2 minute read
The essence of being a boutique manager
BY JP MATTHEWS Head: Product, Matrix Fund Managers
At Matrix Fund Managers, we take an agile approach to active investing, fuelled by our independent thinking and unconstrained style. Our core purpose is to deliver investment returns that are consistent with our risk and return targets. We do this while striving to provide personal and high-quality service for our informed client base.
As an owner-managed and focused asset manager, Matrix is regularly included in boutique manager surveys. We regularly debate what it really means to be a boutique asset manager. It is especially disconcerting to note that boutique managers are often regarded as start-ups or lacking scale.
The fact is that many firms covered in these surveys are very well established. Many boutique managers have been around for decades, are financially strong and manage assets of up to R100bn. Boutiques with lower AUM also often manage higher margin product, such as hedge funds and private equity funds, where managers may have chosen to limit the size of their funds to ensure that returns are not diluted by asset gathering.
To our minds, the essence of being a boutique manager revolves around specialist skills, focused products and creating a well-governed environment that promotes agile decision making and rapid implementation.
At Matrix, a core group of our team has been in place since 2006, successfully managing investments across asset classes and through various market cycles. Today, we employ a group of highly skilled individuals, including 15 investment professionals with well over 200 years of combined market experience.
As we have grown, we remained focused on our key investment strengths, while building the governance, operational and business development infrastructure that helps our investment team thrive.
We will always be performance driven, and we prize independent thought and idea generation, as we believe that management by consensus or committee leads to inferior outcomes for clients.
We are pragmatic and opportunity focused, embracing the full risk spectrum to generate return. Mindful of clients’ objectives, we apply consistent processes across various asset classes and fund mandates, covering liquid markets with a keen eye on risk management.
The ‘matrix’ of our multi-asset process is built on robust bottom-up equity stock picking and macro top-down fixed income processes that are combined with tactical asset allocation, designed to grow capital under various market conditions.
Our focused product range has grown organically to provide specific solutions for clients, drawing on central research and shared idea generation.
Launched in 2008, our award-winning fixed income hedge fund, the largest in the country, has generated strong risk-adjusted returns since inception. Our flagship defensive long-only multi-asset fund, exclusively managed for Amplify Investment Partners since 2014, has consistently outperformed its CPI plus 3% target over the past five years – one of the few multi-asset funds to have done so in the SA market over this period.
Also noteworthy for a boutique manager is our commitment to ESG practices, and our ongoing transformation, via our management, employment, procurement, and socioeconomic development practices. With valuable input from our stakeholders, we have worked hard to attain our current Level 2 B-BBEE Contributor status.
By extending our agile and progressive approach across all areas, the Matrix culture remains firmly intact.
