal solutions to clients around the globe. Founder, Marc LoPresti, has distinguished the firm by integrating legal expertise, practical business experience and a unique understanding of the financial markets into its approach to the practice of law.
Company: LoPresti Law Group Address: 45 Broadway, Suite 2200 New York, New York 10006 Phone: 212-732-4029 Fax: 212-232-2398 Website: http://www.loprestilawgroup.com/
Marc LoPresti is the Founder of LoPresti Law Group, PC and is a recognized authority on alternative investments. Marc has structured and launched numerous alternative asset management ventures during his 18+ years of practice as a securities attorney in New York. Marc appears regularly on CNBC’s “Closing Bell”, “Squawk Box” and other network shows as well as other financial news networks including Bloomberg, Fox and international financial news networks. Marc obtained his practical experience in financial markets during his time at Lehman Brothers, during which he worked on the floors of the NYSE and AMEX and eventually working under the director of Lehman’s institutional sales desk. Marc also has a highly diversified family office consulting practice, providing advice to ultra-high net worth families with total assets in excess of $5 billion. Marc graduated from New York Law School in 1997. He serves on the Board of Advisors of a cutting edge cyber-security company, and SAS Capital Advisors, Ltd., an emerging hedge fund manager investment platform. Marc also serves on the Steering Committee of the Manhattan Yacht Club.
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Best French Index Arbitrage/Multi Strategy Arbitrage Strategy: Lutetia Absolute Return & Best Volatility Arbitrage Strategy: Lutetia Volatility Advantage II Index & UCITS Fund
Lutetia Capital
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Lutetia Capital is led by co-founders Jean-François Comte and Fabrice Seiman. In total, our senior staff has over 60 years of experience in the asset management and investment banking industries, having held senior positions at some of the world’s leading financial institutions in Paris, Geneva, London and New York.
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Company: Lutetia Capital Web: www.lutetiacapital.com Address: 53 Davies Street WIK5JH LONDON Phone: 00 44 (0)203 445 0957
Our team is composed of highly qualified investment professionals with complementary expertise (investment banking, trading, private equity) stemming from the biggest financial institutions, targeting our primary of generating absolute returns. Prior to founding Lutetia Capital, Fabrice Seiman was member of the Investment Group at PAI Partners, the largest LBO firm in Continental Europe, where he took part in several major transactions. Mr Seiman was previously the Diplomatic Adviser to the Finance Minister of France, where he was a spokesperson for the French government. In this capacity, he was in charge of advising the Minister on economic and international affairs, in relationship with the French Presidency. As for the firm’s other founder, Jean-François Comte was a Vice President of Lazard in New York, where he specialised in mergers and acquisitions. Throughout his career at Lazard, Mr. Comte advised leading corporations and financial investors in over 25 major transactions totaling more than $50 billion in value. At the very centre of our activity, we focus both on fundamental and applied research. This work allows us to implement unique risk management tools in our investment fields. The firm’s management team and investment professionals are the primary investors in our managed and recommended products. This entrepreneurial culture is what informs our long-term investment approach and constant focus on capital preservation. Furthermore, Lutetia Capital is highly focused on selecting the most reliable partners to complement our operations. We have implemented a custodial partnership with BNP-Paribas and an auditing partnership with Deloitte. Our internal controls are subject to the highest quality standards and are compliant with AMF regulations. Through its international network and open-ended platform, Lutetia Capital has direct access to some of the best funds and to some of the more efficient portfolio managers on the main international financial centre. Our allocation process is realised independently, and is done according to very precise criteria with a rigorous method. Our investment approach is driven by fundamental analysis and the principles of value investing. Regardless the investment strategy, we remain committed to buying “at the right price”, based on intrinsic value and prevailing market conditions. In order to achieve these results, we are highly focused on investment cycles and are not afraid to take a contrarian approach. Understanding investment cycles guides our fundamental approach, and plays a fundamental role in our decisions regarding asset allocation, sector allocation, and the choice of individual securities. With this in mind, we are highly reactive to our own investment views and do not hesitate to seize market opportunities. Our priority is to find the best risk/reward opportunities for a given investment objective. This is the reason why we focus on absolute return strategies. We have two fundamental priorities: capital preservation and optimizing risk/reward. We want to avoid short-term fluctuations in order to maintain our performances over a long period of time. As such, we do not hesitate to be directly involved as an active investor. Our team capitalises on our expertise and know-how, investing only where we believe we have a competitive advantage. In an increasingly complex environment, we believe in specialisation. We focus on specific absolute return strategies for which we have a competitive advantage. We also firmly believe in the complementarity of quantitative and qualitative analysis. We want to permanently improve our investment processes and our risk management based on our research and the development of new asset management methods. In terms of our clients, we work with a number of high net individuals, families, Family offices, and foundations to help preserve and build capital over time. We listen carefully and regularly to our clients in order to best understand their unique situations, needs, and expectations. We also monitor investments over time to keep asset allocations consistent with our clients’ objectives at all times.
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Best for Integrated Investment Fund Services - Luxembourg & Best UCITS Platform 2016 - Luxembourg
~ Luxembourg Fund Partners S.A. is an independent management company headquartered in Luxembourg created by two entrepreneurs M. Luc LELEUX and his old time friend and business partner M. Julien RENAUX. M. Luc LELEUX took time away from the firm to share with us his insights into the legal industry where his firm is most prolific.
Name: Luc LELEUX – Founder, shareholder and Executive Director Email: luc.leleux@lfpartners.lu Web Address: www.lfpartners.lu Address: 2, boulevard de la Foire, L-1528 Luxembourg, Grand-duchy of Luxembourg Telephone: +352 27 02 97 20 or +352 691 362 315
Unlike many other management companies in Europe, Luxembourg Fund Partners S.A. has a dedicated portfolio management team composed of seasoned professional serving both third party funds and proprietary ones. The company is what lawyers call a: Super ManCo, holding both UCITS and AIFM licenses. The clients of the company are banks, investment managers, UHNWI, insurance companies, private equity firms and major real estate players, to name a few. The founders and main shareholders actively manage the company, being the company’s executive directors which is unusual in this industry. The company has always been at the forefront of the ever increasing rules of corporate governance and have truly demonstrated that risk mitigation is in its DNA. If you couple these qualities with a thorough portfolio management process and a proven ‘best execution practice’, we ensure that the creation of returns for the investors in its funds remains the prime concern for the company; not to mention that the ongoing due diligence processes, after having selected an external provider, plays an important role as well. When selecting investments for its funds, the company ensures that the pre-compliance checks performed are met both from a quality perspective, in terms of potential for revenue generation, and from an investment compliance limits as well. The company pays particular attention to the costs impacting the performance of targeted investments and the quality of their directors and services providers as relevant. Luxembourg Fund Partners S.A. has the luxury to work with leading investment specialists from the hedge fund industry with decades of experience and massive networks. The main values of the company are based around four pillars which represent its foundations: 1. Always work with best in class service providers ; 2. Ongoing tight controls of inherent running costs at every level ; 3. Always keep the entrepreneurial spirit ; 4. Never to forget that the client is first, his satisfaction is the most important driver to its business. When the company looks to recruit additional staff, it ensures that they adhere to or meet these criteria. The same holds true when choosing a new strategy proposed by a client. Luxembourg Fund Partners S.A. has been rapidly growing since its incorporation in late 2009. Whilst 2015 has been a very good year, we consider it as a transitional year going from a start-up concept to a well-established brand with an international recognition. In the months to come, we will establish a direct presence in few carefully selected countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States of America and at a later stage in a major Asian city. From a European perspective, we shall aggressively participate in the consolidation race either by acquisition(s) or by attacking the book of business of our peer group. “In few years, I want the people in the financial industry to refer to Luxembourg Fund partners S.A. as the company that set a new paradigm, placing the end client in the centre of its preoccupation. Perhaps this is already the disturbing rumour for our peers!” said Luc Leleux.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Best Currency & Macro Absolute Return Boutique - UK & Sustained Excellence in Currency Absolute Return Strategies
~ The Macro Currency Group is a global macro and currency specialist, offering a range of absolute return products to the hedge fund, liquid alternatives and traditional currency overlay space. We speak to Mark Farrington about the company’s work and how they came to win these two highly prized titles.
Company: Macro Currency Group, investment boutique of Principal Global Investors Name: Mark Farrington, Head of Macro Currency Group Email: rebecca.harwood@macrocurrencygroup.com Web Address: www.macrocurrencygroup.com Address: 103, Mount Street, W1K 2TJ, London Telephone: +44 (0)20 7710 0245
Here at The Macro Currency Group (MCG), we serve a wide range of clients, from public to private sector, pension funds and mutual funds, offering financial solutions which utilise our knowledge of our place within the market place and asset class spectrum. The funds that MCG manage are particularly aimed at generating surge returns at cycle turning points and delivering true alpha returns uncorrelated to traditional betas like equities, credit and commodities. As traditional global macro historically provided, MCG has delivered its strongest performance in years of crisis and poor beta asset class returns (1997, 2000, 2004, 2008 and again in 2015). Equally, MCG has delivered a continuously uncorrelated return profile to other hedge funds and currency managers. For our hedge fund products and absolute return mandates, we are typically funded out of the Alternatives’ sleeve of a multi-asset class product. Within a multi-manager product like a currency fund or fund of funds, MCG represents ‘the uncorrelated to trend and carry; fundamental discretionary manager’. As the diversifier in the fund, we are typically given the largest capital allocation of the managers. While the hedge fund industry is fast moving and many fund-style trends have changed, the MCG has positioned itself firmly in the global macro space and waited for cycle changes to favour our style. Our return history is incredibly consistent with very little style drift over 18 years. This has meant that our style is sometimes out of favour, particularly during trend overshoots, however, eventually the trends reverse and call in demand for fundamentally-driven global macro managers like MCG. As such the primary distinguishing characteristics of our investment style are adaptability and forward looking nature. We are constantly identifying forward looking investment themes which yield a return which is consistent, yet uncorrelated to the traditional FX styles such as trend, valuation and carry. Alongside this, MCG has always sought to build a team with complementary skills in order to offer our clients the best possible service. We cover over 30 countries and analyse relative asset class performance across a broad spectrum of risk assets, and as such this breadth of coverage requires skills and educational backgrounds that can provide both specialist insight and broad global macro understanding. Therefore we always recruit staff that has a strong specialist starting point and a particular career interest in developing a broader global macro skillset.
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Best Hedge Fund Accountancy Firm - UK & Hedge Funds Advisory Provider of the Year – UK
Moore Stephens
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Moore Stephens International Limited is a global accountancy and advisory network with its headquarters in London. Since Moore Stephens was founded a century ago, Moore Stephens International Limited has grown to be one of the largest international accounting and consulting groups worldwide. Today the network comprises 626 offices in 103 countries throughout the world, incorporating 26,290 people and with fees of more than US$2.683 billion. You can be confident that they have the resources and capabilities to meet your needs.
Managing audits and dealing with multi-jurisdictional tax matters of multi-national operations is the core of the firm’s business. The scope of their global client management extends, therefore, beyond the delivery of compliance services to advising on international business structures and tax planning to minimise tax liabilities. The day to day administration of Moore Stephens International Limited is covered by a team based in London. The team is based at Aldersgate Street, London and is led by Richard Moore, who is Chairman of Moore Stephens International Limited and a member of the International Policy Committee. “In today’s global marketplace, change is unrelenting. Dealing with it successfully requires vision, flexibility and the support and knowledge of specialists. Their aim is to not only ensure that their clients embrace change, but prosper from it” says Richard Moore – Chairman of Moore Stephens International Limited Their services include the following: Audit and assurance Moore Stephens International member firms recognise the commercial importance of providing assurance on your business controls and, ultimately, satisfying regulatory requirements. However, their member firms offer much more than just a basic compliance service. They understand the need to provide advice to help you develop your business and achieve your commercial objectives. The key to a valuable compliance service is the strength of the relationship between the client and the service team. This enables their member firms’ work to be thoroughly and accurately planned and tailored to each client’s specific needs.
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Company: Moore Stephens Name: Lorraine Bay Email: lorraine.bay@moorestephens.com Web Address: www.moorestephens.com Address: 150 Aldersgate Street, London, EC1A 4AB Telephone: 020 7334 9191
Moore Stephens member firms work to ensure that the audit approach is applied consistently across their global network, so that clients can be assured that audit quality is maintained to the highest level. Regulatory consulting The constantly changing regulatory environment has led to the need for successful organisations to require a range of regulatory advisory services to support them. Moore Stephens’ Regulatory Consultancy team helps businesses anticipate and adapt in an ever changing regulatory climate. They provide consultative problem solving together with core compliance services to meet all of the regulatory needs of your business. Moore Stephens specialises in helping clients meet the requirements of both UK and European regulation, while also providing specialist insight into areas of global legislation. It is their aim to ensure that not only can clients manage the impacts of regulatory change, but they strive to be a trusted advisor who add value, provide challenge and facilitates businesses having a safe and sustainable future. Corporate finance Whether you are looking to raise development capital or float on a public market, make an acquisition, form a strategic alliance or release funds through a sale or restructuring, the worldwide network of Moore Stephens International corporate finance specialists can help you maximise the returns, while advising and supporting you every step of the way. Clients range from mid-sized quoted companies and large private concerns to smaller owner-managed businesses, covering a wide variety of industry sectors. Their network of offices are uniquely placed to offer you local knowledge and advice, and assist with complex international or cross-border issues. Member firms provide practical advice on the full range of corporate finance, lead advisory and transaction support services - from pre-deal evaluation through to completion and post deal integration or separation. IT consultancy In today’s competitive environment, businesses increasingly depend upon technology systems. But the risks of failure can be high and the ever-increasing challenge is to harness the power of IT whilst avoiding the risks. Their member firms can help with the most pressing business challenges companies face: • • • • •
Choosing the technology to meet your objectives; Conducting due diligence; Conducting IT health checks; Mitigating risk and ensuring compliance; Getting you better business intelligence.
Whatever your needs, Moore Stephens International members’ experience and expertise can help you meet these and countless other IT challenges, and ensure that your IT is helping not hindering your business. Tax services The Financial Services tax team at Moore Stephens provides advice and solutions to a broad range of businesses in the financial services sector include hedge fund managers. Their niche expertise and team of business and private client tax experts, they are in a unique position to consider the individual tax position. Tax has become an increasingly important item on the business agenda over recent times, and whilst Moore Stephens understands the importance of getting tax arrangements right, they firmly believe that tax planning should complement rather than lead business strategy. They work closely with their audit and financial services compliance teams to ensure clients receive a fully integrated service which fully meets their business and personal requirements. They can assist in: • Tax structuring • International planning and offshore funds • Personal and Business Tax compliance • VAT solutions • Employer consulting • R&D tax credits • Personal tax planning • Non-UK domiciliaries, offshore structuring and remittance planning • Wealth management Please note that the range of services will differ between member firms depending on the regulation in the relevant countries.
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Most Trusted Hedge Fund Administrator - USA & Recognised Leader in Multi-Advisor Platforms & Complexes
NAV
Fund Administration Group
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NAV, established in 1991, is a privately-owned organization with offices in the United States, India, and Cayman Islands. Executive Vice President Adam Brass talks us through the firm and the role it plays in the global financial industry.
Company: NAV Fund Administration Group Name: Adam Brass, Executive Vice President Email: adam.brass@navconsulting.net Web: www.navconsulting.net Address: 1 Trans Am Plaza, Suite 400, Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181, USA Telephone: +1.630.954.1919 ext. 127
Tell me a little about your firm. NAV Fund Administration Group comprises of three operating companies, NAV Consulting, Inc., NAV Fund Services (Cayman) Ltd., and NAV BackOffice IT Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Collectively, we provide complete fund administration, investor services, tax, compliance, regulatory and middle/back office support to the alternative investment industry. We service AUA of US$54 billion for 720 global clients of all types, ranging from multibillion dollar funds to early stage and even pre-launch. Indeed, we are more than happy to work with managers with as small as AUM of $1 million. Furthermore, NAV has the systems to administer every type of alternative strategy, as esoteric as hedge funds trading Bitcoin and illiquid hard assets to CTAs, global macro and private equity. We are also equally comfortable administering fund of funds, family offices and managed account platforms. Over the last 25 years we have seen vast growth in the alternative investment sector. We have been very fortunate in growing our business in line with the industry’s growth entirely through referrals and incoming enquiries. NAV has never employed a salesperson, nor pro-actively pursued new business. I put this down to simply good service. What makes NAV different from other fund administrators? NAV is a privately owned organization, un-conflicted by other business interests and wholly focused on administration. We also own all of our 131,000 sq. ft. of office space in America and India debt free, including our disaster back-up site. We welcome clients of all types and sizes with, what we believe, is the best value solution in the industry. The core attributes our firm possess that distinguishes us are our 400 dedicated people, highly responsive client servicing, our proprietary cyber-secure technology, and being acknowledged for our reliable fund administration operations, provided at a competitive price. What changes have you seen in the industry over the last 25 years? The major changes in the industry have been across the fields of technology, regulation and compliance. In order to adapt to these changes we have employed a number of measures to ensure we remain ahead of our competitors and provide our clients with the best possible solutions. Can you describe some of the measures you have taken? From a compliance perspective we have adapted our systems and workflow to be compliant with our ISAE 3402 controls, and hold a successful Type II audited by KPMG since 2008. We have also established specialized teams to manage specific areas of the business to ensure compliance. For instance, we have 50 staff in our Investor Services, Registrar and Transfer Agent team, and all staff are required to complete annual AML training. NAV has been registered as a Transfer Agent with the SEC since 2010. We also implemented FATCA, and just recently, CRS service offering. This implementation consisted of a proprietary FATCA and CRS support model across our client base at no additional cost. The first support for our clients with FATCA reporting to the Cayman Islands DITC and the BVI’s FARS occurred earlier this year. Within one week of Cayman Islands’ announcement for CRS reporting requirements to begin January 2016 our systems were modified to track investors for compliance - a good illustration of the speed with which we can implement such changes.
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Another measure we have developed over the years is a specialized tax team. NAV’s tax preparation service is run by a 35 member team of experienced professionals who possess in-depth knowledge on US tax laws and are dedicated exclusively to tax as it relates to alternative investment funds. The team ensures our clients meet compliance and reporting requirements as per current applicable US tax laws and regulations accurately and on time. We have the expertise and capability to constantly monitor tax codes and laws, keeping our clients informed of any new tax laws/regulatory changes which can impact their business or reporting requirements. We provide customized tax reports to meet our clients’ investors’ expectations, with attention to the importance of client data security by transmitting all data in a cyber-secure environment. We prepare, distribute and/or file, quarterly and year-end tax estimates to investors, Federal tax return and Schedules K-1, applicable State returns. Our system maintains tax allocation schedules at investor level, reconcile GAAP and tax reporting and calculates UBTI for tax-exempt investors, payment of foreign partner withholding and produces forms for foreign investors. We also provide assistance to clients in determining various elections such as Mark to Market elections and Mixed Straddle. Furthermore, we have developed the capability of preparing State Returns and Composite Returns due to State sourced income, FBARs, PFIC annual information statement as well as 1099-MISC forms. I would also add the very important measure of being ahead of the curve technologically. How does your technology distinguish you in the industry? Technology is the second most critical component of being a successful fund administration group, after client service. From day one a decision was made to create our own proprietary technology platform our clients can rely on for accuracy, efficiency and cyber security. We find it unacceptable to be confined by third-party vendors, at the mercy of their fee increases or unable to provide a bespoke report for a client. I would go as far as saying that NAV is a technology driven fund administrator. We have spent the past 25 years building innovative technology solutions to support our fund administration clients. Our vision from inception was to build proprietary technology flexible and robust enough to service every type of asset management vehicle. This is a challenging task in and of itself, due to the complexity and evolving nature of the industry. We are committed to continually develop and refine our proprietary systems. NAV employs 60 dedicated IT staff who maintain our back and middle office technology comprising of more than 10 different modules. Each module serves its own specific purpose, designed to communicate seamlessly with each and every other module we have developed. This multi-dimensional interaction is very important, as it has enabled us to add new modules over time without integrating workarounds or third-party technologies to support our entire global workflow. Automation is a key component to our global workflow, present throughout the system from the point of initial trade capture, to the delivery of investor statements. The sophistication of this automated workflow is critical, as it produces an efficiency which allows us to offer our clients a library of over 2,000 customizable portfolio and investor transparency reports and very competitive pricing, while maintaining a top of the line fund administration solution. We constantly upgrade and refine our systems and processes. We have an interactive dashboard on our web-portal, we have achieved tightened timelines and built-in extra redundancy. Alongside this we invest a significant amount of time researching ways to heighten the effectiveness of our systems for increased speed of reporting without detriment to accuracy and the added benefit of maintaining competitive fees. A good example of automation is what we have designed for our private equity clients. The system is programmed to track commitments, periodic capital calls and receipts, with automated investor notices, and distinguish between different distribution types. We focus on developing these aspects of our business to be in the best position to support future growth, provide improved adaptability to service our clients’ requirements and respond to the ever-changing demands of the financial industry as a whole. What are your plans for the future? Moving forward the NAV Fund Administration Group will continue to invest across all areas of our organization to prepare for significant growth over the next five to ten years. We anticipate this growth will derive from changes in the fund administration landscape, specifically consolidation of fund administrators and technology vendors, downward pricing pressure, and a lack of non-conflicted service providers. We have been thoughtful in the design of our technology and scalable operations model, and we are committed to continuously developing the best employees in the industry. We are determined to maintain our exceptionally high client retention rate, by setting expectations we can meet and delivering beyond what we promise. Thank you. How would you like to sum up NAV Fund Administration Group for our readers? Our completely organic growth and 99% client retention speaks to our unparalleled service and competitive fees. As we continue to gain exposure across the market, we have the capability, capacity and redundancy to handle the support required by complex changes in the financial industry, advances in technology and substantial growth in our client base.
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Best Diversified Fund: OFP Optimal Value
~ Oaks Field Partners is an entrepreneurial asset management and economy research company founded in 2008 by Emeric Challier, who has a long track record with absolute returns funds and global macro products. He successfully developed track records and businesses for major asset managers and investment banks. Amélie Bizeul recently spoke with us to outline some of the reasons why Oaks Field Partners are experiencing so much success. Company: Oaks Field Partners Contact name: Amélie Bizeul Email: a.bizeul@oaksfieldpartners.com Web address: www.oaksfieldpartners.com Telephone: +33 (0)1 850 813 75 / +33 (0)1 850 513 86 Address: 152 Boulevard Haussmann, 75008 Paris
Oaks Field Partners’s way to manage funds is an innovative asset allocation process that combines financial modelling (systematic approach, unbiased) with discretionary management (validation of quantitative models signals by fund managers). The economic forecast resulting from the quantitative research enables fund managers to detect investment opportunities on liquid assets. Our objective is to deliver a regular performance, lowly volatile and de-correlated from markets evolutions. Our approach to investing relies on 3 main features: Research, Diversification and Transparency. Research: We are all quantitative researchers, experts in modelling and data mining. Our ability to study a fast-increasing volume of information is the heart of OFP’s research. OFP has developed a systematic quantitative approach, which enables OFP investment managers to consider the economic outlook and potential opportunities without any bias. Diversification: We consider capital preservation as important as capital enhancement. We are therefore investing in liquid assets only and implementing the strategies offering the best Risk/Reward ratio. Transparency: OFP is particularly focusing on the understanding of its investment strategies by its clients. We regularly communicate with a large public, publishing every week all important information referring to our research and the management of our funds. Such transparency is one of the three pillars of OFP’s philosophy. In a nutshell, OFP asset management philosophy is about delivering performance whatever market conditions are. The good performance of OFP funds, adapted to market volatility, show that we are adapting our asset management to market conditions, including crises. Our fund, OFP Optimal Value, voted Best Diversified Fund, delivered a very good performance since inception with a controlled volatility. The investment strategy is based primarily on an analysis of international markets, supported by quantitative financial and econometric analysis methods. Since the fund’s creation, we have demonstrated our ability to generate good performance on a complex environment with high volatility on financial markets, historical low yields, a global economic slowdown and low inflation around the world. As we continuously look for opportunities and challenges, we are launching our research production under the name of “OFP Economy & Research”. Thus, we will provide it to institutional investors, family offices and private banks, non-financial business and their leaders, as well as any other person interested in financial markets and economy with state-of-the-art research.
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Best Niche Hedge Fund Consultancy 2016
Oesa Limited
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Oesa Partners are a bespoke niche consultancy who provide legal and regulatory advice and support to alternative asset managers and their funds. We spoke to them to find out more about their company and what makes their services unique.
Company: Oesa Partners Name: Kate Wormald Email: kate.wormald@oesa.co.uk Web Address: www.oesa.co.uk Address: 23 Hanover Square London
Our firm specialises in all trading documentation required to establish the fund’s relationships with their prime brokers, banks, dealers and brokers. We have a very hands on approach, and operate more like an in-house counsel as opposed to external advisers. When it comes to working with our clients, our approach is to be flexible and responsive to their needs. Furthermore, we provide a service where we add some real value to our clients’ business, rather than being focused on how working with them will benefits our business. As a company that works in a highly competitive industry, we are constantly striving to keep abreast of any changes in our industry. In order to achieve this, we research and review the proposed amendments or new regulations and best business practices prior to their implementation. This ensures that we understand them and any changes required to the trading documentation can be successfully built into the negotiations to future proof them. During this time, we work closely with the various bank counterparties to develop new templates, and once the changes go live, we can implement immediately for our clients. Perhaps our most distinguishing factor is that we pride ourselves on being commercial and pragmatic in our approach to the work we undertake. We look for solutions not problems and deliver value add to all of our clients. We tailor our services to our clients’ business model, and this allows us to mitigate inherent legal risks in the processes and the documentation that we negotiate. We have a strong presence and reputation in the industry, so we have found that word of mouth is a very powerful marketing tool and most of our clients come to us as recommendations. Furthermore, we strive for transparent and open fees charged for work done in our industry, as opposed to having billable hours in artificial increments of time on a pyramid basis. Unlike other firms, we ensure that there are no unexpected surprises at the end of the work with huge overruns on the quotes originally provided. Looking ahead, we expect there to be more regulation coming into force especially with the clearing obligations for OTC cleared products in Europe next summer. Therefore, we will gear up to ensure our clients are ready to meet this obligations in good order. As for the award, we are delighted to be acknowledged for our success for the second year in a row. Furthermore, it is truly an honour to have the opportunity to represent our views and spread the word about our company.
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Recognised Leader in Multi-Manager Hedge Fund Programs & Best International Equity Fund (3 Years): Optima Partners Focus Fund
Optima Fund Management
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Optima Fund Management is a private, independent asset management firm founded by D. Dixon Boardman in 1988, dedicated to alternative investments. Today, the firm consists of a sophisticated team of professionals with expertise in all aspects of designing, structuring, and managing effective hedge fund programs. We met recently with members of the Optima team to understand the process behind the firm’s award winning ways.
Company: Optima Fund Management Web address: www.optima.com
The Optima Partners Focus Fund consists of a select group of hedge fund managers investing in their highest conviction names or “best ideas.” The initial idea was in part inspired by Warren Buffet who said: “Diversification may preserve wealth, but concentration builds wealth. If you are a know something investor, able to understand business economics and to find five to ten sensibly priced companies that possess important long-term competitive advantages, conventional diversification (broadly based active portfolios) makes no sense to you. Diversification is a protection against ignorance. It makes very little sense for those who know what they’re doing.” However, Optima’s own research at the hedge fund manager level supported the “focused” investing concept. With the Optima Partners Focus Fund, we accept a little more volatility at the manager level, to achieve a greater absolute return and higher return per unit of risk than a typical, more diversified fund of funds. We have implemented a risk management due diligence process by focusing on transparency, liquidity, volatility and correlations. We also believe that taking prudent and warranted risk when the outcome is in our favour is an essential element for superior performance. While the majority of the underlying managers follow long/short equity-oriented strategies, their individual styles vary. Global exposure can be significant and includes investments in developed and emerging markets. Styles range across: value, growth, opportunistic and event driven/activist investing. Optima’s philosophy is based on a devotion to investing with the “best and the brightest” and striving to maintain superior quality in its people, programs, processes and organization. We maintain the highest quality standards in approaching all areas of business from hiring of professionals, proprietary technology, selection of investment managers, risk management and operating controls, to name a few. Optima’s multi-manager programs seek downside protection, low correlation to equity and fixed income markets, and attractive risk-adjusted returns. Additionally we respond to specific mandates and customise portfolios to meet investor goals and guidelines. Optima’s client base is approx. 70% institutional and 30% high net worth and includes approximately 1100 clients across more than 20 countries. Our diverse client base has a wide range of needs and Optima’s highly experienced team has developed solutions for them to effectively navigate complex and ever-changing financial markets. Believing in a team approach with daily interaction between professionals at all levels, our organizational structure includes two co-CIOs and fosters a collegial environment which encourages collaboration. Looking to the future, Optima is about to launch a new UCITS fund which is based on the success of our “high conviction” investing concept.
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Best Alternatives Asset Management Firm - Singapore & Best Credit Opportunities Fund (Since Inception): ChapelGate
Orchard Global Asset Management
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Orchard Global Asset Management is a leading alternative asset manager focused on structured credit, direct lending and opportunistic fixed income investments. Members of senior management from Orchard, took the time to share with us their insights into the award winning services they provide.
Company: Orchard Global Asset Management Contact name: Mike Ford Email: mike.ford@orchardgroup.com Web address: www.orchardgroup.com Telephone: 1 917 677 5777
We seek to generate superior risk-adjusted returns through market cycles, with a strong emphasis on capital preservation. With headquarters in Singapore and offices in London and Toronto, and a global client base, we are able to source attractive investment opportunities around the world. Our portfolios include specific strategies and relative value credit opportunities wherein we seek to optimize market inefficiencies. We are a market leader in providing financial solutions and capital to global banks and financial institutions. We have four principal market segments, to which we offer our asset management services; these are: bank regulatory capital solutions, primary and secondary collateralized loan obligations, structured direct lending, and structured credit trading/arbitrage -- through a combination of comingled and single strategy funds. Our mission is to earn a superior risk-adjusted return across market cycles on behalf of our clients, with an overriding focus on capital preservation. Many firms espouse risk management and capital preservation as goals, but we think our track record speaks for itself. While we are pleased that others have recognized OGAM for performance, we are proud of the fact that none of our funds has had a negative year, including in 2008, since their inception. Our track record is the result of a rigorously disciplined approach to investing and other factors that we believe distinguish OGAM: We have a global perspective with offices in Asia, Europe and North America, our principals have lived and worked around the world so we know and understand local markets. Our clients are a globally diverse group, including sovereign wealth funds, large public and corporate pension plans, leading foundations and endowments, and family offices so we partner with systemically significant financial institutions in Europe, Asia and North America enabling us to originate a diverse mix of dynamic global investment opportunities. Our deep industry knowledge and expertise stems from our experienced senior management team whose members have worked for or held leadership positions with asset management firms, investment banks, and financial regulatory bodies. We also offer a unique partnership approach. OGAM partners with global financial institutions on core and critical businesses they operate to develop innovative solutions that allow these institutions and our clients to pursue attractive investment opportunities in a changing and challenging regulatory landscape. We take a similar partnership approach with our investors, engaging them in on-going discussions about their investment objectives, and crafting investment solutions that best meet their needs. We believe that the firm’s combination of investment, origination and structuring expertise, network of relationships with industry leaders and financial regulators, and our solutions-oriented approach to working with investors and strategic partners allows us to access investment opportunities that offer superior risk adjusted returns to our clients. 93
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Best US Relative Value Fund: Pavlik Capital Partners LLC & Best Relative Value Manager – USA
~ In January, 2004 Jeffrey Pavlik placed nearly all of his liquid assets in a separate account to create a track record with the objective of providing a true diversifier for nearly every portfolio by generating consistent absolute returns with low volatility. After four years, in 2008, Mr. Pavlik had the separate account audited and launched Pavlik Capital Management LLC. At Pavlik Capital Management LLC we seek to achieve our objective by utilizing a broad array of option strategies on ETFs (exchange traded funds) to establish both long and short exposures to different sectors, market capitalizations, commodities, currencies and geographies. Why do we use options? First, options allow us to make money during circumstances in which our underlying exposure selections are not necessarily correct; an attribute highly significant in generating absolute returns over the long-run. Second, options allow us to take advantage of volatility which in turn dampens overall portfolio volatility and allows us to avoid much of the cyclicality of other strategies. Third, options are what we know. Much of the portfolio is dynamic and our success is very much rooted in our 25 years of option trading, risk management focus and portfolio management experience.
Company: Pavlik Capital Partners LLC Name: Jeffrey Pavlik Email: jpavlik@pavlikcapital.com Web Address: www.pavlikcapital.com Address: 1815 S. Meyers Rd, Suite 210, Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181 Telephone: 630-519-3049
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As far as our process; our multi-disciplined investment process consists of three steps. First, we select the ETFs that provide a diversified overall portfolio exposure based on our macro view of the markets; both long and short. Second, we implement our own proprietary matrix of implied versus historical levels of volatility. This matrix helps provide us with the specific selection of unique strike prices and expiration months necessary to construct the portfolio of options required to capture our predetermined underlying exposures. This is our volatility arbitrage background at work, and though we do not run a volatility arbitrage book per se, the ultimate selection of option positions is grounded in this analysis. Finally, we actively rebalance the option positions as underlying portfolio exposures change and/or implied volatility movements create opportunities to improve the reward/risk attributes of the entire portfolio. While in theory most hedge funds start out with an objective similar to ours those that truly provide these attributes over the long-run are in reality few and far between. Over the last 12 years we take great pride in saying that we have done so while aligning ourselves with the most important component of our business, our clients. As mentioned, since January, 2004 our CEO & CIO, Jeffrey Pavlik has had nearly all of his liquid assets in the Fund. He continues to believe this aligning of interest between his clients and him is one of the best ways to express his commitment to the strategy and remain focused on delivering what he says he will, not just as the Manager, but as a true partner.
Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Best Market Neutral Fund-of-Funds (Since Inception)
Peak Core Hedge
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Peak Asset Management is a Nordic absolute return specialist managing several multi and single strategy hedge funds. Per Djerf, CIO, commented on Peak Core Hedge being named “Best Market Neutral Fund-of-Funds (Since Inception)” for the second year in a row and gave us an update on the firm. How does it feel to be named Best Market Neutral Fund of Funds for the second year running? We are honoured and proud of the recognition as well as the continued trust of our clients. We go to work every day with the objective of delivering the best possible risk-adjusted returns and it is great when the results are worthy of such a prestigious acknowledgement. Could you tell our new readers a little bit about Peak Core Hedge? Company: Peak Asset Management Fund: Peak Core Hedge Bloomberg: PEAKCHA SS Equity Email: info@peakam.se Web Address: www.peakam.se Address: Hamngatan 15, BOX 7161, 103 88 Stockholm, Sweden Telephone: +46 8 400 282 00
Peak Core Hedge is a market neutral multi-manager fund that invests in a blend of uncorrelated Hedge Fund strategies globally. The objective of the Fund is to generate superior risk-adjusted returns through the market cycle, while preserving capital and maintaining minimal correlation to major equity and bond indices. Peak Core Hedge is engineered to provide a one-stop solution for investors looking to add defensive and diversified hedge fund exposure to their portfolio. What is new at Peak Asset Management since last year? It’s been an exciting year indeed. We have continued to see an increasing appetite for our style of investing as investors look to diversify away from traditional asset classes, especially fixed income. In response, our organization has expanded with the addition of several new team members and we have also added another very promising fund – Peak Equity Alpha – to the product line-up. What is your outlook for markets going forward? We do not attempt to forecast market direction, but we recognize that we still find ourselves in a zero interest rate environment with rich equity valuations and relatively tight credit spreads. Unless you are very optimistic about earnings growth, it is probably an excellent time to consider adding non-directional strategies to the portfolio.
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Recognised Leader in Managed Futures Quantitative Strategies & Best Quantitative Managed Futures Strategy 2016
PEAQ Capital Strategies, LLC
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PEAQ Capital is a systematic, algorithm driven fund management firm aimed at institutional investors. We spoke to Frank Casey, Managing Partner, who talked us through the firm and its approach to investing.
Company: PEAQ Capital Strategies, LLC Phone: 617-307-4550 Email: peterh@peaqcapital.com Address: 10 Liberty Square 3rd Floor, Boston, MA 02109 Website: http://peaqcapital.com/
Established in 2013, PEAQ Capital specialise in the quantitative, systematic management of liquid alternative investments. As a company we are very institutionally structured, and as such we have two strategies: Pinnacle, our divergent strategy; and a convergent strategy called Counter Trends. Simply put a divergent strategy is mean fleeing, whilst a convergent strategy is mean seeking. Therefore Pinnacle seeks to move away from the normal state of the market and is focused on higher degrees of volatility and instability in the market. This strategy operates across 49 different markets across six different sectors, all of which are traded on foreign markets. Counter Trends, on the other hand, is a strategy that looks to regress to the norm, by tracking trends using market breakdowns. This strategy trades in upwards of 35 markets across six sectors, with a trade being held for an average three days. The account sizes for both of these strategies is very large, with Counter Trends requiring upwards of $5mn accounts. As such our approach is aimed towards institutional pensions and very large family offices. In order to provide the best quality services to these clients the firm has invested 10 years and $2mn developing unique proprietary algorithm so that our firm is fully automated in its trade discovery. Risk management is a vitally important aspect of our work and we seek never to lose more than 10% in either of our portfolios. Our two strategies do not correlate, and we define risk as a peak to trough decline in capital, not volatility. Ultimately we aim to produce returns of two to three times what we risk. Looking to the future we are keen to fully capitalise on our investment in our algorithms and are keen to use these in new markets, such as equities or exchange traded fund markets. At some point in 2016 we are going to become not just commodity trading advisors but a large, multi-strategy hedge fund trading manager.
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Swiss Multi-Family Office of the Year & Best European FoF Portfolio Manager 2016
Portas Capital AG
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Portas Capital AG are multi-family office and independent wealth manager with domiciles in Zurich, Switzerland. We speak to Beat Kunz about the firm’s approach to investing and how they always put their client’s first.
Company: Portas Capital Ltd. Name: Beat Kunz Email: beat.kunz@portascapital.com Web Address: www.portascapital.com Address: Kreuzstrasse 82, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland Telephone: +41 44 740 34 22
Portas Capital AG invest in hedge 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. In order to stay ahead in our fast paced and dynamic industry, we utilise our database to analyse the history of many managers and their skills even if their funds had to be shut down. The other side of our business involves new managers approaching us. As we invest in people and their strategies we are supported by a professional profiler to get an impression about the manager’s capabilities. Ultimately, our strategy to stay at the top of our industry and set ourselves apart from our competitors is to offer tailor-made the portfolios according to client expectations, risk tolerance as well as to any constraints. For example, looking though the various funds we provide a summary of exposures to asset classes, equity sectors, FX, Commodities, fixed income markets as far it is possible. This approach to clients relies on them having a knowledge of hedge funds, and we only engage with investors who have experience in the industry. We take a similar approach when hiring new staff, looking for specialist employees with skills which differ from those we already have in the company, as we know from experience that a diversified group of staff will be able to provide our clients with a wider variety of services. Moving forward, the company intends to expand in Europe step-by-step. This will necessitate our team growing, and as this occurs we intend to improve our investment process further so as to increase the support we provide to our clients.
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Best Multi-Strategy Fund Manager - 2016 & Best Ideas Fund of Hedge Funds: Pulteney Premier Fund, LP
Pulteney Street Capital Management
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Pulteney Street Capital Management is a multi-manager, multi-strategy alternative investment manager that allocates capital to both emerging and established fund managers primarily through separately managed accounts.
Company: Pulteney Street Capital Management Address: 1345 Avenue of the Americas, Third Floor, New York, NY 10105 Email: info@pulteneystreetcap.com Website: www.pulteneystreetcap.com
Founded in 2012, Pulteney Street Capital Management strives to generate superior long-term risk adjusted returns by creating a diversified portfolio of hedge funds utilizing a disciplined investment approach. The firm has experience in identifying, evaluating and allocating to undiscovered and emerging managers that have low annualized volatility, great pedigree, a proven track record, and the ability to manage risk on a consistent basis. Part of PSP family of funds, the firm’s portfolio of managers is selected as a result of a quantitative and qualitative process developed and utilized over more than a decade of investing in hedge funds. A long-term investment approach in the global capital markets offers superior long-term risk adjusted return potential. Therefore Pulteney Street Capital Management is driven to seek long term net returns in excess of the broad market equity indices. Being completely independent and employee owned ensures that the firm is able to implement these quality principals without interference from shareholders and other interested parties. Ultimately the firm is dedicated to employing the best practices in the alternative asset management business.
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Recognised Leader in Risk Management and Operations - Asia Pacific
~ QRMO is an award winning specialist in providing independent risk management, middle office operations, shadow NAV and regulatory reporting for the alternative investment industry. Its clients include hedge funds, fund of hedge funds, asset management companies, securities brokerage firms and proprietary trading desks. QRMO provides its clients the flexibility to outsource all or some of their services, thus allowing them to achieve higher levels of operational alpha. Company: QRMO Name: Albert Chiu - President Email: albert.chiu@qrmo.com Web Address: www.qrmo.com Address: 26/F, Tai Yip Building, 141 Thomson Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong Telephone: 852 2217 7644
Independent risk monitoring & reporting In a continuously evolving financial market, having a proper and independent risk management function is essential for any financial institution and hedge fund. Although fund managers are performing their own risk analysis for making trading decisions, investors are beginning to realize the importance of independent risk monitoring after numerous high-profile cases of fund collapses. QRMO provides seamless risk management information and reports fund managers require to effectively understand, monitor and control risk levels in their strategies. Their experienced risk management professionals communicate with clients on a regular basis and possess thorough knowledge of each fund’s securities and strategies, which enable the risk managers to create customized solutions, while treating each client consistently across all market environments. Shadow NAV and Middle Office QRMO is a pioneer in the shadow NAV area and they are one of the first companies to provide such a service in the industry. QRMO not only allows clients the ability to view their indicative NAV on a daily basis, but also verifies against their administrators’ monthly official NAV through our NAV reconciliation process. This gives clients a great deal of comfort and a peace of mind in releasing the NAV report to their investors. QRMO’s middle office services are independent and transparent, thus providing its clients’ investors with an added degree of confidence in knowing that the risks and operations associated with their invested capital are properly understood and expertly handled both internally by the fund managers and externally by QRMO on a day-to-day basis. In essence, QRMO risk professionals and operations personnel become a highly integrated part of their clients’ daily workflows, which, in turn, greatly enhances operational efficiencies, allows for rapid scalability, reduces costs and enables clients to focus more on what they do best – generating maximum returns for their shareholders. Regulatory Reporting With the ever-increasing reporting requirements from the regulators around the world, it is imperative for hedge funds to find a cost effective solution to satisfy such a need. QRMO has built in many of the current global regulatory reporting requirements into its infrastructure, and have also been working with industry participants in standardizing risk exposure reporting across many different asset classes. As such, QRMO is not merely an aggregator of financial data, but can provide its expertise as risk managers to its clients in understanding the risk profile of their portfolios when preparing for their regulatory reports.
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Best UK Balanced Fund - The Quotidian Fund PCC PLC & Overall Multi-Asset Fund; The Quotidian Fund
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Quotidian Investments is a fund and portfolio manager, which has been successfully managing client’s wealth on a discretionary basis since 1998.
“Dependable management of dynamic markets for discerning clients”.
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We believe we are different from other investment management organisations and this difference particularly manifests itself in our sound and proven investment strategy, in our approach to service and in the care we take in our investment management process. We offer what we regard as a traditional style of service at Quotidian. The client comes first and their individual requirements, desires and concerns are very much at the forefront of our thinking. Each of the partners here has their own personal monies invested either in the partnership, in our multi-asset fund or in our segregated portfolios and these funds are managed in exactly the same way as those of our clients. We feel that in this way our own interests and the interests of our clients are in complete alignment. Investment markets are cyclical. This is to state the obvious but the obvious seems to have often been ignored by so many investment managers. The importance of being in the right asset classes at the right time is fundamental. Appropriate asset allocation together with disciplined stock selection controls risk and drives superior performance. Company: Quotidian Investments LLP Name: Peter Richards Email: peter.richards@quotidianinvestments.com Website: www.quotidianinvestments.com Address: 78 Pall Mall, London, SW1Y 5ES The Moat House, Dorsington, Stratford upon Avon, CV37 8AX Telephone: 0203 193 3731 0178 972 1184 0791 241 0375
Our belief is that successful investment management requires a reliable decision-making process combined with a disciplined approach. In so doing, we seek to maximise investment returns whilst controlling exposure to risk. At Quotidian we invest for the medium and long term in companies which have the ability to produce positive returns for our investors. Many of the businesses share the same attributes; solid management, a strong balance sheet, good market position, strong cash flows, well known brands etc. Good returns can be achieved both from niche companies with strong growth prospects as well as from more mature groups with well-established products. It is by discussions with the clients that we achieve a good understanding of their particular needs and requirements which enables us to tailor the portfolio to meet their specification. We have many years of experience analysing investments. We use sophisticated proprietary systems and have access to research from the major investment houses. In addition we are making increasing use of technical analysis to back up our fundamental views on markets or stocks. The stocks which we hold are reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that that they still meet our criteria. Reviews can also be triggered by sharp movements in the stock price or by a major corporate event such as the annual results. Tactically we only make investments where and when we feel that the potential for profit is compelling and we revisit our investment decisions on a daily basis (hence the name ‘Quotidian’). We seek only to invest in assets that have strong liquidity and are readily tradable and we are content to remain overweight in cash if market conditions so dictate. Quotidian Investments represents the distillation of more than forty years of experience in managing the gyrations of global equity markets. The very name of the business was specifically chosen to reflect the rigorous daily scrutiny we make of the markets generally and our current holdings specifically. The three main criteria we use to judge successful performance are: • To consistently beat the return an investor could achieve with money on deposit • To consistently beat inflation • To consistently beat the FTSE index These are our yardsticks to measure quality performance. We are not content with the merely satisfactory, we have higher aspirations for our clients. We seek to apply intelligence, expertise and the magic ingredient of intuition to get the best from cyclical and ever-evolving markets. Much of the investment industry is pedestrian, relying on out of date quasi-scientific asset allocation models which simply dilute performance under the illusion of ‘risk management’ whilst simultaneously overlooking the biggest risks of all. In the superficially comforting but mistaken belief that asset allocation’ and ‘weighting’ actually spreads risk, many investors today are sleepwalking towards financial disaster without giving a second thought or being guided to consider the much bigger and very real risks posed by longevity and inflation. Savoir faire working in harmony with ever-changing market conditions is the way to ultimately realize the full potential of equity markets. We are not in the business of cutting corners (with the inevitable loss of quality that approach entails) in order to meet low expectations and average investment returns. At Quotidian we aim to cater for just a small percentage of the market; discerning clients who demand more than the pedestrian offerings and mediocre performance provided by the big battalions or by those organisations whose principle skill would appear to be the artful presentation of cleverly contrived figures. In summary, we firmly believe that Quotidian provides top quality investment performance coupled with a first class level of personal service. 101
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Best Tactical Commodities Portfolio Manager
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Red Rock Capital is a highly specialized Commodity Trading Advisor with an award-winning track record for clients over 12 years in length. Firm assets under management are approximately $75 million. Red Rock offers two investment management programs for investors. Both are designed for managed accounts (SMAs); they do not currently offer a “Fund� or commingled investment vehicle.
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Red Rock’s two offered investment strategies are: Commodity Long-Short Program – features a highly acclaimed 2+ year track record netting clients over 35% annualized growth rate – with no correlation to stocks and bonds – and almost no meaningful correlation to other CTAs, either. This program only invests in tangible / hard / physical commodity futures (no financials) such as grains, foods & softs, metals, livestock, and energies. All of the firm’s research indicates that physical commodities markets behave very differently than financial markets, and their strategy was specifically designed to exploit clearly identifiable short-term supply and demand imbalances. A typical trade lasts only 9 days. Besides the stellar absolute performance of this strategy since its inception, what may be more valuable to family office and high net worth investors is its extremely low correlation to other CTAs. It produces a highly unique return stream, and this can be invaluable to investors who are trying to add more diversification to a portfolio of CTAs.
Company: Red Rock Capital Name: Thomas Rollinger Email: trollinger@redrockcapital.com Web Address: www.redrockcapital.com Address: 2332 North Clark Street, Chicago, IL 60614 Telephone: +1 949 648 9506
Systematic Global Macro Program – features a 12+ year track record netting clients over 10% annualized growth rate – with no meaningful correlation to stocks, bonds, real estate, or other hedge funds. This strategy was designed to utilize measurable, objective information to help Red Rock identify major capital flows that manifest themselves as sustainable price trends regularly occurring around the globe. To capitalize on these trends, long or short positions are diligently chosen from a universe of 70 globally diversified futures markets across financial futures such has interest rates, bonds, currencies, stock indices and on commodity futures (grains, precious & base metals, foods & softs, livestock, & energies). Red Rock’s edge, stemming from one of the founder’s training, is that they incorporate Probability Theory in a unique and effective manner that increases the risk-adjusted returns of their Systematic Global Macro program. “We are an effective, lean, highly efficient, two-man team with world-class pedigree and a combined 36 years of experience,” said Managing Partner and lead Portfolio Manager Tom Rollinger who goes on to explain that his firm’s aim is two-fold, to firstly “produce the highest risk-adjusted returns possible for our investors and ourselves” and secondly to “offer investors extremely valuable diversification from their traditional investments such as stocks, bonds, real estate, private equity and, in the case of our Commodity Long-Short program, valuable diversification from any other CTAs in which they may be invested. “We prefer to make decisions, and especially investment decisions, using probabilities, objective and quantitative analysis, and critical thinking. We are not interested in “opinions” or “forecasts” or anecdotal examples of luck. We choose to operate in a calm, deliberate, analytical, and thorough manner” he adds. Rollinger is a staunch contrarian and exudes a unique blend of confidence and humility – and he’s not afraid to set the record straight on fallacies he sees in the Managed Futures space: “The ability of investors to “time” their entries and exits into and out of CTAs effectively is an illusion and an oft-held misperception in our industry. The only credible (i.e. thorough; backed by scientific-type data) academic research analysis done in this area clearly demonstrates that investors are not well-served by trying to time CTAs” Rollinger concludes. Red Rock Capital’s research and opinion pieces, along with their highly analytical white papers, are among the most respected in the managed futures and commodities arenas. Thorough analysis and detailed presentations on this type of topic matter demonstrate the principals’ acumen and continued dedication to their craft. One example is the excellent AN HONEST UPDATE ON THE TREND FOLLOWING LANDSCAPE paper from June 2015. Rollinger conveyed this paper will be updated in January 2016 with data all the way through 2015. Such a paper demonstrates how competitive Red Rock Capital’s performance has been against world-class CTAs since their inception over 12 years ago. A two-man team competes (and beats, in many cases) huge multi-billion dollar firms, who in some cases have tens of PhDs on staff. How do they do it? By being more efficient and agile...and some have said sharper. The future Both partners continue to run Red Rock Capital out of passion – indeed both have made enough money over the years to retire already – but they still enjoy the ‘chess match’ of trying to exploit inefficiencies in the markets.
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Best Portfolio Management Firm - Quebec & Best New North American Hedge Fund: Rivemont Absolute Return Class F
~ Rivemont Investments is a portfolio management firm lead by Martin Lalonde, MBA, CFA.
Registered in Canada, Rivemont Investments is responsible for managing the “Rivemont Absolute Return” hedge fund that uses an innovative strategy based on technical analysis and trend-following to provide a positive return regardless of market conditions. The Fund’s investment objective is to provide investors with positive returns in all market conditions while maintaining a low level of correlation to traditional asset classes such as equities and bonds. The fund will invest based on the premise that the price of an asset is not always equal to its intrinsic value, since this price is influenced by a number of factors, including several cognitive biases on the part of investors. Since these biases are known, and repeat themselves over time, it is possible to make investment decisions based on these recurring behaviours.
Company: Rivemont Investments Name: Martin Lalonde, President and Portfolio Manager Email: info@rivemont.ca Web Address: www.rivemont.ca Address: 160 Boul. de l’Hôpital, suite 202, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada Telephone: 819-246-8800
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The fund uses momentum base strategies including technical analysis, trend monitoring and sectorial rotations to take long and short positions, on breakouts and breakdowns. The manager uses a top-down approach by establishing first which sectors have the highest/ lowest growth potential to subsequently be able, within these sectors, to select specific securities.. This approach means that the fund will look to enter a position at the beginning of a new trend and exit when this trend is broken. Since its inception in early 2015, the Rivemont Absolute Return Fund has one of the best performance in the hedge fund industry, including a 17% gain in Q3 2015.
Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Best Diversified Investment Manager - USA & Best Diversified Trend Fund: Rotella Polaris Program
Rotella Capital Management
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Rotella Capital Management (RCM) was founded in 1995. The Polaris Program, RCM’s flagship trading program, was launched in 1991 and has traded continuously ever since. The Polaris Program is based upon Robert Rotella’s quantitative study of price trends in global futures markets and disciplined risk management methodology. Dean Crowder III spoke with us to share more insights into the firm’s products and services. Company: Rotella Capital Management, Inc. Contact name: Mr. Dean W. Crowder III Email: dean.crowder@rotellacapital.com Web address: www.rotellacapital.com Telephone: (425) 213-5700
All products offered by RCM are headed by a three member Investment Committee: Robert Rotella, Jagdeesh Prakasam and John Harper, who have a combined experience of nearly 60 years in quantitative investment discipline. The Investment Committee is supported by the Research Group which includes 8 research scientists, 10 senior technologists and 17 highly skilled supporting personnel. RCM maintains offices in Chicago and Bellevue, WA with systematic trading and investing as the primary focus for our global institutional clients. RCM employs a team approach to investment management. Together, the Investment Committee and the Research Group comprise the brain trust of RCM. Our team has experience in building successful trading strategies in both futures and cash equities. Ideas span across a wide range of alternative investment strategies: trend following, momentum, market neutral, equity long/short, volatility, smart beta and tactical trend. As a highly-experienced systematic trading firm, RCM has been building products in the alternative investments space that provide consistent, risk-adjusted returns while delivering a low correlation to traditional stock and bond markets since 1995. Every voice on the investment and research teams is important. We’ve developed an environment that generates creative, quantitative thinking in model and program development. Our collaborative approach has a positive impact on research and all areas affecting client portfolios. We view risk management seriously as a fiduciary to client capital, as well as to RCM’s proprietary capital, and address managing risk with three approaches: first, we employ volatility based position sizing; second, we use equal risk budget across equity indexes, interest rates, currencies and commodities; and third, we overlay risk monitors and controls to watch for extreme tail loss and VaR, thereby preventing market level risk concentration. RCM believes it has one of finest research teams in the industry, consisting of members with diverse educational backgrounds who have advanced degrees in physics, engineering, mathematics and financial engineering. We strive to remain true to a given program’s mandate. Where RCM programs are positioned in portfolios, we seek to maximize returns, limit drawdowns and minimize potential style drift that could adversely affect returns or impact a client’s expected risk parameters. We are positive about future opportunities for the firm. RCM is getting ready to launch a systematic multi-strategy program in futures and cash equities. We are committed to creating systematic programs that are cutting edge in the industry and offering investment structures that meet the needs of institutions in various geographic areas. Moreover, the unwinding of Quantitative Easing (QE) by the US Federal Reserve, coupled with an increase in QE by Europe, Japan and China may cause a global decoupling of markets across equities, interest rates, currencies and commodities. This situation could become one of the best environments for divergent strategies like the Polaris Program, making it a superior addition to a portfolio of strategies that have high beta to stock and bond markets.
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Best Systematic Manager - Europe & Best Diversified Futures Fund (Since Inception): SMN Diversified Futures Fund
SMN Investment Services
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SMN Investment Services is a systematic asset manager based in Vienna, Austria which specialises in quantitative trading strategies. We speak to Gernot Heitzinger who talks us through this dynamic and innovative firm as well as their award winning fund.
SMN’s flagship product, SMN Diversified Futures Fund was set up in 1996. Besides that we are currently running a systematic equity programme as well as a fixed income strategy. Our client base is mainly institutional, but we also work with private banks and their clients as well as family offices. All our investment processes are strictly rule based. We strongly believe that the long term value added of an investment strategy lies in the manager´s discipline to maintain his investment philosophy irrespective of market environment. This can be very difficult in some periods but in the end it pays off to consequently do what you can do best. We have always been convinced about the merits of a disciplined trend following approach. During the difficult years from 2009-2013 many investors expected us to initiate fundamental changes in our process. Of course we always kept on researching and also did some gradual fine-tuning of the approach, but we kept the underlying philosophy unchanged. When trends came back in 2014 this consistency was rewarded.
Company: SMN Investment Services GmbH Name: Gernot Heitzinger Email: Heitzinger@smn.at Web Address:www.smn.at Address: Rotenturmstrasse 16-18, A-1010 Vienna Telephone: +43 1 513 25 51-25
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The fund operates as a highly diversified CTA strategy. The investment philosophy is capturing market momentum via trend following. The investment universe comprises more than 200 markets from all different sectors, financial markets and commodity markets. Risk management has always been the highest focus in our research work. Over the past years we have put a lot of effort in further upgrading our embedded risk management tools and we developed a unique correlation overlay and the SMN Risk Index. Both features had a significant influence on our risk adjusted returns. Systematic strategies have gone through difficult times and at the same time it was rather easy for investors to achieve sufficient return from strategies much easier to understand. Times will definitely become more challenging and volatility will come back as well, so I look forward that CTA strategies will be of more importance 3-5 years ahead. We have expanded our product range into systematic equities and systematic fixed income and we will be working on further investment solutions alongside the needs of our clients.
Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Best FX Arbitrage Fund (5 Years): Spectra SPC - Powerfund
STI Financial Group
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STI Financial Group (“STI”), founded in 2005, is a fully fledged investment advisory and asset management firm. William Kong, from the Hong Kong Office of STI made himself available to explain the global companies service offerings.
Company: STI Financial Group Contact name: William Kong Email: william.kong@stifg.com Web: www.stifg.com Telephone: +852 3728 2828
STI brings unique innovations to the market, providing a wide range of professional financial services to our valued investors. The rapid expansion of STI during the past few years is propelled by cutting edge technology innovations in our proprietary trading systems. We have a strong focus on quantitative strategies and quality researches. The dedicated product development team strives to bring the best in the investment universe to our clients. Additionally, STI provides professional tailor-made investment service and wealth planning solutions to our clients. The company’s motto is “Only the Best (Services) for the Best (Clients).” Our core investment philosophy is based on CPPT (Clients, Products, People and Technologies), which places our valued clients’ interests at the centre. STI acknowledges the client relationship as the core asset of the company and believe that outstanding client services are delivered by outstanding people, excellent products, and cutting edge technologies. Our seasoned investment professionals listen to the needs of our clients. STI believes that attention to our clients’ needs is essential for providing the right products and services. We at STI strive not only to meet but go beyond our clients’ expectations. Globalization brings greater challenges to the financial market. We choose to take an opportunistic view and a proactive stance in the rapidly changing environment, aim at exploiting the opportunities that come along with the challenges. We embrace changes and with the belief that our dedication and commitment to continuous innovation and investment research will pave our way to success. We strive to drive changes, and to position ourselves as a true pioneer in the alternative investment industry. Our passion, dedication and expertise are the essence for us to stay in the forefront in this competitive industry. We have an uncompromising determination to maintain high ethical and professional standards and excellence is the cornerstone of everything we do. Our clients expect to receive the best delivered from us. To ensure this is the case we have become a true pioneer in the alternative investment industry by continuous innovations. To stay at the forefront of our industry, ‘meritocracy’ and ‘diversity’ are the values we prioritise to foster innovation. Advancement depends on merit and we promote diversity; people from different backgrounds and perspectives. We leverage our people at both individual level and as a team. We encourage individual creativity and constantly achieving synergy in teamwork as well.
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Best Independent Investment Managers - France & Best French Equity Long/Short Fund: Sycomore L/S Opportunities
Sycomore Asset Management
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Founded in 2001, Sycomore Asset Management is principally owned by its founding partners and is one of the leading French independent asset management companies specialised in the fundamental analysis of European equities. We caught up with them to find out more about their innovative investment strategy.
Company: Sycomore Asset Management Name: Fidy Ramamonjisoa Web Address: www.sycomore-am.com Address: 14 Avenue Hoche, 75008 Paris Telephone: +33 (0) 1.44.40.16.00
Our investment approach is conviction-driven and opportunistic, which has no style, sector or market capitalisation bias. We invest across the full spectrum of Eurozone companies, and our investment philosophy has not changed since the launch of the company in 2001. Our long-term performance leverages on a structured and thorough investment process, both in terms of fundamental analysis (the cornerstone of our investment approach) and portfolio construction. We seek to achieve superior long-term returns by combining a risk/reward approach with a value approach. For the former, the manager identifies a low boundary (Worst Case Scenario) and a high boundary (Target Price) for each stock. As for the latter approach, the manager favours stocks that are trading at a discount but offer significant upside potential. In terms of our philosophy, we firmly believe that the creation of wealth is only sustainable if it is shared by all stakeholders. Sycomore AM has therefore upgraded its proprietary analysis tool to include a new methodology based on SPICE – the 5 pillars of value creation. These include Society, People, Investors, Clients and Environment. While financial criteria remain determining factors for our fundamental approach, we also conduct in-depth and proprietary ESG analysis across our entire investment universe. This process helps us identify indicators that may point to financial risks but also to performance drivers on the stock market. With regards to the culture of our firm, Sycomore Asset Management pays particular attention to its main asset: human capital, which we believe is the key driver for sustainable performance. From our perspective, a happy employee is more creative, more engaged and therefore more productive. All that is needed is a working environment that is conducive to professional and personal development, which in turn drives self-motivation. As a result, it is fundamental for new staff joining the team at Sycomore AM to adhere to this philosophy and to share these values. Looking back on the past 12 months, 2015 has been an exciting year for Sycomore Asset Management, where we launched two new funds. With the creation of Sycomore Happy@Work – a European equity fund with a focus on human capital – and Sycomore Eco Solutions – a principally European equity fund investing in companies playing an active role in the energy and environmental transition – Sycomore AM is innovating, while also strengthening the social and environmental dimension of its investment expertise.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Best Small Cap Investment Manager - Norway & Best Specialist Equity Hedge Fund: Taiga Fund
Taiga Fund Management AS
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Taiga Fund Management AS is an independent investment manager based in Oslo that specializes in publicly traded equities, with a focus on the Nordic region. Ola Wessel-Aas, CEO, took the time to share some insights into Taiga Fund.
Company: Taiga Fund Management AS Contact: Elin Wallin Tørre Email: SHS@taigafund.no Web address: www.taigafund.no Telephone: +47 23 01 25 50 Address: Dronning Mauds Gate 3, N – 0250 Oslo, Norway
We manage one fund, Taiga Fund, which is an Irish Qualifying Investor Alternative Investment Fund. The majority of clients and capital behind the fund are Family Offices and High Net Worth Individuals. Taiga Fund is a long-short equity fund with a best ideas concept. Our conviction is that what determines stock returns over time is valuation in relation to profitability and growth, rather than size and share liquidity. Compelling val¬uations relative to earnings prospects are, in our opinion, most often found in the lower end of the market-cap space. Small is not tantamount with vulnerable, unproven and unprofitable. There is a wide variety of smaller companies with proven track records, strong balance sheets and superior profitability. While share prices may fluctuate due to constrained liquidity, actual financial performance tends to be far more stable, resulting in capital appreciation over time. These are the typical investments of Taiga Fund. Risk management is embedded in the stock selection process. By looking deeply into each investment case we measure risk in terms of financial leverage, cyclicality, structural growth factors, operational leverage and earnings visibility. We invest only when risk/ reward is strongly tilted in our favour. Our ambition is to produce attractive risk adjusted returns, but also high absolute returns. Taiga Fund’s found¬ing investors are family offices who seek to use the benefits of long-term capital to their advantage by investing in equity markets where prices can be dominated by short term portfolio requirements and institutional restrictions. The main flexi¬bility in the mandate is to be able to not invest and sit on large cash positions for periods of time when investments opportunities do not meet our high hurdles. We believe this approach creates a true alternative equity investment strategy. Potential new investors should have a similar perspective. Continuous monitoring of a very specific niche area of the market with very specific requirements and a disciplined approach to making investments, allows us to take advantage of opportunities in all kind of equity market conditions. By being patient and remaining true to our investment style we try not to be distracted by market volatility and sentiment changes that can influence pricing in the short term but generally leads to opportunities in the long term. Being transparent and consistent builds trust over time. We try to be prudent and realistic in marketing our product, aiming for investors who have an ability to understand the likelihood of a lumpy return profile over time. Investing in our employees, infrastruc¬ture and systems is the best way to safeguard our business and make sure we remain independent and true to our origin. We have full control of all aspects of our operations and continue to have a big focus on compliance and risk management at every level.
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Best for Customized Lending Solutions - Canada & Best Private Debt Hedge Fund (5 Years): Third Eye Capital Credit Opportunities Fund - Insight Fund
Third Eye Capital
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Third Eye Capital is known for seeing value in company assets that others miss. They provide innovative and customized lending solutions for companies that have been overlooked or need a lending partner with a different perspective. Chris Vokes, Head of Investor Relations at Third Eye Capital, shared his insights on their award winning service.
Company: Third Eye Capital Contact name: Chris Vokes Email: chris@thirdeyecapital.com Web: http://www.thirdeyecapital.com/ Address: Brookfield Place, TD Canada Trust Tower, 161 Bay Street, Suite 3930, Toronto, Ont. M5J 2S1 Telephone: (416) 601-2270
Third Eye Capital has been providing innovative financing solutions to private and public borrowers in many types of businesses, across different industries, and in various situations since 2005. We specialize in providing debt facilities to primarily middle-market North American companies that are overlooked or underappreciated by conventional sources of capital. We have experienced the challenges of financing a business first-hand. Our founders have felt the pain of rejection from conventional lenders who were unable or otherwise unwilling to see the potential of their ventures. But that also taught us the sources of value creation and recognizing the patterns that can make a business successful. Good companies should not be judged on their financial performance alone. And a company’s most valuable assets often do not appear on the balance sheet. We help businesses monetize their hidden assets with financing that is not just focused on historical earnings. Succeeding in business is not easy even when capital is available. Growing sales, managing costs, and retaining people, while trying to innovate and stay ahead of the competition at the same time, can be daunting and downright demanding. At Third Eye Capital we have a team of talented professionals that have a long heritage in private investing and secured lending and possess a business “know-how� that can only be gained through extensive experience in building businesses. We are often told that we are the borrowers firm of choice due to our entrepreneurial decision making, innovative structuring and flexible terms, closing certainty and loan stability, improved controls and market visibility and lower total cost for non-bankable borrowers. As we look to the future, we always keep our clients at the forefront of all we do. Investors will need to become more discerning as the bull market rally in stocks and bonds matures. Broad allocations to indices was a winning strategy in past years; however, investors have reason to be cautious since the policies that drove asset prices higher are close to an end. Our investment strategy continues to provide investors, regardless of economic conditions, with a non-correlated, low volatility alternative to achieving yield.
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Best for Antifragile Trading - Australia & Best Managed Futures Fund (1 Year): Global Capital Allocation Fund
~ Tomas Capital specialises in compounding capital over the long run through antifragile trading and investment techniques. Adam Tomas from the firm talks us through the company’s investment strategy
Tomas Capital’s flagship fund, GCAF, seeks to compound capital by capturing the long-term price trends that are characteristic of all markets from time to time. The fund’s trading activities are directed by our proprietary automated trading system that monitors a basket of 130 futures contracts across all major exchanges, asset classes and geographic regions. Risk controlled positions are entered and managed as potential upward or downward trends emerge. The concept of antifragility underpins not only the development, but also the selection of our trading strategy. We define antifragile trading strategies as exhibiting the following characteristics: • They extract profits from timeless market phenomena that have been evident to the public for many years – we call these market phenomena market axioms. • They tend to necessitate a long-term investment horizon that produces a lumpy distribution of returns (with high positive skew). • They tend to benefit from volatility, variability, dispersion and uncertainty. • They focus on reactive position taking and risk management; there is no attempt to predict market outcomes. Company: Tomas Capital Pty Ltd Name: Adam Tomas Email: adam@tomascapital.com Web Address: www.tomascapital.com Address: 1206 / 31 Spring Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia Telephone: +61 407 996 764
We regard the existence of long-term price trends occurring within the financial markets as a self-evident market axiom that is unlikely to dissipate over the long-term. We further push GCAF in the direction of antifragility via three conceptual features that also differentiate us from other managers within the managed futures space: 1. We target price trends in longer timeframes and as a consequence do not periodically change or evolve the core trading logic that underpins GCAF. 2. We trade a large universe of futures contracts and; when global conditions require it, take on many simultaneous positions. 3. We manage all risk at the individual trade level and do not attempt to predict inter-market correlations. Needless to say, our investment horizon is considerably long-term in nature and we seek investors who can share this horizon. We suggest a minimum horizon of five years for an investment in GCAF. The fund has been trading since July 2011 and the strategy has displayed all of the characteristics of an antifragile system with the ability to compound capital over the long-term: • The strategy has generated a compound annual return of 10.89% through to November 2015. • The strategy’s return distribution is lumpy with high positive skew – it generated 89.85% for the 2014 Calendar Year. • The strategy benefits from volatility, variability, dispersion and uncertainty – it generated 18.87% in November 2014 during the sell-off in crude oil; and 37.96% in January 2015 during the sell-off in the Euro and when the Swiss National Bank unpegged the Franc from the Euro. • The strategy did not predict any events; it simply reacted
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Best Systematic Managed Futures Fund - Trend Concept Fund Multi Asset Allocator
~ TrendConcept as an asset management firm, which was established in 1994, while TrendConsult is a software and advisory firm established in 1989. The five founders and managing directors of the firm have worked together as a team from the outset. They manage mutual funds for private clients, and segregated funds for pension funds, family offices, insurances, church institutions and banks. They use a systematic tactical asset management approach and their aim is to make money for clients with controlled risk. The fund they manage is called the TrendConcept Fund Multi Asset Allocator which “is a managed futures fund according to UCITS III that runs long- or short-positions in the global equity, bond, and currency markets” explains Caspar von Zitzewitz. “The TrendConcept approach is applied to let profits run, but cut losses early according to Dow theory. The margin to equity ratio is conservatively low” he adds. “The TrendConcept approach is strictly systematic. Preserving capital is the no 1 priority, while opportunities to make money with controlled risk are used. We believe the market and market movements are the best future indicator. We use mathematical and statistical indicators to determine trend directions early on. We then invest solely in top-quality, liquid equity, bond and currency markets in which there is a liquid future for taking positions-or hedging” he continues The firm work solely in top-quality liquid equity, bond, and currency markets with liquid futures contracts von Zitzewitz underlines. “We exploit major trends both on the upside and the downside with ‘long-‘ or ‘short-‘positions. The challenges lie in the trendless periods which we handle by applying filter rules in order to minimise transactions” he adds. Company: TrendConcept Vermögensverwaltung GmbH Name: Caspar von Zitzewitz Email: czitzewitz@trendconcept.com Web Address: trendconcept.com Address: Otto-von-Guericke-Ring 13-15, D-65205 Wiesbaden Telephone: +49-69-97142222
When working in an industry that is constantly changing, von Zitzewitz explains that in order for his firm to keep at the forefront of any emerging developments, their “approach has been developed over the past 30 years. Its basis is very robust and has never changed. It centres on our philosophy of ‘letting profits run but cutting losses’, which may seem obvious but is not easy to implement in a disciplined manner. The main focus of work to develop the methodology further has always been on getting better in trendless phases”. Looking ahead The final word goes to von Zitzewitz, who paints a positive picture of the future: “We have a strong belief that, given the world’s huge indebtedness and other economic imbalances, our systematic, tactical asset management style is one of the few that will be able to avoid major mistakes in the future. Against the backdrop of low or even negative interest rates and the imbalances mentioned above, the statistical probability of making major mistakes will be even higher in the next 10 or 20 years than in the past. We therefore expect to see substantial growth in the management of funds for top-class asset managers applying a tactical asset management approach.”
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Hedge Fund Awards 2016
Best Discretionary Alternative Investment Manager - New York
~ Trigon was founded in 2002 by Ante Basic and Paul Mastroddi who have been co-portfolio managers without interruption since the inception of the firm. Trigon’s flagship Discretionary Macro Program (DMP) trades futures and foreign exchange in a discretionary global macro style. Their typical client base has been fund of funds and family offices but they continue to attract increased interest from institutional and public pension investors.
Company: Trigon Investment Advisors Name: Patrick M. Hannon, CAIA Email: ph@trigoninvestment.com Web Address: www.trigoninvestment.com Address: Wall Street Plaza, 88 Pine Street27th Floor, New York, NY 10005 Telephone: +1 646 368 9454
Patrick M. Hannon, Trigon’s Managing Director, outlines the fund they manage and their approach to managing risk and ensuring the best possible returns for investors. “Within the Discretionary Macro Program, we employ a top-down analysis of fundamentals to formulate investment themes expected to materialize over coming weeks to several months” Hannon reveals. “The Program consists of two strategies: the Short-Term Interest Rates Strategy which governs exposure to fixed income with a maturity of less than three years, while the Opportunistic Strategy sets exposure to longterm fixed income, foreign exchange, equity indices and commodities” he continues. “Risk management has been critical to the long-term success of DMP and consistency of returns since inception. We use a strict “Capital at Risk” framework for the entire portfolio, while also constraining risk within both sub-portfolios (Short-Term Interest Rates & Opportunistic). Lastly, we have strict loss limits for each individual trade” Hannon adds. In such a competitive industry, Hannon explains how they differentiate their business from that of their competitors. “Our feedback from current clients, as well as potential clients conducting a due diligence review has been consistent in that they consider the industry experience of Trigon’s Co-Portfolio Managers to be a significant determining factor” he says. “With over 50 years of combined experience, investors find it very valuable that the primary decision makers have gained the perspective to observe market behaviour in variety of different cycles which can change quickly and without warning. For example; Central Bank interventions, exogenous geopolitical events, as well as volatility regimes that are much higher than the historical average or much lower than the historical average” Hannon concludes.
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Best for Fund Accounting - USA
Yulish & Associates
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Yulish & Associates, founded in 1993, is a fund administration company servicing the alternative investment industry, with a focus on hedge funds and funds of hedge funds.
Yulish & Associates is delighted to have been named Best Fund of Hedge Fund Administrator – USA by Acquisition International Hedge Fund Awards. We’re honoured that our clients continue to strongly endorse us as evidenced by this award and we remain committed to providing industry leading service coupled with outstanding value. About Yulish & Associates Yulish & Associates was founded 22 years ago with a simple objective: to provide our clients with the highest quality service personalized to their specific needs at price levels that will preserve manager performance. In our view, it is our strict adherence to these guiding principles that led our peers and clients to nominate us for this important award.
Web: www.yulish.com
We are also able to bring far more to the table than basic fund accounting taking into consideration our hands on experience running the operations of sizeable hedge funds and fund of hedge funds. We believe this high level breadth of experience and superior ability is what distinguishes us from our competition and enables us to provide the support our clients need in order to help them become better entrepreneurs. Our clients think of us as trusted advisors committed to helping them succeed. Some of the services we provide include: fund accounting, audit support, financial statement preparation, investor services, reporting to investors, compliance and taxation, fund structuring, fund-of-funds administration and consulting expertise in a variety of areas crucial to the proficient growth of any fund. Commentary on the Current State of the Hedge Fund Industry The hedge fund industry is as strong as ever with assets under management at all-time highs although significant challenges lie ahead. The biggest developments have been the implementation of numerous regulations and an increase in the complexity of financial instruments. As a result, compliance costs are on the rise which will place additional stress on a Fund’s infrastructure and prove to be another challenge for hedge fund managers and their service providers.
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