Insynergy Investment Management is planning to return fund assets to shareholders in a substantial change of strategy for the firm which will see it focus purely on the distribution and marketing of funds.
Subject to shareholder approval, the proposal is to return assets within Insynergy’s Absolute India, Absolute China and New World Equity Income funds to shareholders.
At the same time, it will transfer assets within the Insynergy Odey Fund into a similar product run also by Crispin Odey.
These moves mark a distinct change of focus and a re-positioning of the business. Its chief executive officer, Spike Hughes, described the original business as “building, administering and providing a range of funds under the Insynergy brand” through partnerships with the likes of Odey Asset Management and GAM.
Instead, he said the new-look Insynergy will concentrate on “marketing and distributing” investment propositions, citing the implementation of RDR and the pressure the industry is under to streamline costs as a reason to change tack.
“We share the same pressures as many of our competitors, carrying the full operational, compliance and regulatory costs of building and administering our funds – and in a world where the focus is increasingly on cost, there is for those operating an outsourced model less ‘value add’ in building and administering their own funds,” he added.
“These aspects of the business can be managed much quicker and more cost-efficiently by other parties, with greater scale and resource.”
Looking ahead, Hughes wants to work with those fund managers who have a proven track record and critical mass looking to enter the UK discretionary and stockbroker markets.
He concluded: “Rather than committing our resource to the heavily commoditised and increasingly expensive area of fund manufacturing, we will instead work with our fund management partners to promote and distribute existing funds, launching new share classes where necessary.”