No performance fee on new global macro Ucits fund
From News Jul 12 2011 BY: Kira Nickerson
, Partner
, EIC
London-based, specialist group Tideway Investment Partners is to enter the IMA Absolute Return sector this month with a global macro offering that does not have a performance fee.
The Ucits IV fund, Global Navigator All Weather, opens for subscriptions later this week and is to begin trading in August. The portfolio is structured as a Sicav and, while still awaiting FSA approval, it has already been cleared by the Luxembourg regulator.
The global macro portfolio is the first offering of its kind by Tideway, who says they conducted IFA research and determined the lack of a performance fee would be an incentive to investors. The annual fee on the retail share class, which has a minimum investment of £2,000, is set at 1.95% and it is available in sterling and euros. The group has not ruled out the eventual capping of the no-performance-fee share class down the line and adding such a structure for new investors.
The fund, to be managed by Pete Doherty, is biased towards fixed interest and developed markets but will contain some currency and equity exposures. According to Tideway’s managing partner James Baxter, the portfolio will typically feature 60% fixed interest, 25% in FX and 15% in equities. He says the group decided on this allocation as the best way to meet its 8-10% p.a. net of fees return target.
Doherty looks to add value through research and selection of individual securities expected to benefit most from changes to long-term macro economic trends. The manager believes most investment returns are driven by top-down factors and by exploiting pricing inconsistencies between and across asset classes it is possible to generate attractive lower-risk growth.
While Doherty has 20 years experience in the fixed income markets, working for groups such as Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns and Bank of America, this is his first effort managing a Ucits-structured macro fund. He managed his own family’s assets in a similar strategy for a couple of years and the group has run the Navigator fund as a paper portfolio since the start of the year in order to provide some track record, Baxter says. From the year to 30 June, the fund would have return 4.6%, he adds.
The fund is launching with around £8m in seed capital, £1m of which is Doherty’s own. The group is talking with a number of UK platforms for the fund’s distribution and is already set to offer the portfolio via Cofunds.