Fund Spotlight: February 2016

New Funds Spotlight

Discretionary Global Macro Managers with a good pedigree and track record are one of the most sought after combinations in investment management. Consistency is key in this space and a trait less seen amongst many managers who can often be driven, or at least influenced, by an environment piloted by the “word on the street” of the global financial centres. It is perhaps refreshing then to see the combination of a good pedigree and solid performance removed from the consensus. One of our newest clients, delivers just that: a discretionary manager whose annualised returns exceed 25%, achieved by using informative proprietary systems to navigate the markets and not the media who are reporting on them. Investors Click Here to find out more.

Illiquid Opportunities

If you are fond of a glass or two of something alcoholic and live in one of the major cities in the world, it is unlikely that you will have missed the explosion of gastro pubs and subsequently the craft alcohol attached to them over the past few years. This growth has predominantly been visible at the smaller end of the market, with consumers the world over looking for places with personality and uniqueness rather than corporate uniformity.

It seems that along with the struggle of larger companies to penetrate this specific part of the industry, it has been particularly hard to put money to work in this space in order to exploit growth. Finding a team with the skills and expertise required in this sector, who also have a mentality geared toward generating returns, is difficult. However, one of our newest managers in the illiquid space offers this hybrid of expertise alongside an extremely interesting way of growing capital in the long term. Through the consolidation of many smaller businesses in this market, whilst in many cases retaining the original locally integrated management teams, we believe that this strategy is well placed to target this growing market. Investors Click Here to find out more.

Investor Appetite & Industry Trends

Our conversations this month have been dominated by the outlook for 2016 and how such a turbulent market can be traversed. However, there has been little consensus on how best to do this. Certainly recruiting a good, active manager to mitigate market risk is a step in the right direction, and it may also be that we see a move away from passives in these trickier conditions… only time will tell.

At Apex Capital Introduction Services, however, we have been conducting various conversations around non-bank financing; for everything from real estate to trade finance and more uncorrelated, niche approaches of yield generation. We expected the rise in US rates to change demand in this sector but it seems with only modest rises, if any, on the agenda for the Federal Reserve going forward, demand remains solid in this space.

Each monthly edition of Fund Spotlight will provide you with a breakdown of the three strategies and the three regions that have seen the most fund launches onto Apex Alpha Portal. For the month of January 2016, we have seen most growth in the Equity space, with a strong bias within this category toward global approaches focusing on a specific sector or opportunity. This trend can also be seen through the strength of global/regional thematic macro strategies and CTA/Managed Futures approaches which have also seen growth this month.

To learn more about Apex Capital Introduction Services Click Here or to sign up to Apex Alpha Portal and receive the monthly newsletter Click Here

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