Boutique investment management Karara Capital has asked Standard and Poor’s to withdraw the rating on the company’s retail Australian equities fund and wholesale Australian equities fund, after the market performance and a lack of retail inflows prompted it to focus on its institutional clients in the Australian equities space.
Managing partner of Karara, David Slack, said there were no inflows coming from the retail space, and as a result, the boutique firm had decided not to pursue a retail strategy in the short term. However, Karara’s funds under management in the institutional space has grown to $750 million this year.
Slack said they didn’t really get a chance to develop the retail space, only restructuring the company to focus on Australian equities late last year. He said that last year was a bad time to launch the strategy.
Bell Asset Management split with Karara at the end of last year to focus on international equities.
