Retail investors are set to gain access some of the UK’s top fund management talent as Mayfair hedge fund boutique NewSmith launches a foray into the industry.
The group has hired Matthew Wright, currently head of UK sales at Carmignac Gestion and former LV= Asset Management sales chief, to spearhead the retail debut.
The launch will see the firm roll out its some of its existing range, run by an investment dream team including former Merrill Lynch, BlueCrest and Goldman Sachs heavyweights, onto fund platforms for the first time.
The Berkeley Square-based boutique is also planning to make future fund launches available to retail clients.
The existing range includes the Ucits IV-compliant NewSmith UK fund headed by 20-year industry veteran and former Merrill Lynch investment manager Steve Thompson.
The strategy, co-managed by former Merrill investment manager William Piercy, adopts traditional ‘long’ positions, as well as ‘short’ bets that share prices will fall, and focuses on large and mid-sized companies that the team believes are mispriced
The group also has two Dublin-based, Ucits-compliant global funds, Global Alpha and Global Absolute Return, headed by former BlueCrest Asset Management global equity team head Simon Roberts.
His global team adopts a bottom-up stockpicking approach, adopting a concentrated portfolio based on comanies’ risk-adjusted return potential within a pre-set liquidity and concentration framework.
The range of six also includes hedge funds UK Equity, European and Japan New Horizons, which the group is considering launching in retail-ready Ucits format.
“We have scope to add further strategies and products across IMA sectors,” said founding partner Paul Roy, the former president of global markets and investment banking of Merrill Lynch.
“We see numerous portfolio managers every month and we are out there seeking the best talent available.”
Mr Wright, who joined Carmignac in 2011 after leaving LV= Asset Management, said he was “very confident NewSmith will be an established retail brand”, adding this would be a key goal of his as head of UK and European distribution.
He said he hoped to emulate the successes of boutiques such as Liontrust and Polar Capital in attracting successful managers with strong records in the institutional space into the retail world.
He said he aimed to place NewSmith funds in IMA peer groups such as multi-asset, equity income and fixed income in the coming years.
NewSmith would be “competitive” in terms of pricing, he said, adding that he would be working with Mr Roy to decide which of the existing funds should be launched into the UK retail market via “appropriate structures” of either an Oeic or Luxembourg-domiciled Sicav.
He added he left French asset manager Carmignac because he “could not resist the opportunity to bring a new retail player to the market from scratch”.
Mr Roy, who set the business up with fellow former Merrill Lynch colleagues Michael Marks, Stephen Zimmerman and Ron Carlson, said the business had decided to enter the retail space because of a growing opportunity there.
“We have always been associated with institutional but we have been aware of an opportunity in the wholesale market but not been there,” he said.
“We have been wanting to find someone who can help us in that space and that is why we have hired Matthew.”
NewSmith began a business partnership with Sumitomo Trust & Banking last year when the Japanese firm took a 40 per cent stake in the company.
Mr Wright said that “as strategic partners we both feel we can benefit from accessing the wholesale/retail market in the UK”.
“We have got a very experienced team and lots of people have got 15 years’ plus experience in markets,” he said.
“We have got solid long term track records across strategies, which could be attractive in a new market place.”
