New boutique Matterley rolls out first retail equity fund

The new company specialises in equity fund management and private equity and is hoping to fit into the market alongside other established boutique firms.

Ian Dighé, chairman of Matterley, said: "Every new boutique says it will do something different, but what we have noticed is that the ones with a more personal focus are the ones that are successful.

"Customer focus and preservation of capital are our main aims, but we know it will be difficult being a new house, so will have to work harder to succeed.

"We think a culture of communication and transparency with clients will contribute to our success, and if you look at the more successful boutiques such as Artemis and Liontrust, they follow a similar theme."

Dighé added that he and the other partners in the firm would all be heavily invested in the products and that he considered it "critical" to have their interests aligned with its clients.

"We are looking to have a clearly defined approach looking for undervalued returns. The fund will initially be launched with partners' money."

Other partners within the firm include former New Star portfolio manager Henry Dixon, ex Credit Suisse director George Godber, John Head and Jonathan Cudlipp. Furthermore the company also enjoys the support of Robert Ware.

The firm will launch its first fund this week, a long-only Oeic run by Dixon, with support by Godber.

Dighé said for the moment they would be focusing on UK and Europe long-only products, but would launch some absolute return products later in the year.

He added that, as time went on, they would look into hiring other managers and launching products in the Far East and the US.

The group said its investment philosophy would be based on capitalising on people’s overwhelming focus on the forecasting of a company's profits, losses and, in particular, future reported earnings.

Minimum investment for the fund is £1000, with annual management charges being 1.25 per cent. Currently, there is no initial fee.