Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017
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INVEST IN SUCCESS Adar Capital Partners Ltd. (ACP), draws on a collective experience of over 25 years in the investment industry to deliver superior support and advice to its clients, as well as providing an investment product, The Adar Macro Fund. We profile the firm and its core fund to find out more about the secrets behind its success.
TMESIS Capital Management
Stats Investment Management Co., Ltd.
V E N T U R E S
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com
Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017
Welcome to the 2017 Alternative Investment Awards Previously an undervalued industry, the alternative investment has grown immensely over the past few years. Behind the ever-growing success are the leading lights whose innovation, dedication and inventive ways has seen them accomplish some remarkable results. Now in its fourth year, the 2017 Alternative Investment Awards cast a light on the individuals, firms and departments from across all sectors that have played a part in shaping this dynamic and imitable industry. These awards are not concerned with a firm’s size or reputation, but rather their dedication to client service, innovation and success. From multinational companies to individual investors, these awards are seeking everyone working within this industry, investing in everything from collectable items, fine art and wines through to property and precious metals, whose hard work and professionalism is changing the financial landscape for the better.
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4 Adar Capital Partners Ltd Best Performing Macro Strategy Fund (1 year) 6 Third Friday Group, LLC Most Innovative Hedge Fund Manager 2017 - USA & Best US Option Strategies Fund (5 years): The Third Friday Total Return Fund, L.P. 8 Castle Hall Alternatives Best Global Operational Due Diligence Firm 2017 & Best Alternative Investment Diligence Platform: DueDiligenceProfessional 10 iCapital Network Best Outsourced Alternative Investment Platform 2017 12 Tmesis Capital Management Best Hedge Fund Management Firm 2017 - Asia & Best Multi-Dimension Quantitative Fund (Since Inception): Tmesis Capital Management Fund 14 Westside Wealth Management of Raymond James Best for Diversified Liquid Alternatives 2017 - USA 16 Laureola Advisors Top Performing Hedge Fund Manager 2017: Laureola Advisors Inc. & Most Consistent Long-Term Performing Fund: Laureola Investment Fund 18 Carlisle Management Company Best Life Insurance Fund (Since Inception): Long Term Growth Fund FCP SIF & Best Diversified Investment Management Firm - Luxembourg 19 S.E.A. Asset Management Best Boutique Fund Manager - Singapore & Best Asia Pacific Focused Fixed-Income Fund (1 Year): S.E.A. Asian High Yield Bond Fund B 20 Zentrum Capital Advisors Limited Best Fund Management Firm - Hong Kong & Best Asia Multi-Strategy Hedge Fund (Since Inception): Zentrum Asia Opportunity Fund Segregated Portfolio 21 Cane Island Alternative Advisors, LLC Best Overall Global Macro Strategy: Cane Island Global Macro 22 Banque Pâris Bertrand Sturdza Best Active Investment Manager - Switzerland 23 Centaur Ventures Ltd Award for Excellence in Venture Capital Investments- MENA 24 International Financial Data Services Limited Best Global Investor & Policyholder Administration Service Provider 2017 25 John Fogwell & Associates Best for International Trade Financing Services - Africa 26 Waha Capital Best Open-Ended Fund Manager - UAE & Best Absolute Return Fund (Since Inception): Waha CEEMEA Fixed Income Fund 27 Stats Investment Management Co., Ltd. Best Long/Short Hedge Fund Manager - Japan & Best Japan Equity Long/Short Fund (Since Inception): GSS Fund 28 Runestone Capital Best Absolute Return Fund (Since Inception): Runestone Capital Fund 29 Catana Capital Best Quantitative Asset Manager 2017 - Germany & Best Public AIF (5 Years): Catana Big Data 30 PCS SA (Professional Computer Services SA) Best Fund Management Solutions Provider - Greece 31 Jordan, Knauff & Company Middle-Market Investment Bank of the Year - USA & Recognised Leaders in PE Transactions - USA 32 Notz Stucki & Cie SA Best Alternative Investment Manager 2017 - Switzerland & Award for Excellence in Fund Engineering 2017 33 Ruby Capital Partners LLP Best Private Investment Office - UK 34 Watson Wheatley Best Investment Practice Reconciliation Platform: iRecs 35 Stratton Street Capital Best Fixed-Income Fund Advisory Firm - UK & Best APAC Fixed-Interest Fund (Since Inception): Renminbi Bond Fund 36 GrowthInvest Best Specialist Investment Platform - UK 37 Napier Park Global Capital Best Alternative Credit Investment Firm 2017 & Best Alpha-Driven Fixed Income Fund: Opportunistic Credit Strategy 38 Deutsche Finance Group Best PE Real Estate Investment Firm - Germany & Best Global Infrastructure Fund: Deutsche Finance PRIVATE Fund 11 39 BlackGold Capital Management LP Best Energy-Focused Credit Investment Firm - USA 40 GREIFF Capital Management AG Best Diversified Fund Management Firm - Germany & Best Total Return Fund 2017: PARAGON UI 41 Optimum Asset Management Best Fund Management Firm 2017 - Germany & Best Luxembourg-domiciled Property Funds: Optimum Evolution Fund SIF - Property II & Property III 42 Asia Global Capital Group Best Asia-Pacific Focused Investment Bank 2017 - USA 43 Host Capital Authorised Corporate Director of the Year 2017 - UK & Best Non-UCITS Retail Fund (YTD): HC Stirling House Defensive Fund 44 Lawson Conner Investment Management Platform of the Year 2017 - UK & Best for Regulatory Compliance Services - UK 45 Affiliated Financing Services, Ltd. Best Alternative Project Finance Lender 2017 - North America 46 MCR Best for Hotel Acquisitions 2017 - USA 47 Seven Capital Management Best Fund Manager 2017 - France & Best European Equity Fund (Since Inception): Seven European Equity (Share I) 48 Pluscios Management Best US Distressed Securities Fund (Since Inception): X2 Opportunistic Debt Fund, LLC 50 SL Investment Management Limited Best Fund Structuring Company 2017
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Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017
Company: Adar Capital Partners Ltd Website: http://adarcapitalpartners.com/
Adar Macro Fund
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www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI170001
Best Performing Macro Strategy Fund (1 year)
Adar Capital Partners Ltd. (ACP), draws on a collective experience of over 25 years in the investment industry to deliver superior support and advice to its clients, as well as providing an investment product, The Adar Macro Fund. We profile the firm and its core fund to find out more about the secrets behind its success.
ACP provides investment advice to institutional investors, family offices and private investment funds. The Adar Macro Fund, ACP’s primary fund manages assets in excess of $1.5 Billion USD. Led by the fund’s founder and CIO, Zev Marynberg, Adar has developed a very successful investment strategy and historical track record with a main focus on Latin American and European financial markets.
Unlike most of the competitors the Fund has no target to diversify per se. The fund looks for investment opportunities, assets undervalued by fundamental analysis, and countries where macro conditions are on the way to improve substantially. Those good opportunities cannot be 50, and also not 20. The Fund concentrates in 5 to 10 investments where high current yield and/or outstanding expectations for capital appreciation are visible.
With over 25 years of global investing experience, Mr. Marynberg identifies unique investment opportunities through macro research utilizing a fundamental analysis of investments in emerging markets coupled with extensive local market knowledge of the countries in which Adar makes investments.
Risk can be limited when cheap, liquid assets, mostly sovereign backed, with limited leverage, and denominated in hard currencies are purchased, and ACP do not invest more than 25% of its assets in one country in order to spread the risk and reduce the chance of exposing their investors to unnecessary issues.
The management team of ACP has more than 25 years of experience in investment banking, risk management and compliance. ACP has developed strong relationships with investment banks and institutions throughout the regions where the fund invests. ACP manages its investment risk with a balanced asset allocation methodology and maintaining low leverage ratios. Risk management is a core component in all of our investment decision processes. The company has offices in Geneva, Madrid, Jerusalem and an affiliate in New York, offering a true global reach.
Overall the Fund, and ACP’s extensive investment research, is focused in 5 to 10 opportunities, where there is a kind of “capital protection” if the firm buy very cheap, and there is a tremendous upside if a fundamental change of the macro policies of a country are close to happen. Flexibility is a key factor when managing a portfolio. If ACP made a mistake thinking what would not happen, then it acts with celerity and on a rational way, which enables it to be able to change its holdings and re focus.
The firm’s flagship investment product, the Adar Macro Fund, seeks to achieve high-interest income and capital appreciation through investment in a combination of different fixed-income and equity securities, with particular attention to European and South American markets.
Buying cheap good economic fundamentals, collecting high coupons, and letting time do its work, is our philosophy since we started managing hedge funds in 1998. Since the inception of The Fund, and since our beginning as portfolio managers 25 years ago, we repeat to our investors and ourselves, that we do not care about so much volatility, we care about investment value.
In managing the Fund’s portfolio, the Investment Manager takes into account such factors as the credit quality of issuers; changes in and levels of interest rates; projected economic growth rates; volatility; capital flows; debt levels; liquidity; trends in inflation; and anticipated movements in foreign currency and governmental initiatives.
Looking ahead, Volatility is a significant issue when you invest with a short term horizon, or when you have an amount of leverage that will impede you to keep your investments when markets go the opposite way. Short term investment is not the focus of the Adar Macro Fund. Leverage yes. Leverage allows the acceleration of the investment process.
The Fund’s portfolio typically contains fixed-income and equity securities, notes, corporate bonds, commercial paper, euro-time deposits, euro-depository receipts representing certificates of deposit, bank loans and other non-securitized extensions of credit made to sovereign and corporate issuers. Some derivatives are used when the fund manager feels it’s justified.
In addition, Value investment and a medium low level of leverage are the combination ACP favour, and moving forward the firm will continue to focus on this strategy. Those precepts are behind its portfolio strategy. When markets appraise a development as too good, at the end is not so good. The opposite, bad news are in general not so bad news. Markets tend to exaggerate both positive and negative news. Investment opportunities arise as a consequence of those exaggerations, and ACP will continue to take advantage of these as it looks towards a bright and prosperous future.
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Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017
Third Friday Group, LLC 6
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI170007
Company: Third Friday Management, LLC Contact: Michael Lewitt Email: mlewitt@thirdfriday.com Address: 515 N. Flagler Drive, Suite 300, West Palm Beach, FL 33401 Phone: 00 15612391510 Website: www.thirdfriday.com
Most Innovative Hedge Fund Manager 2017 - USA & Best US Option Strategies Fund (5 years): The Third Friday Total Return Fund, L.P. Third Friday Management, LLC is the manager of the Third Friday Total Return Fund, L.P. and manages the fund on behalf of institutional and high net worth investors around the world. We invited Michael Lewitt to share the secrets behind the firm’s success.
The Third Friday Total Return Fund, L.P. utilizes a proprietary rulesbased options strategy to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns in all market environments. The fund focuses on preservation of capital and insuring that positions are properly hedged. Michael discusses the fund in more detail and outlines the strategies it employs to offer clients the very highest standards of service and strong returns.
This strong, risk adjusted approach helps the firm to overcome the biggest challenge facing the US hedge fund industry currently; the fact that most hedge funds are not really hedged, but are instead long-biased funds that charge hedge fund fees and fail to provide attractive risk-adjusted returns. Third Friday is an exception to that rule, as the fund charges appropriate fees (1/15) and is hedged and provides consistently attractive risk-adjusted returns without leverage and manages risk effectively with strong risk metrics.
“Here at Third Friday Management, we offer the Third Friday Total Return Fund, L.P., a rules-based options hedge fund celebrating its 10th anniversary on May 1, 2017. So far it has produced superior risk-adjusted returns and never suffered a negative year, including 2008, when it was slightly positive despite the global recession. It is this ten-year track record without a single negative year and our genuinely hedged and market neutral strategy that truly sets our firm apart from our competitors. We have managed this strategy for 10 years before the fund started, and offer clients both our expertise and humility, as we respect the market and never try to outguess it. We follow our rules-based strategy at all times and do not deviate from it regardless of whether it is working at any specific time because we know that over time it will produce the results we expect.
Alongside the fund, Third Friday Management also publishes The Credit Strategist, a well respected financial newsletter that is read widely in financial and political and academic circles around the world. Michael believes that the publication is central to the firm ensuring that it remains ahead of the industry and able to adapt quickly and efficiently to any new trends within the market. “As a long-time newsletter publisher, we provide well-respected, cutting-edge macro research that is widely read and respected and ensures that we are always at the forefront of market developments. We also employ cutting edge artificial intelligence technology with respect to some of our trading strategies that is proprietary and is unavailable elsewhere.
“Working to retain this strong performance is our focus and as such we work to ensure that our investors receive the very best returns possible through our risk management approach, which revolves around offering a strategy that sells at-the-money straddles on the S&P 500 index on a 3-month rolling basis and hedging them by purchasing out-of-themoney put and call hedges on those positions. We view the market as a casino and we play the role of the house by collecting the time value embedded in index options. We do not use leverage and keep significant cash balances of at least 30% at all times and make sure our straddles are hedged.”
Looking to the future, Michael is optimistic that both the firm and the fund can continue to offer clients the very best performance thanks to its dynamic strategy and returns focused approach. “Moving forward, our ongoing focus is to continue to grow the fund through our innovative investment strategy, which is liquid and scalable without any slippage in performance. We are focused on one thing: producing strong risk-adjusted returns for our clients and will continue to do work towards this goal over the coming months and years.”
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Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017
Company: Castle Hall Alternatives Contact: Daryl Purdy, Vice President Email: dpurdy@castlehallalternatives.com Phone: +1-450-465-8880 x 236 Website: www.castlehallalternatives.com
Castle Hall Alternatives 8
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI170020
Best Global Operational Due Diligence Firm 2017 & Best Alternative Investment Diligence Platform: DueDiligenceProfessional Castle Hall Alternatives, the Due Diligence Company, is a leading specialist in operational and investment risk due diligence of alternative and traditional asset managers. We profile the firm to find out more about the range of services it offers.
Castle Hall Alternatives supports global institutional investors, fund of funds, advisors, family offices, foundations and endowments to identify and manage the business, operational, cyber and investment risks of asset managers. With a team of 50 professionals, Castle Hall deploys one of the industry’s largest and most experienced due diligence teams. Castle Hall’s core competitive advantage is DueDiligenceProfessional™, the firm’s proprietary online diligence platform, which has helped clients review diligence across several thousand fund entities.
risk information across all fund and account holdings, irrespective of asset class.
Now in its 11th year, Castle Hall Alternatives is proud to have been named the Best Global Operational Due Diligence Firm for four consecutive years, and to have the DueDiligenceProfessional™platform recognized as the Best Alternative Investment Diligence Platform for the second consecutive year.
Additionally, traditional ODD has focused on a schedule of in person diligence meetings, with the output of each ODD cycle often limited to a report memorializing information gathered during each meeting. This process is then repeated every 1-3 years. Diligence 3.0 introduces a new operating model: the foundation of an effective ODD program is now an active, real time monitoring program, where the annual onsite visit and resulting diligence report is just one tool in a far broader toolbox of diligence procedures.
Secondly, a risk based approach is vital. Operational risks for mutual funds, long only managed accounts, private equity funds and real estate investments are very different as compared to a traditional hedge fund. Different diligence procedures should be adopted to reflect different asset classes.
Institutional allocators, private investors, intermediaries and other financial industry participants, are becoming more focused on best practice in Governance, Risk and Compliance oversite and responsibilities to manage overall portfolio risk on an ongoing basis.
Finally, the exploration of new fintech is vital to operational due diligence. Just as hedge fund managers no longer use Excel for accounting, ODD no longer relies on word processed meeting reports. Technology has become critical to process ever increasing amounts of public and private information. Systems, bandwidth to curate data, and quality reporting and dashboard capabilities are vital to give asset owners an effective view of portfolio risks.
Historically, investment performance, return drivers and risk premia have been closely evaluated pre-investment, and monitored post-investment, to ensure investment objectives are met and investment risk is understood and controlled. As a focus on risk management and oversite expands, allocators and intermediaries now see the need and benefits to evaluating the operational risks across all third-party asset managers, pre-investment, and monitoring the changing operational risk environment at each manager post-investment, in the same manner as investment risks are evaluated and monitored across a portfolio. The challenge is to establish a sensible diligence and oversite policy, and to then execute that policy in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
Implementing aspects of all these vital areas, DueDiligenceProfessional™, Castle Hall’s proprietary online diligence solution, is a risk-management platform for operational due diligence. The guiding principle of DueDiligenceProfessional™ is flexibility. Providing a powerful set of diligence tools, DueDiligenceProfessional™ 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.
Against this backdrop, Castle Hall sees the emergence of a new paradigm in ODD, which they call Due Diligence 3.0. Due Diligence 1.0: Pre Madoff. Before 2008, operational due diligence was an optional, “nice to have”. For those investors who did conduct ODD, the process, scope and methodology of emerging ODD programs was very variable. Equally, there was a lack of commonality among hedge fund operating structures, exemplified by the existence of many self-administered funds.
DueDiligenceProfessional™ tools can be applied to any fund or investment vehicle, and across all asset classes, from hedge funds to private equity to real estate and long only mandates. Overall, 2016 was a year of tremendous growth and accomplishment for Castle Hall. In addition to rolling out a series of enhancements to the DueDiligenceProfessional™ platform, Castle Hall achieved several significant milestones, including the opening of offices in Abu Dhabi and Sydney, integrating SwissAnalytics into Castle Hall’s operations, and expanding our services to include standalone Financial Statement and Form ADV review options.
Due Diligence 2.0: Post 2008. In the Diligence 2.0 world, some level of hedge fund operational due diligence is now performed by virtually all asset owners. Diligence scope and methodology has also become somewhat more standardized, although some investors continue to have a “light touch”. Due Diligence 3.0 is a new model: Responding to the ever more sophisticated Governance, Risk and Compliance environment, ODD Policy must now address four emerging themes and challenges for institutional and private investors.
Moving forward, the firm expects to continue to grow its team and evolve its capacity and service offerings to meet the needs of institutional and private allocators globally. In addition, Castle Hall is keen to announce a series of important partnerships this year. These are indeed, exciting times for Castle Hall Alternatives. The firm is grateful to its clients for partnering with Castle Hall to meet their specific operational due diligence and monitoring needs, and the Alternative Investment Awards for their recognition of the company’s work.
The first of these is the multiple asset classes that clients operate in. Operational diligence should be applied across all third party asset manager relationships, not just hedge funds. Investors focused on governance, risk and compliance now require consistent operational
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Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017
Company: iCapital Network Contact: Lawrence Calcano, CEO Phone: 212-994-7400 Email: info@icapitalnetwork.com Website: www.icapitalnetwork.com
iCapital Network
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www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI170003
Best Outsourced Alternative Investment Platform 2017
iCapital Network is a financial technology platform that simplifies access to alternative investments, such as private equity and hedge funds, for high-net-worth investors and their advisors. We invited CEO Lawrence Calcano to tell us more about the firm and share the secrets behind its success.
Founded in 2013, iCapital Network is a powerful financial technology platform that provides modular alternative investment solutions for registered investment advisors, broker-dealers, private banks, family offices and other sophisticated investors.
Besides opening up access to institutional-quality investing opportunities, one of iCapital’s highest priorities is delivering a state-of-the-art, technology-enabled experience to its clients. To achieve this the firm employs a modern technology toolset from application framework to infrastructure, which allows it to remain nimble and responsive in its product release cycles while aligning with current integration standards. Lawrence outlines the importance of remaining at the forefront of emerging developments in the financial technology space.
The state-of-the-art online portal offers a curated selection of private equity, private credit, venture capital, real estate and hedge funds, extensive due diligence support, an automated subscription process and integration with a wide range of custodial platforms and reporting packages. The firm’s customizable technology and specialized suite of services is also used by asset managers and financial institutions to streamline and automate their private fund operations. Lawrence discusses how the firm works to ensure that this innovative system provides a wide range of clients with access to previously unreachable funds and investment options.
“Providing our clients with cutting edge technologies and support is of vital importance, therefore we have an extensive in-house development group with specialists in systems engineering, security, UI/UX and third-party implementations, which is closely aligned with our Investor Services Group, the frontline to our investors. We also initiate independent third-party examinations of our service organization controls (SOC) on an annual basis to ensure that the platform is both secure and compliant.
“iCapital Network was created to democratize access to alternative investments for high-net-worth individuals and their advisors. Historically, access to these types of private investments has been restricted to institutional investors and insiders due to high minimums and an infrastructure that was built to support a small number of large transactions. We have harnessed the power of technology to streamline the fragmented and time-consuming fundraising process for asset managers while automating the diligence and subscription process for investors.
“Additionally, we leverage our core technology to offer white label sites to asset managers, helping them distribute to and service the retail market in a scalable fashion through a user experience that has been customized with their branding elements and content. Wealth managers also use iCapital’s technology and administrative services to support bespoke investment products of their own design.”
“The result is a financial technology platform that supports individual investors, the advisors they rely on for guidance (including registered investment advisors, broker-dealers, private bankers and family offices) and asset managers with private fund operations. Further, while our platform delivers an end-to-end solution between the investor and the asset manager, our technology can also be acquired and implemented on a modular basis – just the electronic sub-doc functionality, for instance – or fully customized to address the specific needs of the user.
As a company dedicated to innovation iCapital shows no signs of slowing down, as it seeks to build upon its current success and grow even further, as Lawrence explains in his concluding comments. “Moving forward, our ongoing mission is to continue democratizing alternative investments in ways that make sense for the industry and help meet investor demand. In the near future, we will expand our platform’s original focus on qualified purchasers ($5+ million in investable assets) by introducing offerings tailored to accredited investors ($1+ million in investable assets). Later this year we expect to introduce a direct deal network, offering access to private companies, real estate and other direct assets.
“In addition to ourtechnology platform, iCapital also provides private equity funds and hedge funds at significantly lower entry points than are available on a direct basis. Most private equity funds require a $5 million minimum investment, with some as high as $20 million, while hedge funds typically require at least $1 million. We provide a curated menu of investments that have been fully vetted by our Due Diligence & Origination team along with institutional-quality diligence reports, fund presentations and other analytical tools. Through our platform and access vehicles, investors can get into funds for as little as $100,000 each, making it easier to diversify their exposure to alternative asset classes.”
“Longer term we are pursuing efforts to standardize the way alternative investments are offered and processed across the industry with an eye toward improving the experience for all parties. At iCapital we are committed to supporting the interests of the wider market, and we will continue to innovate and adapt as we look towards a bright and prosperous future.”
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Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017
Ralph Cheng, Fund Manager of Tmesis Capital Management
Tmesis Capital Management 12
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI170029
Company: Tmesis Capital Management Contact: Jason Huang Email: chisheng.h@tmesis-capital.com Phone: (+886) 975-021-990 Website: www.tmesis-capital.com
Best Hedge Fund Management Firm 2017 - Asia & Best Multi-Dimension Quantitative Fund (Since Inception): Tmesis Capital Management Tmesis Capital Management is a Taiwanese hedge fund manager. We profile the firm to find out more about the services it offers. With its flagship quant fund launched 2016, Tmesis applies fully automatic trading strategies that avoid the negative effects of human involvement. The firm generates trading decisions using high-level mathematical, economic, and statistical models, many of which rely on artificial intelligence.
learning. What’s more, optimizations and decisions based on the prediction are made by genetic algorithms and reinforcement learning. When using mature deep learning technology to analyze big data, AI makes more comprehensive and better decisions than humans do. Addtionally, its high level of computing power allows it to make quicker decisions, not to mention that it does not have to rest and is not affected by emotions.
Current applications of machine learning in the field of artificial intelligence allow the fund to deal with big data that contains patterns and logical sequences not yet noticed by humans. This gives Tmesis an edge that allows it to profit in a variety of market conditions while supporting its core mission of providing ongoing returns to investors.
No human trader could process financial data that changes with each second, such as global economic data, corporate financial reports, or prices—and that’s not even taking into consideration the huge amount of historical data already available, let alone the entanglement of all these factors, with bits and bytes intertwined and mutually affecting one another. When a trader makes a decision—which is already, by its nature, biased—under these conditions, in so high-stress an environment, that affects the quality of the decision made. Tmesis, by contrast, looks to mature deep learning algorithms, high-quality data, and significant computing power for its decisions.
To achieve excellence, the firm draws on heavily on the experience of its 3 founders, who graduated from the University of Washington in Seattle. In addition, their 10 other team members all hail from top universities in Taiwan, where they earned degrees in finance, math, and engineering-related majors. In less than a year, Tmesis’ staff has expanded from 3 to 13 to now offer the benefits of masters, PhDs, experienced financial analysts, data scientists, and computer engineers, making good on Tmesis’ promise to bring brilliant minds together to serve investors.
Overall, investment means looking at the future, not just the past. Humans were once the world’s best decision makers, but no longer. It is hard to see how traders can compete with AI even now, and all the more so as the technology advances. Indeed, Tmesis’ algorithms evolve daily, and its performance with them. Rather than stubbornly sticking with antiquated and inferior methods, investors can embrace the technological progress that holds the key to the future. Investment, Tmesis believes, is not a stubborn monster: it is an elegant solution.
Fundamentally, to Tmesis, the era of human traders has ended: now is the era of artificial intelligence. When AlphaGo defeated Sedol Lee, a world-class professional go player, in March 2016, it marked the end of an era: Artificial intelligence was now a better decision maker than a human. Every purchase and sale of a financial instrument involves a decision-making process just as might be seen in a game of go, but financial decision are infinitely more serious. Accordingly, Tmesis shields funds from the risk of reckless human decisions as much as possible by relying on cutting-edge quant and AI technology. In making decisions, humans draw on their past experiences, then include the outcome of that decision as an experience informing future decisions. But a human’s experience is always limited, often severely so, and this can lead to bias or to decisions that are based on less than a comprehensive understanding. Even more concerning, the quality of any decision can fall prey to the whims of emotion or environment, among many other internal or external factors. When AI makes decisions, however, it uses information mined from within big data, with predictions made by a neural network that never stops
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Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017
Company: Westside Wealth Management of Raymond James Contact: Seth Radow Email: Seth.Radow@RaymondJames.com Address: 9595 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 200, Beverly Hills, CA 90212, USA Phone: 1-(310) 285-4527 Web Address: www.westsidewealth.com
Westside Wealth Management
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www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI170033
Best for Diversified Liquid Alternatives 2017 - USA
Westside Wealth Management of Raymond James (WWM of RJ) is a team operating within Raymond James, offering the extensive reach and resources of its parent firm and uses its client centric research to focus efforts on a unique perspective in portfolio management. We spoke to Seth Radow to find out more.
Supporting a vast array of clients including individual, high net worth individual and institutions that all desire the highest levels of fiduciary prudence in asset management for their investable assets and financial planning, WWM of RJ has to work hard to ensure that they receive the very highest standard of service and great returns on investment, as Seth explains.
that built a sales force to sell investment products to their clients. That is a rather significant difference and it is that culture that permeates all that we do at WWM of RJ.” Moving forward, remaining at the forefront of the latest market developments will be crucial for the firm to ensure that it continues to offer clients a superior level of service. Seth concludes by outlining the trends his firm foresees and how it will work to adapt around them.
“At WWM of RJ, all of our investment models and due diligence starts with bottom up fundamental research and from there apply a global macro overlay with a thematic convergence. All of our models target a specific range for standard deviations, noting that this is achieved with a wide array of capital allocations to ensure that our risk metrics are maintained.
“Looking to the future, WWM of RJ believes that the fiduciary standard creates a unique opportunity for the best of the best in our industry. It is our belief that only a few in our industry can and will be able to meet that standard. A true fiduciary standard requires a level of understanding far beyond that of a traditional industry salesperson. The partners of WWM of RJ have met the highest fiduciary standards for a very long time and will continue to do so as we look towards an exciting future.
“The key to our process is what we call our “four legged stool” approach; Equities, Fixed Income, Real Assets and Alternatives comprise the four legs of our stool and are all used as tools within our models to achieve our objectives. To ensure that clients receive strong returns our risk management is achieved through a deep understanding of correlation analysis. It is important for our team to note when correlations between the asset classes we use move higher, so that we can seek diversification from those correlations to maintain prudent levels of correlative risk within our portfolios.
“Ultimately, the team members of WWM of RJ strive to work diligently at refining our process to ensure we stay at the forefront of issues that matter to clients, issues pertinent to the management of client portfolios, and of this ever changing industry.”
“Overall, at Raymond James there is a fundamental belief that our clients must come first. Because of this belief, Raymond James is constantly updating and improving the client experience through our technology interface with the desire to make this as efficient and satisfying as possible. Importantly, Raymond James is continually seeking feedback from clients and advisors as the firm strives to remain a technology leader in our industry. Investor relations and communication is a part of our client experience and is based upon an understanding that routine meetings with each and every client are important to ensure expectations are being met and to stay ahead of developments that can impact client’s lives.” What truly sets the firm apart from its competitors is its dedication to excellence and history of providing superior service, leveraging its expertise to offer clients solutions they cannot find elsewhere, as Seth is eager to emphasise. “It is our vast history and experience with fiduciary level work on behalf of our clients, our persistent research efforts, our understanding of risk management and implementation of our approach that sets our organization apart. It is important to note that Raymond James was founded by investment advisors for investment advisors to best serve their clients. Unlike our largest competitors, we were not an investment bank
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Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017
Laureola Advisors Company: Laureola Advisors Contact: Tony Bremness Email: Tony.Bremness@laureolaadvisors.com Address: 30 de Castro Street, Road Town, VG1110, Virgin Islands, British Phone: 18009513778 Website: www.laureolaadvisors.com
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www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI170031
Top Performing Hedge Fund Manager 2017: Laureola Advisors Inc. & Most Consistent Long-Term Performing Fund: Laureola Investment Fund Laureola Advisors is a specialist asset manager focused exclusively on Life Settlements, providing investors with several ways to access to this unique asset class including its Managed Account Service. We profile the firm and explore the benefits of Life Settlements as an innovative asset class. The investment world has become a dangerous place. Prices and markets are manipulated not only by the usual suspects – investment bankers and corporations – but, since 2008, by central bankers as well. Equity valuations are at historically high levels as too much capital chases too few opportunities. Fixed income barely provides any yield at all.
Currently Life Settlements change hands at around 20% of future value and at yields (IRR’s) of between 12% and 18%. Both the buyer and the seller benefit from the transaction. A well-managed portfolio of Life Settlements will deliver consistent double digit returns. Risk is a core issue for investors, and as such the Laureola Investment Fund meets the key criteria of today’s concerned investors: it is genuinely non-correlated with capital markets and will not be affected by stock market declines, currency crises, rate hikes, economic downturns, or geo-political shocks.
Where can long term investors look for reliable and consistent returns, income they can live off, and the safety that comes with genuine non-correlation? A well-managed portfolio of Life Settlements can provide part of the solution. Founded in 2012 by Chris Erwin and Tony Bremness, Laureola Advisors was established to provide investors access to the unique investment characteristics of this asset class. The Principals have invested their own capital and invite interested investors to join them.
This is already obvious from a brief overview of the asset class and the drivers of return; it has been confirmed by the performance pattern of the Fund; the Fund generate profits when other investments do not. The Fund’s assets have little or no credit risk; most policies are backed by Life Insurance Companies rated A or better. These companies are obligated to pay the Life Insurance claims before all other commercial creditors. In addition, its portfolio holds 120 policies, and is well diversified by all the key criteria. Additional safety is found in Warren Buffet’s famous “margin for error” measure: the future value of these assets is worth 5x the current book value.
Tony Bremness is a Partner, Managing Director, and co-portfolio manager at Laureola. Tony has over 30 years of asset management experience, with portfolios ranging in size from $100,000 to over $10 billion. He is a frequent speaker at Alternative Investment Conferences, with a focus on Life Settlements. He graduated with an MBA (1985 McGill University, Canada) and has been awarded the CFA accreditation (1991).
A more detailed analysis shows that the Fund’s investment strategy also contributes to safety and consistency; the Fund has demonstrated multiple sources of returns and multiple sources of cash flow. The importance of cash flow in Life Settlements cannot be overestimated – a continuing stream of cash is required to pay the premiums.
Christopher Erwin is a Partner and the Chief Investment Officer at Laureola. Chris is a member of the California State Bar, the Life Insurance Settlement Association (LISA), and the American Bar Association. He is the CEO of Alir Settlements, a life settlement Provider. Chris graduated from Chapman University (BA, 1996) and received his Juris Doctor degree from Chapman University School of Law (1999).
The Fund has historically produced returns from the collection of death benefits, from trading profits, and from buying assets at below market value. The first two are the most important as they represent realised returns rather than accounting-based returns; over 70% of the Fund’s returns since inception have been realised. Realised returns contribute significantly to Fund cash flow as does the steady and growing stream of subscriptions, lines of credit, and a significant cash reserve.
This Partnership provides Laureola Investors with a skill set and a depth of experience rarely found among Life Settlement managers; the key areas of legal expertise, access to deal flow, portfolio management, and fund structure are all covered. It ensures that investors’ funds are kept safe while they profit from the best opportunities available in the Life Settlement markets.
Overall, the Laureola Fund has world class service providers that will give additional comfort to investors. Apex (Fund Administration), Deloitte (audit), Bank of Utah (Custodian), and Lewis & Ellis (Actuarial Consultant and independent valuation agent) are all well recognised internationally and have won multiple awards in their respective fields. The Fund also has a Platform manager - EAM (a division of Apex) - who oversees the Fund’s bank accounts and cash flows, providing an additional layer of security for investors.
The firm’s core product, Life Settlements, are the purchase of Life Insurance policies on the secondary market in the USA, where the right to sell your insurance policy has been enshrined in law since 1911. Many individuals, particularly seniors, have unwanted or unneeded policies; Life Settlement investors provide them with an exit that is much more profitable than surrendering the policy to the Insurance company. Other individuals come under medical or financial distress and need to raise cash quickly. Life Settlement investors provide these people with liquidity when they need it most; again, with a much more profitable exit than that offered by the Insurance Company.
Ultimately, well-managed portfolio of Life Settlements will provide a combination of safety and performance unmatched by any other investment. It will appeal to investors who value consistent performance and to those seeking income, and will not be influenced by any of the dangers lurking in the traditional markets; Laureola investors will be able to watch from a safe distance should central bankers’ efforts ever fail to support capital markets.
The Life Settlement markets have developed organically – free from manipulation by central bankers or others. They are a genuine price finding mechanism for investors who wish to access this unique asset class and sellers who want to monetise their Life Insurance asset.
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Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017 AI170002
Company: Carlisle Management Company Contact: Jose C. Garcia Email: jgarcia@cmclux.com Address: 9 Rue Sainte Zithe, 1st Floor, Luxembourg City, L-2763, Luxembourg Phone: +35226845359 Website: www.luxlf.com
Best Life Insurance Fund (Since Inception): Long Term Growth Fund FCP SIF & Best Diversified Investment Management Firm - Luxembourg
Carlisle Management Company Carlisle Management Company SCA is a full-service, regulated investment management firm that specializes in alternative asset classes and has depth in life settlements. We profile the firm to explore the secrets behind its success.
Carlisle is based in Luxembourg, where it established its headquarters and fund domicile to take advantage of the country’s stringent and well-regulated financial systems in the alternative asset space. The firm emphasizes a comprehensive full-service management approach, and thus it performs a wide range of tasks over the entire life cycle of its investment vehicles. The firm’s dedicated team is comprised of accomplished senior executives who collectively bring more than six decades of investment experience across multiple industry sectors to the management of the firm’s investment products and strategy. Carlisle has experienced exponential growth since its inception, and has garnered a reputation as a pioneer and market leader for investment solutions in the life settlements space.
Significant emphasis is placed on designing investment products that meet the demanding needs of its diverse and discerning investor base consisting of institutional investors, financial intermediaries, and high net worth individuals. Carlisle also works to ensure their products are tax-optimized, have strong yet efficient organizational structures, and include all necessary regulatory oversight. Overall, it is through the firm’s strategic initiatives, exclusive focus on life settlements, and its dedication to designing investor-friendly, innovative, and robust investment vehicles that Carlisle has positioned itself to remain a market leader in the life settlements investment market for many years to come.
To ensure the very highest standards for its clients, the firm’s strategy involves delivering a razor-sharp focus on the asset classes in which it invests, and the application of this focus on life settlements has been a significant factor in its success. After years of assisting institutional clients in the development, structuring, and management of captive investment vehicles, Carlisle’s principals realized that the lack of viable investment products in the space afforded them an excellent opportunity to fill the void for this minimally correlated asset class. From this realization was born their flagship investment vehicle, the Luxembourg Life Fund FCP SIF: Long Term Growth Fund. In the years since that fund’s introduction, the life settlement industry has grown at a phenomenal rate and Carlisle has been well positioned to help its investors take full advantage of these gains through its unwavering attention and expertise across all areas of the industry.
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www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI170004
Company: S.E.A. Asset Management Contact: Alex Zeeh Email: alexander.zeeh@seagroup.com.sg Address: 230 Orchard Road, #10-232, Faber House, 238854, Singapore Phone: 00 6567326864
Best Boutique Fund Manager - Singapore & Best Asia Pacific Focused Fixed-Income Fund (1 Year): S.E.A. Asian High Yield Bond Fund B
S.E.A. Asset Management S.E.A. Asset Management is a boutique fund manager based in Singapore. We caught up with Alex Zeeh to learn more about the firm and the funds it offers.
S.E.A. primarily manages two Luxembourg UCITS compliant SICAV funds besides segregated accounts. The firm’s specialty is Asian small midcap equities as well as Asian short duration high yield bonds, as Alex explains.
benchmark names. They become overvalued and more vulnerable to liquidity withdrawal inflicted volatility. Down moves thus tend to be more exaggerated. We therefore have decided to be completely unconstrained and benchmark free.”
“Here at S.E.A, our Asian short duration high yield buy-to-hold until maturity strategy is unique and offers the best risk /return in an environment of low or rising interest rates. Our fund’s portfolio usually has an average duration of 1-2 years with a gross yield to worst of 7-9%. The strategy has daily liquidity and all currency risk is hedged into USD.”
Within the investment market currently technology plays a key part in the success of firms such as S.E.A, therefore, as Alex concludes, the firm continues to invest in technology to offer clients the very best possible service and support. “Technology is increasingly important in our market, therefore we are making strong use of technology and Fintech solutions available to us. For example, in Switzerland we are engaging FundBase.com for distribution to Swiss Qualified Investors. This focus on technology will remain moving forward as we continue to offer clients the very highest standards of service.”
To ensure that investors receive the best possible returns and feel safe and supported working with the firm, S.E.A has a strong focus on transparency and risk management, as Alex is eager to emphasize. “Transparency is what creates trust between wealth managers and their clients, and as such is essential to our success. To achieve this in our managed accounts business, we usually do not take retrocessions from external asset managers and if we receive retrocessions they are passed on back to our clients. On the fund side, we have opted for low and transparent fees. Contrary to most other fund managers we publish the detailed holdings of our funds monthly without delay so that investors can rest assured that we are managing their money efficiently and effectively.
We will also soon be launching a EUR hedged tranche for the S.E.A. Asian High Yield Bond Fund which will be offered in Germany and Switzerland.
“Risk management is also key to ensuring strong returns, which are of vital importance to our clients. There are several strategies to avoid unnecessary volatility. Firstly, benchmark index trackers tend to overcrowd
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Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017 AI170005
Company: Zentrum Capital Advisors Limited Contact: Jackson Fong Email: jackson.fong@zentrumcapital.com Address: Unit 1203, 12/F, SBI Centre, 56 Des Voeux Road Central, Central, Hong Kong Phone: +852 3689 0399 Website: www.zentrumcapital.com
Best Fund Management Firm - Hong Kong & Best Asia Multi-Strategy Hedge Fund (Since Inception): Zentrum Asia Opportunity Fund Segregated Portfolio
Zentrum Capital Advisors Ltd. Zentrum Capital Advisors Ltd (ZCA) is a fund manager based in Hong Kong. We invited Kevin Yuen and Jackson Fong to tell us more about the firm and its flagship investment fund.
Established in 2010, ZCA’s flagship offering, Zentrum Asia Opportunity Fund, is an Asia focused multi-strategy hedge fund. The fund has achieved an excellent track record with a CAGR of 11% and no down year. This year, the fund is up 17% (up to May). Its innovative approach combines both quantitative and fundamental techniques; they are tailor made to the Asian markets. “We believe we have applied the most appropriate investment techniques to the Asian markets. A case in point is the systematic trend-following technique for trading shares. Asian markets tend to be liquidity driven and as a result this trend-following technique is more suitable in comparison with the traditional value investing approach. This is even more true when you need to report your NAV on a monthly basis.” Says Kevin Yuen, the CIO of ZCA.
To excel in a competitive industry, ZCA believes that by targeting high net worth individual investors would give them an edge in running a fund management business in Asia. That said however, they also have institutional clients as their investors. “We believe running a profitable fund management business is as important as running a performance orientated fund and we have been profitable since the inception. We grow our AUM carefully by targeting the appropriate investors. Patient money is beneficial to our performance. The management has a lot at stake in the fund and performance is our priority.” Says Jackson Fong, the COO of ZCA.
The firm believes that there will be enormous opportunities with the opening up of the China market. “The growth of China will be the dominant theme this century and being able to understand its culture is important to capture these investment opportunities.” Says Kevin Yuen. “As an example, China is probably the only place in the world where a company can have their shares trading at different prices at two exchanges in the same time zone, Shanghai and Hong Kong. This brings us great opportunities in trading their price relationship.” Since its inception, ZCA has been concentrating on generating good returns rather than gathering assets. Given that the management team has invested a large part of their personal net worth into the fund, they have full alignment of interests with their clients.
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www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI170008
Company: Cane Island Alternative Advisors, LLC Contact: Timothy Peterson Email: timothy@cane-island.com Website: www.cane-island.com
Best Overall Global Macro Strategy: Cane Island Global Macro
Cane Island Alternative Advisors, LLC Cane Island Alternative Advisors, LLC is a Texas based investor whose flagship fund, Cane Island Global Macro, is a “best in class” absolute return strategy. We profile the firm and this innovative fund to find out more.
Established in 2015, Cane Island primarily invests in discretionary long equities and makes significant macro investments including commodities, real estate, and currency. The firm manages the assets of its founder and other qualified investors. Because the founder’s own money is also at risk, Cane Island emphasizes management of downside risk over reasonable horizons. In the four-plus years since strategy inception, it has exceeded the manager’s expectations in terms of absolute and relative returns, downside risk mitigation, and consistency of results. As such its investors pay no advisory, management, or performance-based fees and benefit from full transparency.
step in Cane Island’s investment process, and the firm’s valuation model is based published, sound research. This proactive model reflects the firm’s tenets of realism and conservatism.
Its core investment product, Cane Island Global Macro lives up to its name. A “macro” strategy is one that looks at economic trends. “Global” means investing without regard to borders, economies, or politics. It could be stocks, bonds, real estate, precious metals, currency, or foreign investments. The approach is opportunistic and nimble, focusing on the use of highly liquid instruments.
Finally, what truly differentiates the firm is that clients can see what it does at any time, as they have their own private username and password to their account, and may login at any time to view it.
Ultimately, it is Cane Island’s investor focused, transparent approach that sets the firm apart from the rest and marks it out as the best possible option for its investors. There are no management fees for foundation investors, as the firm value managing money for an increasing number of clients, and rather than paying the firm directly, an unaffiliated third party holds the money, acting as custodian and broker.
These extraordinary steps are necessary so that investors can have peace of mind about their finances. Cane Island is different than mostindependent thinking and avoiding emotional investing are hallmarks. To be successful means taking reasonable, calculated risks in order to avoid permanent losses. This approach has served the firm well and will remain the cornerstone of its operations as it looks towards a bright and exciting future.
Cane Island Global Macro stands alone as possibly the most flexible and opportunistic investment strategy. This type of strategy has many advantages. The fund is not concerned with short-term winners and losers in the stock market. It relies principally on educated forecasts about the world’s economies. Testimony to the success of this approach is the fact that Cane Island Global Macro has historically offered reasonably high returns with relatively lower risk than other liquid alternative strategies. The fund seeks opportunities where the risk of permanent loss is low. Knowing what an investment is worth (as opposed to what the price is) is a key
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Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017 AI170009
Company: Banque Pâris Bertrand Sturdza Contact: Alexandre Poisson Email: alexandre.poisson@bkpbs.com Address: Rue De Candolle 19, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland Tel: +41 (0) 22 316 02 00 Web Address: www.bkpbs.com / www.pbsinvestments.com
Best Active Investment Manager - Switzerland
Banque Pâris Bertrand Sturdza Founded in Geneva in 2009, Banque Pâris Bertrand Sturdza (PBS) is a growing Swiss Private Bank. We profile this innovative bank to find out more.
After eight years in business, PBS is now a well-recognized boutique for its quality of services and superior tailor made investment solutions for wealthy Private Investors and Institutions. The Bank counts important family offices, renowned entrepreneurs, numerous financial institutions, prestigious foundations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) amongst its client base.
Process is the most critical aspect of running money, according to the bank. Therefore, PBS’ investment philosophy is that a robust and consistent process must be able to withstand all market cycles. Overall, the Bank’s investment process and approach enable to manage active strategies that meet investors’ objectives, both in terms of risk and performance. With dedicated and complementary investment teams that cover a wide investment spectrum in both public and private markets, PBS is the right partner to advise investors on tailored investment strategies.
Since inception, the Bank has been successful and has experienced an average annual growth of 40%. By end of 2016, the Bank’s assets under management (AUM) reached 4.5 billion and, more recently, the Bank expanded and successfully implemented a new office in Luxembourg to extend its offer in providing quality banking services to Europe-based clients.
Moving forward, PBS Funding Partners and Directors believe that the economic and financial environment will remain challenging for the foreseeable future. Finding the right partner will be as crucial as finding the right solution.
To offer the highest standards of service, PBS employs highly skilled investment specialists, with a strong multi-asset background. The team has developed a unique research-driven expertise, combining a cross-asset and top/down approach with a strong quantitative angle. The transversal and integrated investment proposition enables the Bank to cover very specific client needs, with a strong focus on capital preservation. The funds ran by PBS are all based on independent research and a core belief that only strategies that are disciplined, dynamic and diversified can fulfill investors’ expectations in terms of risk and reward. A good example of this philosophy is the SMART Portfolio fund, which is a flagship solution. This is a dynamic multi-asset class strategy that offers a high level of diversification via an exposure to more than 20 sub-asset classes, a multi-management solution with a global reach, and an active asset allocation.
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www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI170011 Company: Centaur Ventures Ltd Contact: Sabrina Zaidi Email: s.zaidi@centaurasset.com Address: Emaar Boulevard Plaza Tower 1, Level 11, Unit 1102, Sh. Mohd, Bin Rashid Boulevard, P.O. Box 26878, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Phone: +971 4 2752000 Web Address: www.centaur.ventures; www.centaurholdings.com
Award for Excellence in Venture Capital Investments- MENA
Centaur Ventures LTD Centaur Ventures is one of the Venture Capital divisions of the multi-award winning Centaur Holdings Group. Sabrina Zaidi talks us through this vital subsidiary’s work and the range of services it provides. Centaur Ventures was established with a specific focus on investments in the mining and natural resources sectors in South Africa, USA, UK and Australia. Supporting a wide range of clients including junior miners, through to international commodity traders such as Vitol and Duferco, the firm explores a vast array of investment opportunities, creating value through rigorous analysis and selection of prospective investments, proactive portfolio monitoring and management, and carefully identified exit strategies, as Sabrina explains.
To ensure that it consistently offers strong returns, Centaur serves all its stakeholders, investors and employees through transparency, integrity and excellence and aims to operate with prudence, financial discipline, and committed performance.
“Whilst the Centaur Group typically focus on sourcing companies, projects and/or investment opportunities in the asset management, wealth management, private equity, venture capital, mining and natural resources, and agricultural sectors, either undervalued by the market, or lacking in development capital, we are not prescriptive and remain opportunistic, open to any geographical region, sector or any division of a company or its asset base.
“Moving forward, our aim is grow our natural resources’ assets under management to US$2 billion and the physical commodity trading side of the business to a turnover of US$500 million by early 2018.”
Looking to the future, this approach will continue as the firm focuses on growing it portfolio and building upon its current success, as Sabrina concludes.
“As part of our approach we use a disciplined investment approach to evaluate potential transactions and constantly review and reassess our portfolio companies and the markets they operate in. Potential portfolio companies must demonstrate the ability to generate sufficient cash to ensure recovery of the invested capital in a commercially reasonable period, whilst the growth strategy is implemented, and throughout the investment period. “Through our international network and on-the-ground presence in multiple jurisdictions, we seek to identify attractive investment opportunities that benefit from the long-term attractive fundamentals of the market they operate in. Thanks to this broad approach we are able to offer a variety of investment opportunities including investments funds, bonds and managed portfolios are packaged and managed by our sister company Centaur Asset Management.”
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Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017 AI170014
Company: International Financial Data Services Limited Contact: Asa Haydon Email: AHaydon@ifdsgroup.co.uk Address: IFDS House, St Nicholas Lane, Basildon, Essex, SS15 5FS, UK Phone: 01268 448750
Best Global Investor & Policyholder Administration Service Provider 2017
International Financial Data Services Limited International Financial Data Services Limited (IFDS) are a leading provider of investor and policyholder outsourcing solutions to the European domestic, cross border, liquidity and equity markets. We profile the firm to find out more.
Founded in 1995, IFDS offers multi-award winning administration and proprietary technology solutions which are used by a wide range of financial services organisations including retail and institutional fund managers, fund distributors, insurers, platform providers, product manufacturers and life and pension organisations.
DST enables clients to transform complexity into strategic advantage by helping them continually stay ahead of and capitalize on ever-changing customer, business and regulatory requirements in the world’s most demanding industries. This latest development offers IFDS many great opportunities for growth and expansion and the firm is looking forward to taking advantage of these and building upon its current success.
For over 30 years, tier one investment firms, insurance companies and deposit takers have relied on IFDS’s proven record-keeping solution, comprehensive back office services, innovative workflow, and insightful reporting tools to support growth, reduce risk, leverage technology and enhance efficiency. With offices around the world, IFDS supports more than 44 million investor and policy holder accounts for over 370 financial organizations across Asia-Pacific, Europe, and North America. To ensure that each of its valued clients receives the very highest standards of service and support the IFDS enterprise employs in excess of 7,300 experienced individuals located throughout Canada, Ireland, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Recently IFDS was acquired by DST Systems, Inc., a leading global strategic advisory, technology, and operations outsourcing company. Taking ownership from State Street Corporation, DST will leverage its own vast experience as a leading provider of specialized technology, strategic advisory, and business operations outsourcing to the financial and healthcare industries.
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www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI170016
Company: John Fogwell & Associates Contact: John-Ernest Fogwell Email: john@fogwell.co.za Address: 1st Floor, Block 7, Sunwood Park, 379 Queens Cresent, Lynwood, Pretoria, P.O. BOX 715, South Africa Phone: 27783670333
Best for International Trade Financing Services - Africa
John Fogwell & Associates John Fogwell & Associates (JF&A) are a specialist trust formation and management company. We invited John-Ernest Fogwell himself to talk us through the firm and the range of services it offers.
JF&A predominantly support medium sized corporate companies who wish to expand their business outside of their domiciled country with a specialisation in Africa. Most of the firm’s clients are SA & Mauritius based companies, although the firm has worked with companies as far afield as Australia and Canada as well. John-Ernest outlines how the firm works to support these clients through their work in Africa, drawing on the firm’s local knowledge and strong investment background.
Looking ahead, the firm’s recent investment in an online gaming firm will provide many great opportunities for both JF&A and its investors, as John-Ernest concludes. “Recently JF&A have acquired a reasonable stake in a new online gaming company that is focussed on the African market. We are confident this will yield fantastic results for the firm. We are also in final negotiations to commence with a Build-Operate-Transfer/Sell product with two key partners within the mining sector. This product, we believe, will allow investors direct access to smaller brownfield mining opportunities without the risk of explorations style investments.”
“Here at JF&A, we offer a combined investment advisory, corporate advisory and coaching service. Typically assisting them from setting up the optimal corporate structure for their African businesses, assisting in deal, labour and partner negotiations and then providing continuous support and coaching in the country of operation. Thus, our approach ensures that the client understands the local environment into which he invests.” In addition, JF&A also provides a range of investment options which John-Ernest is eager to highlight. “Alongside our advisory services, we also offer investment opportunities through our Alternative Asset Portfolio. In this portfolio, we provide investors the opportunity to invest directly into finance opportunities, at higher yield, on the continent that would typically only be available to specialist financial services companies. Example is larger yellow metal finance opportunities, Lease and “rent-to-own” books and shorter terms debtor finance products. All our investments are offered on a Convertible Preference Shares basis with a fixed coupon. This allows our investors to have a measurable yield, with none of the volatility associated with listed funds. We also offer a fixed exit strategy to our investors.”
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Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017 AI170017
Company: Waha Capital Contact: Louy Al Assadi Email: louy.alassadi@wahacapital.ae Address: Etihad Towers, 42nd – 43rd Floor, Ras Al Akhdar Area, Abu Dhabi, UAE Phone: 971506422914
Best Open-Ended Fund Manager - UAE & Best Absolute Return Fund (Since Inception): Waha CEEMEA Fixed Income Fund
Waha Capital Waha Capital, based in Abu Dhabi, is one of the region’s leading diversified investment houses. We profile the firm to find out more.
Waha Capital, based in Abu Dhabi, is one of the region’s leading diversified investment houses. Having traditionally been focused on managing private equity investments, the company over the last five years built out a business investing in public markets including Fixed Income and Equity products.
personnel and risk management professionals that contribute to the track record highlighted above. Since inception the focus has remained on capital preservation and delivering superior returns on an absolute and risk-adjusted basis. Having traditionally been focused on managing private equity investments, the company over the last five years built out a business investing in public markets including Fixed Income and Equity products. This provides a great new development for Waha Capital. With its multi-year track record and investment team in place, the company have recently placed an increased emphasis on expanding the awareness, and marketing the platform to the appropriate audience.
The strength of the firm’s returns has allowed the business to evolve into a fully-fledged investment management business with third party investors allocating capital to the strategies. Current and prospective investors of its funds include institutional investors (insurance companies, pension funds, hedge funds: fund of funds, long / short, global macro), family offices, and private wealth clients. As a relatively recent entrant into the public market business, the company has gained a strong reputation both locally in the region as well as internationally over a short period of time.
Recently there has been a growing interest for Waha Capital’s products. Investors are most impressed by the firm’s ability to hedge risk and preserve capital in downturns, and as such it currently has a number of prospective investors interested in its services, providing Waha Capital with many great opportunities for further success and expansion.
Waha Capital offers two investment strategies to investors: CEEMEA Fixed Income and MENA Equities. Both funds are long / short investment strategies aimed at delivering sustainable absolute returns. The CEEMEA Fixed Income Fund has generated 79.1% cumulative return since inception in 2012. The MENA Equity Fund has generated a 58.6% cumulative return since 2014. The investment teams use a top-down macroeconomic approach, combined with an understanding of technical flows to identify investment themes, which then get translated into individual trades that are actively managed. Both teams work hand-in-hand with top tier internal research
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www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI170019
Company: Stats Investment Management Co., Ltd. Name: Shogo Sekimura CEO & Representative Director Email: ssekimura@stats.co.jp Web Address: www.stats.co.jp Address: COI Hirakawa-Cho Bldg. 7F, 1-7-20 Hirakawa-Cho, Chiyoda-Ku, Tokyo 102-0093 Japan Telephone: +81 3 6658 4361
Best Long/Short Hedge Fund Manager - Japan & Best Japan Equity Long/Short Fund (Since Inception): GSS Fund
Stats Investment Management Co., Ltd. Stats Investment Management Co., Ltd. (Stats) is a hedge fund manager based in Japan. We caught up with Masahiko Iwai to learn more.
Established in April 2005, Stats specialises in managing Japanese Equity Long/Short strategies.
IT and Service sectors for more than 8 years. It is the vast experience of its members that sets the firm apart from its competitors and marks it out as the best option for clients, as Masahiko is proud to conclude.
The firm’s flagship investment offering is the Ginga Service Sector (GSS) Fund, which is a Cayman unit trust established in June2006. The strategy itself largely concentrates on the IT and Service sectors as sources of alpha. In addition, it also focuses on medium and small size stocks which are not widely covered by analysts, so that original research by Stats can generate alpha unexploited by the market. Masahiko discusses the fund’s investment strategy in more detail.
“Overall, the combination of our solid investment philosophy and experienced staff has produced extremely good performance over the past 10 years. With no single negative year, GSS Fund’s flagship Yen share class has recorded an annualized return of 13.81% with an annualized risk of 8.55%, during the period of June 2006 to February 2017. This return itself, along with the longevity of our track record, makes Stats stand out above competition. This achievement was also highly recognized by various awards in 2016. Currently Stats manages near $250 million in assets under the GSS strategy, and its client base is spread across various regions and various investor types globally.”
“Here at Stats, our investment philosophy believes that companies that are not widely covered by analysts provide greater opportunities for generating alpha through proprietary research, and therefore opportunities to exploit inefficiencies in stock pricing are greater when market liquidity is high. Additionally, concentrating on sectors and companies with experience and knowledge is essential in understanding the businesses and products of invested companies. These sectors are among the few that are dynamic enough to change its business and pursue growth opportunities. “Alongside this, we also believe that risk management skills are equally important to achieve superior returns. We limit our individual stock exposure to maximum 5% (under normal circumstances 3%).” Ultimately, Stats’ investment management is supported by members with long experience and deep insights. CIO Toru Hashizume is one of Stat’s founding members. He started his career as a sell side analyst with one of the major research institute in Japan and specialized in the
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Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017 AI170023
Company: Runestone Capital Contact: Rune Madsen Email: rune.madsen@runestonecap.com Address: 239 Kensington High Street, London, W8 6SN, UK Phone: 2073163084
Best Absolute Return Fund (Since Inception): Runestone Capital Fund
Runestone Capital Runestone Capital Fund is an absolute return fund that aims to generate returns in excess of 20% net annualized over a cycle, regardless of market conditions. We caught up with Rune Madsen to find out more.
Launched in May 2015 with the strategy being back tested since January 2006, Runestone Capital Fund’s innovative strategy buys or sells US equity index volatility on a one-day forward basis based on statistical probabilities. The returns have been uncorrelated to the S&P 500, US Treasuries and the VIX (volatility) itself. Rune shares an insightful overview of the fund and its performance so far.
“What differentiates us from some of our competitors is that the strategy does not have a pre-set bias to be short or long volatility. Our positions are based on statistical probabilities. This has caused us to perform well in different market conditions.” Looking ahead, Rune and his team are keen to build upon the company’s current success and grow even further as it looks towards a bright and exciting future.
“Here at Runestone Capital, we are a pure play asset manager that just trade in US equity Index volatility. This enables us to be extremely focused on our end market and risk control. This focus lead us to a 2.03x Sharpe ratio in 2016 and YTD the Sharpe ratio has been 4.7x with a Sortino of 5.2x. The fund has traded up 18 out of the 23 months since inception.
“Overall, we have grown in the last year as investors have started to open their eyes to our strategy. This growth has allowed us to expand and we are launching a US fund in the next few months.”
“Our focus is on absolute and uncorrelated returns, which we have been able to deliver on. For reference, the equity market was under a lot of pressure in the first two months of 2016 and fell 5.1% compared to the strong start of 2017 with a 5.9% gain. For those same periods we delivered positive performance of 1.9% and 1.4% respectively. Two months is a short time period and one should not draw strong conclusions on that basis, but it goes to at least demonstrate the robustness of the strategy being able to produce positive results in very different market conditions. As investment managers we are fully invested in the strategy hence we cannot afford to loses to escalate. In the volatility space, there are endless opportunities as there are movements each day. Hence it is crucial to preserve capital when positions do not work out and focus on the next opportunity.
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www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI170025
Company: Catana Capital Contact: Holger Knauer Email: Holger.Knauer@catanacapital.de Address: Friedensstr. 7, Frankfurt am Main, 60311, Germany Phone: 496925617005 Website: www.catanacapital.de
Best Quantitative Asset Manager 2017 - Germany & Best Public AIF (5 Years): Catana Big Data
Catana Capital Catana Capital is an innovative German asset management company based in Frankfurt. We spoke to Holger Knauer to find out more.
Founded in 2015 in Catana Capital has launched the first liquid alternative fund (retail AIF) that is managed with a quantitative approached solely based on big data. Holger outlines how this unique approach ensures strong returns for clients.
ing competition from ETFs that have significantly gained market share within the last couple of years. This adds tremendous cost pressure on traditional players. The trend of factor ETFs puts further pressure on active Asset Manager. While Catana Capital understand the relative attractiveness of ETFs in the longest bull market in history, the firm are extremely cautious regarding their future, and as such are focused on big data and developing their strategies in order to continue to offer clients the very highest standards of service and support, as Holger concludes.
“Here at Catana Capital, via natural language processing, we collect more than 5 data sets every second that were published in the web in German or English in 6 countries on 25.000 stock listed companies and markets. With that unique information, we build a concentrated portfolio that invests in German large cap single stocks and major large cap stock indices. Investments can be either long and short.
“Moving forward, while we are always developing our big data trading strategies further, we are currently strengthening the A.I. know-how of our company based on the proprietary big data source we have.”
“To ensure that we are as risk averse as possible, we run certain BIG DATA and trend following sub-strategies in our portfolio which are minimum volatility optimized. In addition, all positions were secured with stop losses. Around mayor events like Brexit vote or US presidential election for example, the portfolio is neutralized in order to avoid risks. On top of this, we are monitoring core KPIs such as exposure levels all the time.” Overall, the financial industry, especially in German and Europe, is facing strong headwinds due to regulation and negative interest rates. The Asset Management industry in particular enjoyed a couple of great years as almost all asset classes performed well on the back of quantitative easing. As a result, the performance of long only products that dominate the markets were positive on absolute levels. As fees are based on volume, revenues increased and often performance fees especially of absolute return funds were drivers of rising revenues. On the other hand, active Asset Managers are facing increas-
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Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017 AI170026
Company: PCS SA (Professional Computer Services SA) Contact: George Xenofos Email: sales@pcs.gr Address: 2, Kalamatas street, Kifisia, Athens, GR-14564, Greece Phone: +302106266900
Best Fund Management Solutions Provider - Greece
PCS
(Professional Computer Services)
PCS SA, member of SingularLogic Group of Companies, is a leading software company providing advanced solutions for financial institutions. We invited George Xenofos, CEO, to tell us more about the innovative products the firm provides.
PCS Fund Management is a modular platform implemented in the latest best-of-breed web technologies that streamlines the business processes and requirements of fund management companies, driving operational costs to a minimum and alleviating risk, cost and service effort in a complex and highly regulated global investment environment.
In his concluding comments George outlines how the firm is continuing to develop its service offering, in order to harness the tools of technology and gain a competitive advantage. “In 2011 we decided to fully redesign our existing solution offering by incorporating all the business knowledge we have acquired all these years within a most advanced technology platform. One year later in San Francisco, PCS Fund Management platform was granted by ORACLE, the Oracle Fusion Middleware Innovation Award in the “Fusion Development and Application Development Framework” category. More than 400 companies from around the world took place in this contest and PCS won the first prize.
The system currently supports the daily evaluation of more than 300 UCITS Umbrella Funds and Classes administrated by 20 Fund Management Companies in several countries. The platform is designed in such a way to cover, within a single installation, not only the Fund Administration business but the Asset Management as well, evaluating daily more than 1000 Institutional and Discretionary portfolios. It ensures best practices covering all business expectations, meeting local regulatory requirements and discovering new business opportunities for the Funds Administrator.
“Today we are very proud to offer a unique platform that can support, within a single installation, all different areas of the private banking and investment industry such as Asset Management, Fund Administration, Wealth Management, Advisory and Discretionary services.”
Discussing the firm’s growth since its foundation in 1992, George explains how the firm’s vast service offering ensures the continued satisfaction of its clients. “PCS was established 25 years ago with a vision to develop vertical software solutions that will focus on the Investment sector of the Financial Institutions (such as Fund Administration, Wealth Management, Custody, Brokerage and Distribution of Funds). With more than 50 implementations in Europe and Africa, PCS enables forward-looking financial institutions to leverage advanced technology solutions to be more efficient, agile and responsive to business challenges. We believe that our in-depth industry knowledge in combination with our commitment to deliver advanced and effective solutions to meet our clients’ expectations truly sets us apart from the competition.”
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www.wealthandfinance-intl.com CODE
Company: Jordan, Knauff & Company Name: G. Cook Jordan, Jr. Email: cj@jordanknauff.com Address: 200 W. Madison Street, Suite 980, Chicago, IL 60606, USA Telephone: +1 312 254 5901 Web Address: www.jordanknauff.com
Middle-Market Investment Bank of the Year - USA & Recognised Leaders in PE Transactions - USA
Jordan, Knauff & Company Jordan, Knauff & Company (JKC) was created with a clear mission: to provide professional and sophisticated investment banking services to middle-market companies and the entrepreneurs that lead them. We profile the firm to find out more.
Established in 2001, JKC has since built a reputation for developing meaningful investment opportunities in the industries in which we have specializations, including: energy logistics and distribution, flow control (pumps, valves, filtration), real estate, building products, valued-added manufacturing, value-added distribution and technology-enabled logistics/warehousing. This process involves recognizing an emerging trend or change in the industry, confirming that trend or change with research and assembling a strategy and business plan in partnership with a highly credible management team.
and seven years of executive and operations experience in middle-market companies. He has closed over 90 transactions as the buyer, seller, investor or investment banker and was previously a Partner at Allstate Venture Capital, the venture capital and private equity division of the investment department of Allstate Insurance Company. Mr. Jordan believes, “Each time an investment banker signs an Engagement Agreement, he is gambling on his intellect, his energy, his determination, his knowledge and his experience, and putting them to work for his client.” The firm believes the words of Calvin Coolidge are applicable to every investment banking engagement and are JKC’s mantra – “Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
The professionals at JKC have personal knowledge of the challenges faced by company management when undertaking a capital event and practical process experience based on the completion of over 200 successful capital events as owners, operators, investors, buyers, sellers and investment bankers. JKC services include mergers and acquisitions advisory, debt and equity capital formation and strategic financial services to companies in a variety of industries. Typical transaction sizes range from $10 million to $300 million in total consideration. As an adjunct service to our fundamental investment banking practice, JKC acts as a conduit for direct investments to our network of institutions, family offices and high net worth individuals who are reducing their allocations into private equity and seeking to make direct investments through relationships such as that which they have with our firm. In many cases, this is the preferred outcome for middle-market companies that come to the firm to raise capital for them. The firm’s Co-founder and Managing Principal, Mr. G. Cook Jordan, Jr., has over 25 years of private equity and investment banking experience,
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Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017 AI170030
Company: Notz Stucki & Cie SA Email: geneva@notzstucki.com Website: www.notzstucki.com www.nsfunds.com
Best Alternative Investment Manager 2017 - Switzerland & Award for Excellence in Fund Engineering 2017
Notz Stucki Group Notz Stucki is a specialist in the active asset allocation and selection of talented external managers. We profile the firm to find out more.
To adapt around these challenges moving forward, Notz Stucki are in a constant state of change. Currently the firm are working to adapt its business model to the new MIFID II regulations and to use the new technologies in our business structure. Moreover, Notz Stucki can observe a noticeable interest for our fund engineering solutions and third party Management Company services. This fasts growing business line, enables the firm to reach additional peers Managers and Advisors unlocking the creation of further synergies.
Notz Stucki group draws on a rich history which revolves around its independence and success. In 1964, Beat Notz creates an asset management company in Geneva and then merges it with Christian Stucki’s. They started its international development in 1977 and today the firm count eight offices worldwide and USD8 billion AUM. The Group was one of the first to see the potential offered by hedge fund managers and became a pioneer investor with the first great talents and consolidates these investments in the first funds of funds in the 70s. Its core business is articulated around three pillars: wealth management, asset management and fund engineering. To ensure that these are achieved at all times, the firm’s philosophy is to create a partnership spirit with clients, allocating assets based on the client’s investment profile, using both top-down and bottom-up approaches and delivering risk-adjusted performance in line with the client’s profile. The risk control is embedded in its manager selection process as the company try to select managers with good risk control. Also, in Notz Stucki’s asset allocation the company try to avoid overvalued assets as the best way to avoid losses. For instance, in today’s environment the firm run very low duration fixed-income portfolios when interest rates are at such low levels. Overall, the finance industry is still suffering from the 2008 Great Recession. Many companies have reduced their number of employees, although they have increased the number of people dedicated to compliance as regulation and compliance has become stricter across the board. Challenges ahead are twofold: revenue margins are decreasing overall, and costs are increasing overall due to regulations.
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AI170032
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com
Company: Ruby Capital Partners LLP Contact: Steve Rubens Email: steve.rubens@rubycap.com Address: 15-16 Seymour Mews, London, W1H 6BG, UK Phone: 2035141255
Best Private Investment Office - UK
Ruby Capital Partners LLP Ruby Capital Partners LLP is a hedge fund based in London, United Kingdom. We profile the firm to find out more and explore the secrets behind its success so far.
Founded in 2015, Ruby Capital Partners provides a range of Hedge Funds, Alternative Investments and multi-strategy arbitrage for its investment clients. Drawing on the experience of its owners the company aims to offer the very highest standards of service and support to clients.
Being based in London the firm faces a number of challenges over the coming years but this experience will be invaluable in ensuring that it grows and continues to achieve. Looking ahead, Ruby Capital Partners will be seeking to build upon its current success and grow even further.
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Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017 AI170034
Company: Watson Wheatley Contact: Tom Wheatley Email: Tom@watsonwheatley.com Address: 33 St James’s Square, London, SW1Y 4JS, UK Phone: 1608649641 Website: www.watsonwheatley.com
Best Investment Practice Reconciliation Platform: iRecs
Watson Wheatley Watson Wheatley are specialists in reconciliation for the securities industry. We invited COO Tom Wheatley to tell us more about the firm and the services it offers.
Founded in 2007, Watson Wheatley is a reconciliation system vendor with worldwide clients including hedge funds, long only asset managers and commodities traders. Tom outlines the firm’s service offering in more detail and provides a fascinating overview of its creative platform iRecs.
“Over the coming 12 months we anticipate sustained growth, continuing the trend for the last few years and expanding into other verticals such as P2P lending, private equity and commodities trading. Our main challenges are to hire the right people and keep our level of customer service consistently high. We have always relied on word of mouth rather than the marketing dollar to grow our business therefore having the best client relationships is a major priority for us.”
“Here at Watson Wheatley, we have become specialists in the reconciliation software solutions, working for alternative investment managers, and have proprietary software for data aggregation, reconciliation and reporting of operational data. We mainly work with hedge funds but also have asset managers, commodities traders, private equity firms and P2P lenders as clients. Originally our clients were UK based but we now have users in Hong Kong, Singapore and New York. “Our innovative iRecs system was originally built for GLG Partners and is designed to be as flexible as possible, easily add new reconciliations and reduce the requirement for additional headcount. We have developed our system to behave more like a portfolio accounting system than a traditional ‘file to file comparison’ reconciliation system. We read data from any source, manipulate it, reconcile it and then display it within an accounting structure. Our policy is not to restrict access to data in the system like some rival systems but actively encourage clients to use the reconciliation data for other operational processes.” Looking ahead, Watson Wheatley’s clients face many challenges, as Brexit looks set to bring about increased regulatory and due diligence demands, as well as uncertainty in these areas due to Brexit. Despite this, Tom is confident that his firm will be able to support them through these challenges thanks to its dedication to compliance and the future proofing it has already undertaken, which will allow it to focus on growing even further and building upon its current success.
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www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI170035
Company: Stratton Street Capital Contact: Benjamin Day Email: BenDay@strattonstreet.com Address: 200 Aldersgate Street, London, EC1A 4HD Phone: 020 7766 0888 Web Address www.strattonstreet.com
Best Fixed-Income Fund Advisory Firm - UK & Best APAC Fixed-Interest Fund (Since Inception): Renminbi Bond Fund
Stratton Street Capital Stratton Street is a specialist global credit manager authorised and regulated by the FCA. We profile the firm to find out more.
Established in 2009, Stratton Street Partners Andy Seaman & Mark Johns have been working together for 20 years; when their respective firms merged in 1997. They have the enviable track record of producing positive returns in the Funds they managed during the large market downturns of 1998, 2002 and 2008. They have built an experienced team of seven investment professionals and one macro consultant based in NYC.
“Credit Markets are undoubtedly inefficient, which is great for true active managers like Stratton Street,” explains Head of Sales & Business Development Ben Day. “By combining our unique NFA analysis, proprietary global macro and relative value models we are able to focus our credit research and construct portfolios of undervalued credits that fit our overall macro view. Our ability to rotate credit exposure through market cycles gives us an edge over the competition. We do not believe in building portfolios based upon index weights given the inefficient index construction in the fixed income space. Instead we focus on relative value across the entire credit spectrum.”
Since inception Stratton Street’s global investment grade composite has returned above 7.5% annualised. Currently the firm manages $1.3bln in assets under management advice across global and regional strategies. At the heart of its investment philosophy is a unique way of looking at the investment universe, focussing on long-term active returns utilising a systematic and repeatable process.
“Whilst there are pockets of the global economy picking up, our view is that both growth and inflation will remain relatively benign for the foreseeable future” explains Mark Johns, Partner and Fund Manager. “Our view remains that the yield curve will flatten and we favour positioning at the long end of the yield curve in high grade undervalued credits. Both Fund offerings, albeit with differing risk / reward characteristics are designed to protect on the downside as well as capture upside through identifying heavily undervalued credits.”
Traditionally investors have segmented the world into developed and emerging economies, whereas Stratton Street looks at creditors vs. debtors. “Many so called ‘developed’ countries have amassed substantial debts and are in fact much riskier than is often perceived.” explains Partner & Chief Investment Officer Andy Seaman. “Conversely, many countries classified as ‘emerging’ have strong fundamentals, low levels of government debt, high credit quality and incomes well above those of many “developed” countries.” Net Foreign Asset (NFA) analysis is the primary long-term driver of country and currency returns. The analysis that Stratton Street utilises takes the cumulative current account (adjusted for valuation effects) in the entire wealth of a country (across government, corporations and households) and divides that into GDP to generate a ranking.
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Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017 AI170036
Company: GrowthInvest Contact: Daniel Rodwell / Client Services Email: enquiries@growthinvest.com Address: Candlewick House, 120 Cannon Street, London, EC4N 6AS, UK Phone: 2070713945 Web Address: www.growthinvest.com
Best Specialist Investment Platform - UK
GrowthInvest GrowthInvest is an independent platform, which provides access to tax efficient investments to a growing network of UK financial advisers, wealth managers and investors. We profile this innovative firm to find out more.
Originally founded by financial advisers in 2012 as the Seed EIS Platform, the company rebranded as GrowthInvest in October 2016 in order to better reflect the wider range of products and services available. GrowthInvest has an experienced management team and advisory board who have many decades of experience in private equity, and the financial services industry.
the GrowthInvest Platform. This discretionary investment management service seeks to leverage the experience and expertise of the GrowthInvest investment team to select a diversified portfolio of some of the most promising companies that have passed through the EIS Platform Limited (“GrowthInvest�) due diligence process. Portfolio construction will be generalist in approach, including high growth and low risk (asset rich) businesses across multiple sectors and company stages.
The platform aims to bring the advantages of early stage investing to a wider audience of investors and advisers, who are in a position to benefit from the higher returns these companies potentially offer and tax efficiency via government sponsored schemes such as SEIS and EIS, BR or VCT. The GrowthInvest Platform has 3 core offerings;
Overall, GrowthInvest works closely with entrepreneurs, assisting with investment readiness, structuring of investment rounds and HMRC compliance. GrowthInvest aim to build strong relationships with investee businesses, supporting them throughout their journey in order to generate the best possible outcome for investors who use the GrowthInvest platform.
The purpose-built technology of the GrowthInvest platform allows advisers and their clients to consolidate historic investment assets across the tax efficient and alternative investment category. Providing investors or advisers the ability to administrate, control and monitor their alternatice investment portfolio within a single, secure online portal. Currently, the platform has the largest number of EIS and SEIS offers in one place on any transactional platform. For the first time on one platform there is the ability to access single company offers, funds and managed portfolios. Our aim is to provide investors and advisers the ability to access the widest range of tax efficient investment offers on any platform. This enables clients to diversify efficiently having assessed a multitude of offers in a standardized format. The GrowthInvest Portfolio Service was launched in March 2017. This service provides advisers and their clients with regulated access to a balanced portfolio of SEIS/EIS qualifying single company offers from
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www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI170037
Company: Napier Park Global Capital Contact: Donald Leitch Email: Donald.Leitch@napierparkglobal.com Address: 280 Park Avenue, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10017, USA Phone: 12122350700
Best Alternative Credit Investment Firm 2017 & Best Alpha-Driven Fixed Income Fund: Opportunistic Credit Strategy
Napier Park Global Capital Napier Park Global Capital is a 100% employee controlled global alternative asset management offering a broad range of investment products to select institutional investors. We profile the firm to explore the secrets behind its success.
Founded in 2013, Napier Park has flourished since inception and, as of March 31, 2017 the firm held approximately $7.9 billion in assets under management.
These services are offered by a team of investment professionals who have access to centralized operational resources, such as risk management, compliance and legal support, as well as broad governance through the Napier Park platform. This specialized operational infrastructure provides a robust framework while still allowing investment managers to have the flexibility and independence to efficiently execute their unique investment strategies.
As part of its vast service offering the company offers clients an innovative platform that provides clients with access to experienced professionals who have built a business on the foundation of partnership, innovation, focus and commitment. Napier Park’s alternative asset management platform offers unique investment products across various asset classes, ranging from alpha-generating market strategies and CLO management to private equity. The foundation of this platform is the strength and depth of our intellectual capital - including the firm’s experienced investment leadership team, and its comprehensive legal, compliance, risk and finance functions. The result is a dynamic investment management approach within a robust risk management framework that affords transparency as well as clear financial and operational controls.
Looking ahead, Napier Park will continue to offer the very highest standards of service and support to its clients as it seeks to build upon its current success and grow even further over the months and years ahead.
Alongside this, Napier Park also provides a range of investment products, and each Napier Park product offering is managed by a dedicated team of experienced investment professionals who have a strong track record in their specialized investment strategy, and whose interests are firmly aligned with those of their clients. The firm believe such alignment is critical to ensure a common vision and commitment, and to match the objectives of the investment managers with those of their clients.
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Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017 AI170039
Company: Deutsche Finance Group Name: Symon Godl/Managing Partner Email: s.godl@deutsche-finance.de Web Address: www.deutsche-finance-group.de Address: Ridlerstrasse 33, D-80339 München, Germany Telephone: +49896495630
Best PE Real Estate Investment Firm - Germany & Best Global Infrastructure Fund: Deutsche Finance PRIVATE Fund 11
Deutsche Finance Group Deutsche Finance Group is an international investment manager specialized in institutional private market investments in real estate, private equity real estate and infrastructure. We profile the firm to explore the secrets behind its success so far.
In a world of zero interest rate policy, for an individual, an institutional investor like an insurance group, pension fund or an endowment it is getting more and more difficult to create an attractive investment performance. For many of them bonds and equities may not be sufficient to reach their individual goals. Therefore, the discussion about an increase of the alternative investment portfolio is ongoing in this sectors. For many other investors adding alternatives is part of their overall investment strategy of diversification and they simply want to add alternative asset classes to their portfolio. Others may have different reasons to invest in this sector but all of them need to decide which of the alternative asset classes can help to reach their goals.
Today, with a team of more than 60 people Deutsche Finance Group manages 13 direct and indirect alternative investment vehicles for private individuals and institutional investors. With a personal investment track record of more than 4 bln USD and nearly 200 indirect private equity real estate and infrastructure investment strategies and co-investments in 37 countries globally, the Deutsche Finance team is one of the most active European private market investors and has the most experienced teams in the international fund selection and co-investment arena.
Real estate and infrastructure have been popular asset classes in the couple of last years in the alternative investment space. Investors who are not able or willing to invest directly in real estate or infrastructure or want to have better diversification may better choose “Private Equity Real Estate (PERE) or Private Equity Infrastructure” which ideally combines the benefits of real estate/infrastructure with a private equity approach or may choose a fund of funds which offers the best diversification available. Deutsche Finance Funds a Mandates offer investors direct and/or highly diversified access to institutional PERE and infrastructure assets and strategies to delivering long-time superior investment performance, broad diversification, excellent manager allocation and ongoing risk management capabilities. Every target investment is handpicked, with a thorough due diligence process and serious negotiations to have a fully aligned investment manager. Deutsche Finance has access to the best in class managers in the PERE and infrastructure business.
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www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI170040
Company: BlackGold Capital Management LP Contact: Sharam Honari Email: SHonari@BlackGoldCap.com Address: 109 N Post Oak Ln #520, Houston, TX 77024, USA Phone: 1-832-706-4873
Best Energy-Focused Credit Investment Firm - USA
BlackGold Capital Management LP BlackGold Capital Management is a Houston based alternative investment firm focused on credit investments in the energy industry. We spoke to Partner Sharam Honari to learn more.
BlackGold Capital Management invests across the entire capital structure of energy companies, primarily in the North American upstream, midstream and oilfield service sectors. Sharam discusses the firm’s investment strategy in more detail.
Since the financial crisis, U.S. corporate debt outstanding has doubled while primary dealer inventory of corporate bonds has collapsed. New regulations such as Dodd Frank and the collapse in the energy sector have led banks to reduce both their credit and energy exposure. The shift towards passive investing in credit markets has further increased volatility as mutual funds and ETF’s randomly buy/sell credits based on inflows/outflows. Sharam outlines how these developments will affect BlackGold and how it will adapt around them.
“Here at BlackGold our strategy is opportunistic in nature, we employ a deep fundamental research-driven approach in analyzing energy assets and capital structures which enables us to capitalize on market dislocations, mispricing’s and special-situation opportunities. BlackGold was founded by my two partners Erik Dybesland and Adam Flikerski in 2006, and in 2014, KKR & Co. LP purchased a 24.9% passive minority interest in the firm. We have a platform of products including hedge fund vehicles, a private drawdown structure, an insurance dedicated fund, and managed account offerings. Most our investors are institutional and many utilize our team as an energy resource.
“We believe sector specialization provides an investment edge to exploit the structural and technical inefficiencies in the credit markets. Going forward we see four main drivers of returns in the energy sector; special situation opportunities, crossover credits (HY to IG), re-org/distressed and opportunistic & relative value trading.”
“Fundamentally, we believe there is a tremendous opportunity in energy credit as we are only one year past the largest decline in U.S. energy credit history. In our view, we are in a new multi-year energy upcycle with several years of recovery and expansion ahead. Energy companies have been making great efforts to right sizing their balance sheets and adapt to a lower commodity price environment by becoming leaner and more efficient. Companies have reduced costs structures, focused on their best prospects, cut dividends, issued equity and sold assets. As a result, energy credits have become less correlated to oil price moves since many companies can now generate a positive economic return near $50 per barrel.”
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Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017 AI170041
Company: GREIFF Capital Management AG Contact: Robert Habatsch Email: habatsch@greiff-ag.de Address: Munzinger Str. 5a, Freiburg, D-79111, Germany Phone: 497617676950
Best Diversified Fund Management Firm - Germany & Best Total Return Fund 2017: PARAGON UI
GREIFF Capital Management AG Greiff capital management AG is a Freiburg/ Germany, based regulated Investment Management Company uniquely reflecting the spirit and requirements of today’s international financial markets dedicated to cater to its clients’ true and individual needs. We profile the firm to find out more about the range of services it provides.
Since its establishment in 2005 as an independent Investment Management Company, Greiff has grown into a multiservice and product advisor to its clients and partners. The firm’s clients are pension funds, banks, wealth managers, family offices, Fund of Funds, insurers, consultants, independent financial advisors.
To provide handpicked Equity and Absolute Return Funds, accompanied by the support of its business development team, Greiff can offer a unique service for investors as well as for fund managers how want to join them. This work bears fruits, and now, alongside Tarek Saffaf and his fund PARAGON UI joining the team, the firm had the chance to add more managers and strategies to our fund range. All of them have a unique approach and a proven track record. Together with them the firm are looking forward to continue to develop the quality and the assets under management of each fund on the platform.
The core focus and strength of the investment team are intelligent Derivative, Equity Event Driven Strategies and disciplined fund of fund management in liquid financial markets. Greiff capital management AG is fully bank independent, the equity is owned by its employees and its non-executive Partners. In combination with its partner companies, Greiff have assembled a highly professional team and a state of the art infrastructure combining local expertise and global reach. The Investment Team consists of a seasoned group of Professionals with multi-year experience in Fund of Funds Management, Banking and Asset Management. The current division of responsibilities, between Portfolio Management, Trading, Analysis, and Risk Management has a proven and successful structure. Over the last two years, Greiff has been growing fast and overseas approximately 0,8 bn € in AUM. In view of technology and new opportunities, Greiff AG invested in a startup – CashFlowTV – which is building a learning platform for financial topics. To represent the company itself, the marketing strategy has been expanded in relation to social media such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
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www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI170042 Contacts: Mr. Alberto Matta, C.E.O. Mr. Enrico Imbraguglio, Managing Director – Global Head of Marketing & Distribution enrico.imbraguglio@optimumam.com Mr. Christian Schulte Eistrup, Managing Director – Head of Distribution christian.schulteeistrup@optimumam.com Website: www.optimumam.com
Best Fund Management Firm 2017 - Germany & Best Luxembourg-domiciled Property Funds: Optimum Evolution Fund SIF - Property II & Property III
Optimum Asset Management Optimum Asset Management is an investment firm focused on Real Estate Private Equity. We profile the firm to find out more.
Active since 2006 (initially as BMB Investment Management Partners), Optimum’s team has been set-up in order to support and allow institutional investors to access the German residential and commercial real estate markets, via a vertically integrated structure, which includes Asset, Property and Facility Management. Such model allows for full control and management of the assets, as well as an accurate resources allocation and management focus at each key stage of the value creation process.
Focused on the German and US real estate markets, Optimum currently manages € 1.4 billion total assets, out of which € 1.2 billion real estate assets are managed in seven real estate funds. It counts over 30 staff and it leverages a long-term strategic partnership in Germany with around 130 staff specialised in Property and Facility Management. Optimum is a trusted partner to 90 investors and, through its various investment vehicles, it preserves and protects assets for public and corporate pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, social security institutions, insurance companies, family offices and other institutional investors.
After having consolidated its presence in Germany, the Company responded to its investor base’s interest to expand into the US real estate market. In 2013, it launched Optimum Asset Management USA LLC and, more recently, created Optimum Development USA LLC, in charge of the ongoing development projects in the United States. Its credo is to put clients’ needs first, operate independently and free of conflicts, adhere to the highest ethical standards and strive to create long-term value for its investors. Authorised and regulated by Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), Optimum has its registered office in Luxembourg with representative offices in Berlin, London, Miami, New York and Orange County.
To offer investors the very best choice which meets their needs, the company offers products within Optimum Evolution Fund SIF. The umbrella fund is based in Luxembourg and it is regulated and authorised by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF). It acts as an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) in compliance with the AIFMD Directive through the support of the Luxembourg specialised service provider Pancura, as external AIFM. Optimum is in charge of the portfolio management of the platform. Overall, with the offices in Luxembourg, London, Berlin, Malta and Miami, the firm are well placed to leverage on our already established network of international relationships to source investment opportunities virtually anywhere in the world, and this will remain the firm’s ongoing focus as it looks towards an exciting future.
In line with its investors’ objectives to achieve long-lasting returns, and thanks to its highly experienced local professionals, the Company selects markets and investment opportunities characterised by attractive risk/return ratios.
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Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017 AI170044
Company: Asia Global Capital Group Contact: Martin Doan Email: martin@aglobalcapital.com Address: 200 Park Ave. Suite 1700, New York, 10166,USA Phone: 16464055227 Web Address: www.aglobalcapital.com
Best Asia-Pacific Focused Investment Bank 2017 - USA
Asia Global Capital Group Inc Asia Global Capital Group (AGCG) is an Asia-Pacific focused merchant banking firm specializing in offering advisory services in cross-border M&A, investment banking and structured investment products. Martin Doan talks us through the firm and its service offering.
AGCG currently offers numerous investment opportunities targeting listed micro caps to blue chips companies in frontier markets, specifically Vietnam, which is a key area of focus for the firm. Martin discusses the firm’s investment approach and how it works to ensure the highest possible returns for its investors.
As a key player in this market, moving forward AGCG will be seeking to grow even further and support even more investors, as Martin concludes. “Overall, AGCG are pioneers in this market, having close two first of kind cross-border transaction in 2016, helping a Vietnamese company acquires two companies based in Hong Kong and Seoul, South Korea. Since 2014, we are also the first to execute alternative investment products such as equity credit investment, block trade, repo structures, and structured private placement (PIPEs) for numerous listed entities trading on VN Index. Looking ahead we aim to build upon this success by applying focus, dedication, integrity, and tireless effort to making sure our clients and investors win.”
“Here at AGCG, we source deals and structure investment products for private equity, family offices, and hedge funds. We manage risk through developing a two-fold approaches for our investors and clients: one is focusing on developing an in-depth relationship with high-level management of targets to promote integrity, win-win partnership and good business practice; the other approach is a systematic and discipline in structuring transaction for investors that require solid down-size protection of assets via different innovative platform that fits within the regulatory and local practice of such a market. “To ensure the safety of our clients’ investments, our approach to risk is considerably conservative. In structuring deals, we want to make sure our investors are comfortable with the level of risk they can bear. Though offering attractive returns, frontier markets are inherently high risk and volatile; as such we work diligently and patiently with fund managers to offering them different sound risk protection schemes and offering them different scenarios and hedging options for them to choose. Relationship is key to executing a successful investment from entry to exit. As such, aside from a technical approach in managing risk, we also operate on leveraging strong relationships with our clients to ensure a fair-minded mentality and commitment to mutual success.”
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www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI170045
Company: Host Capital Name: Arabella Beresford-Mitchell Email: Aberesford-mitchell@hostcapital.com Address: 73 New Bond Street, London, W1S 1RS, UK Phone: 02072909490
Authorised Corporate Director of the Year 2017 - UK & Best Non-UCITS Retail Fund (YTD): HC Stirling House Defensive Fund
Host Capital Host Capital is a London based firm offering independent fund hosting services, as well as a range of other complimentary services including digital wealth and multi asset fund solutions. We invited Geoff Brooks, Director Strategy and Wealth Management, to talk us through the firm.
Established in 2004, Host Capital comprises a team of 25 experienced and committed individuals, who together oversee assets in excess of £1.6bn. Geoff discusses the firm’s hosting services in more detail and explains how these meet the individual needs of the company’s diverse clientele.
the risk management function to Host Capital which allows the AIFM to demonstrate that the risk management function is hierarchically and functionally separate from the portfolio management function. This is a key requirement of the AIFMD. Overall, it is the firm’s vast service offering combined with its dedication to providing a specialist service that sets it apart, as Geoff proudly concludes.
“Here at Host Capital, we tailor our experienced ACD service to our clients’ needs, providing fund management companies with a higher and more detailed level of service which many of the larger ACDs cannot meet. We work with quality suppliers in fund accounting, fund administration, transfer agency, marketing and distribution of funds. Our aim at Host Capital is to offer investment products managed and operated by some of the most talented names from the world of investment management.
“Ultimately, with extensive experience in financial product development operations and oversight, Host Capital are uniquely placed to develop, host, launch and operate and maintain FCA Authorised Collective Investment Schemes. We believe in a specialist, not generalist, approach to designing investment funds, and work with leading law firms, Fund Administrators, Fund Accountants and Transfer Agents to tailor our ACD service to each client.”
“Through the careful selection of our product partners, we host, deliver and launch specifically designed investment funds such as UCITS, NURS, QIS and PAIFs, to meet the needs of sophisticated investors, institutions and private clients advised by an authorised financial advisor.” In addition, Host Capital has developed a fully independent, standalone alternative fund AIFM service which will allow fund managers to concentrate on managing the investment portfolio and also maintain their existing relationships with their banks, fund administrators and other service providers. The firm can provide Delegated AIFM Risk Management Services to both investment managers and funds that intend to become the AIFM. The model allows the AIFM to delegate
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Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017 AI170046
Company: Lawson Conner Contact: Andrew Frost Email: afrost@lawsonconner.com Address: 134 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 9SA, UK Phone: 2036961302 Website: www.lawsonconner.com
Investment Management Platform of the Year 2017 - UK & Best for Regulatory Compliance Services - UK
Lawson Conner Lawson Conner is a leading investment manager platform and the most innovative provider of outsourced compliance services solutions including regulatory hosting and AIFM Management Company (ManCo) Solutions. We invited Andrew Frost to tell us more about the firm and the services it provides.
Lawson Conner offer the most comprehensive fund structuring, fund management and regulatory infrastructure solutions in the world of regulated markets and serve fund managers of all sizes, across different jurisdictions globally, including hedge, private equity credit, CTAs, real estate and corporate finance all operating under one regulatory framework.
nology platform. Through the introduction of technology and workflow processes for portfolio management, risk management and operations, client overheads and prices are reduced which results in higher returns for investors. Lower administration and risk also means fewer barriers to entry, enabling new managers to enter the market and enrich the industry with new strategies and investment opportunities.”
Andrew leads Lawson Conner’s Investment Management practice and is responsible for the ongoing growth of the firms hedge fund, private equity, venture capital, real estate and corporate finance businesses of Lawson Conner Group. He works very closely with the alternative investment community on prospective fund launches with a diverse range of entrepreneurs looking to establish their businesses under the FCA regulatory framework. He discusses the firm and how it works to ensure excellence for its clients.
Ultimately, client service and satisfaction is the firm’s core focus, as Andrew is proud to conclude. “Overall, our aim, from a client experience perspective, is to ensure the client on-boarding process is as quick and efficient as possible while minimising the level of client input required. It is for this reason that we tailor our services to the individual needs and circumstances of our clients, ensuring we gain a true understanding of how their business operates.”
“Here at Lawson Conner, we have an established international footprint with our head office based in London and offices Singapore, Hong Kong and New York. We provide the entire regulatory and compliance infrastructure, risk management and governance functions plus operational capability enabling our clients to concentrate on what they are good at. “Key factors for fund managers and investors are speed of execution, best in class operations and fair pricing. To fulfil these needs, we introduced a fully integrated technology platform which makes fund management more efficient, less administrative and reduces portfolio, operational, regulatory and infrastructure risk to managers and investors alike; “LC Traffic Light” is a leading program for monitoring and risk management and is based on “LC vtiger” our industry leading tech-
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www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI170047
Company: Affiliated Financing Services, Ltd. Contact: James P. Forrest, President Address: 2300 N. Barrington Road, Suite 400, Hoffman Estates, IL 60169-2036 Phone: 847.884.8686 Website: www.affiliatedfinancing.com
Best Alternative Project Finance Lender 2017 - North America
Affiliated Financing Services, Ltd. Affiliated Financing Services, Ltd. is a contract lender providing economic development financing for construction, training new employees and ramping up to full production before the first payment begins. We talked to President James P. Forrest to learn more about how his company works. Affiliated Financing Services provides five-year, low-cost mezzanine “bridge” loans with 59-month payment holidays for projects with tax-exempt bond exits, such as factory construction in industrial parks and urban low-income-housing projects. Developers can have funding dates in 30 to 60 days and an incentive to deliver early. Municipalities can encourage new jobs and housing in their communities and watch them operate for a year before the end loan financing is provided. “By providing three to five years of payment holidays before collecting payments for projects, our customers have time to collect government grants and incentives that reduce the loan balance as benchmark goals are met,” President James “Jim” Forrest says. “Another benefit is that all project costs can be amortized for the developer to pay, which is a relief to the taxpayers,” he adds. Fully amortizing loans also are available with two- or three-year payment holidays to facilitate construction and ramp-up based on a multi-year investment-grade corporate or governmental customer’s commitment to buy an amortizing minimum amount of product. Looking ahead, Jim and his team are working with economic development projects to finance fully amortizing low-income housing projects, large data farms with 10-year triple-net leases, construction of buildings in industrial parks and short-line railroads with American or Canadian investment-grade contracts to haul commodities in unpopulated areas. Affiliated Financing Services, Ltd provides three- to 25-year term loans ranging from USD$10 million to $250 million for American and Canadian economic development projects with committed investment-grade corporate customers or governmental sponsors. All investors are large American insurance companies. After receiving all paperwork, loans usually fund in 45 days or less. 45
Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017 AI170048
Company: MCR Contact: Melissa Gannon Email: mgannon@mcrdevelopmentllc.com Address: One World Trade Center, Floor 86 New York, NY 10007, USA Phone: 19176283645
Best for Hotel Acquisitions 2017 - USA
MCR MCR is the 7th largest hotel owner-operator in the United States with a $2.0 billion portfolio of 82 premium-branded hotels with over 9,800 rooms across 21 states and 56 cities. We profile the firm to explore the secrets behind its success.
Established in 2006, the MCR Team have grown the firm’s portfolio through a series of development projects and acquisitions. This dedicated team has extensive hospitality experience at firms such as Starwood, Marriott, Hilton, Highgate and RFS, which it draws on when working on every project. Since inception the firm has created an enviable track record, having acquired and developed 92 select service hotels across 66 cities and 23 states, executed $2B in total transactions and invested $700MM of equity with 20 institutional capital partners. It has also borrowed over $1B from relationship-based balance sheet lenders at attractive terms and modest leverage levels. To ensure strong returns on investment MCR invests in select service hotels across the U.S, focusing on top brands such as Marriott and Hilton that generate higher returns. The company acquire from unsophisticated owners, enabling them to leverage their expertise and scale of $2B platform to create value. This strategy has generated 19% IRR and 2.1x equity multiple across all investments over past 10 years, and moving forward MCR will be seeking to continue this and grow even further, building upon its current success.
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AI170049
www.wealthandfinance-intl.com
Company: Seven Capital Management Contact: Johann Schwimann Email: jschwimann@seven-cm.com Address: 39 rue Marbeuf, Paris, 75 008, France Phone: 33142337520 Website: www.seven-cm.com
Best Fund Manager 2017 - France & Best European Equity Fund (Since Inception): Seven European Equity (Share I)
Seven Capital Management Seven Capital Management is a Paris based independent fund manager. We profile the firm and explore the secrets behind its success.
Established in 2006 and based in Paris, Seven Capital Management is an independent management company specialising in absolute performance management characterised by exceptional liquidity and transparency standards.
Prior to this, Johann occupied a range of positions within the field of bond trading in Paris and London with SG Warburg and Daiwa Europe. Johann Nouveau joined Seven Capital as its Co-Founder in 2007. He began his career in 2000 with Maple Partners in Germany as the trader tasked with researching arbitrage in relation to pairs trading on French equities. In 2001, he joined the team at Rivoli Fund Management as a trader, before rising to become Head of Trading. In 2006, he moved to Lyxor Asset Management to oversee the selection and structuring of CTA, global macro and forex hedge funds.
Rigor and innovation are at the heart of Seven Capital. Seven Capital has obtained the status of Jeune Entreprise Innovante (Innovative Young Business) from the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research in recognition of the risk management process offered to investors, the Global Risk Asset Allocation (GRAA). Co-Founder Johann Schwimann created the management company Seven Capital in 2006 and has been at the helm since its launch. In 1996, he created Rivoli Fund Management, one of the first alternative management companies in France, which he co-directed for ten years.
Drawing on this vast industry expertise the firm offers a wide range of fund options to meet the needs of its clients and ensure strong returns, which will be its ongoing focus moving forward.
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Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017 AI170052
Company: Pluscios Management Contact: Kelly Chesney Email: kchesney@pluscios.com Address: 1603 Orrington Ave. Ste 750, Evanston, Il 60201, USA Phone: 12244207044
Best US Distressed Securities Fund (Since Inception): X2 Opportunistic Debt Fund, LLC
Pluscios Management Pluscios is an innovative fund manager based in Illinois. We spoke to Kelly Chesney to learn more.
Pluscios invests in interesting opportunities, generally through hedge funds, on behalf of its clients, who include co-mingled funds, institutional investors, closed-end funds, as well as HNW and Family Offices. For the X2 Opportunistic Debt Fund, the firm partnered with X-Square Capital, a registered investment advisor out of Puerto Rico. The X-Square team spent has spent most of their careers focused on Puerto Rican debt, which afforded them many exciting opportunities, as Kelly explains.
fund. This provided the fund with an institutional infrastructure and allows X-Square to focus on its strength – investing and managing the investment risks.” Looking ahead, Kelly believes that there are many exciting opportunities on the horizon for the firm as it looks to build upon the success of this innovative fund. “For Pluscios, the future looks bright as we remain focused on finding great investment opportunities and great managers. We remain focused on helping clients build resilient portfolios, whether that is through a co-mingled fund or otherwise. For X-Square, the X2 Opportunistic Debt Fund is an opportunity to create a track record and build relationships with investors in the US beyond Puerto Rico that they can leverage in the future.”
“At Pluscios, we are constantly on the look-out for interesting investment opportunities, be it off the radar niche opportunities or front page complex opportunities. The Puerto Rico bond crisis is clearly the latter and while it presents a great return opportunity, it also comes with significant risk due to the complexity. When pursuing this type of opportunity we have traditionally looked for two things beyond basic skill: the first is edge, the second is a differentiated approach. The X-Square team has both.” By taking an innovative approach to investment the firm is able to reduce its risk and ensure strong returns for investors, as Kelly is eager to highlight. “With an event like the Puerto Rico debt crisis there is bound to be volatility, although X-Square’s strategy attempts to minimize it where possible. Nonetheless, volatility is expected so we focus on managing the risks. That is what led us to partner with X-Square on this product. They had a Puerto Rico based product but it was not available to non-PR residents. After discussing the establishment of a Delaware LLC, we agreed that Pluscios would manage the infrastructure and administration and X-Square would be the investment advisor to the
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Wealth & Finance International - Alternative Investment Awards 2017
SL Investment Management Limited Company: SL Investment Management Limited Contact: Alec Taylor Email: ATaylor@slinvest.co.uk Address: Grosvenor Court, Foregate Street, Chester, CH1 1HG, UK Phone: +44 (0)1244 317999
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www.wealthandfinance-intl.com AI170031
Best Fund Structuring Company 2017
SL Investment Management is a specialist Investment Manager working globally with intermediaries, professional and institutional investors to deliver a range of low-correlation investments and asset management services. We caught up with Alec Taylor to find out more. Since 1990 SL has managed or advised over 30 collective investment vehicles, utilising multiple structures and domiciles - representing over $2.6bn in assets. The firm’s reputation for innovation is combined with strong corporate governance and actuarial capabilities which help it to meet the stringent due diligence requirements of major institutional and corporate investors. Alec discusses the firm’s service offering in more detail and outlines how the company seeks to provide clients with the very highest standards of support and innovative investment products.
introduced to establish common standards of best practice within the European life settlement industry and protect the interests of investors in the asset class. Alec is keen to emphasise the firm’s focus on complying with the various regulations by which it is bound in order to offer clients strong, risk averse returns. “SL is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority as an Alternative Investment Fund Manager. We operate within a highly regulated framework that ensures we adhere to a strict set of regulations designed to protect investor interests. For example, we make a full bi-annual disclosure to the FCA on the Alternative Investment Funds we manage, outlining elements such as the investment strategy, risk mitigation, liquidity management and conflict of interest policy.
“Specialists in UK Traded Endowment Policies (TEPs) and US Life Settlements, here at SL our goal is to offer investors access to alternative assets that deliver stable returns, that are resistant to market volatility and protect capital values. We aim to deliver investor value through the application of our expertise and capabilities in both asset acquisition and valuation, portfolio servicing through to fund creation and management.
“Importantly, under the AIFM regulation, the risk management, valuation and portfolio management functions within SL are segregated and functionally independent. In structuring our investments we create products in highly regulated jurisdictions, partnering with industry leading custodians, administrators and auditors to ensure an exceptional level of control and diligence is applied to the valuation and management of the assets within the fund.”
“The key to our success is the ability to work in close collaboration with clients in order to identify innovative solutions based on our highly developed expertise and knowledge in our core sectors. Led by an experienced executive team, SL’s financial and technical specialists bring substantial intellectual capital. Our structure is heavily client focused, leveraging the experience of key specialist teams such as fund management, structuring, actuarial and asset valuation.”
Discussing the future, Alec is keen to highlight SL’s ongoing focus on success as the firm seeks to adapt around the latest industry developments and offer clients cutting edge solutions that meet their needs.
The firm’s latest US Life Settlement offering - BlackOak Investors LP - is a medium to long term Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) aimed at achieving steady capital growth at favourable risk adjusted rates irrespective of movements in mainstay asset classes.
“Overall, at SL our approach is marked by a series of industry firsts and includes the creation of the first TEP Investment Trust, the first off-shore open-ended TEP fund , the first hybrid TEP/Property fund and the first London Stock Exchange listed life settlement fund. Looking ahead, our long term aim is to continue to build upon our heritage, maintaining our position at the forefront of alternative investment developments.”
So far, Blackoak has achieved a 22.9% (April 2017) annualised return since inception in 2014, with over 80% of this return achieved through realised trading activities and policy maturities. The fundamental investment strategy of BlackOak is to achieve long term capital growth through the acquisition, active management and trading of US senior life settlement policies, with assets sourced from a diverse range of supply channels in both the secondary and tertiary markets. Experience demonstrates that this approach provides access to the widest range of policies at the best possible value for investors. Additionally, the fund seeks to invest in a diversified portfolio of life settlements from a range of US insurance companies, across a number of US states. This ensures that counter party risks are managed and mitigated appropriately. The fund takes a cautious approach to liquidity, maintaining a reserve in excess of twelve months’ worth of anticipated premiums and fund costs. As a founding member of the European Life Settlement Association, SL is dedicated to supporting the life settlement industry to adopt recognisable standards to promote transparency. ELSA’s Code of Practice was
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