Absolute Alpha on the acquisition trail

Hedge fund manager Absolute Alpha has begun talks with a number of Australian-based global equities managers with a view to purchasing their funds under management.

Chief executive Shawn Richard said the company, which offers the Alpha Strategic Fund, is actively looking for a “good buying opportunity”, after managing to “remain in positive territory over the past 12 months”.

“We are currently seeking to purchase a domestic/international equities fund ranging between $50 million and $250 million in size.”

“Although we’re very satisfied with our current portfolio’s ability to preserve capital in this environment, we believe that now is the right time for us to acquire an equities portfolio at these discounted levels.”

With any new portfolio, he said Absolute Alpha will “implement various downside protection strategies, which is our core competency, and in that way participate in an equity recovery without being fully exposed to the downside”.

The acquisition strategy is “consistent with Absolute Alpha’s shift in their strategic direction of wanting to invest in strategies which display full transparency, daily liquidity with clear valuation methodologies”, according to Richard.

He added that Absolute Alpha’s “biggest advantage as a boutique fund manager was the ability to quickly pull out and avoid certain strategies that have gone out of favour”.

“We’re one of very few funds currently sitting on lots of cash looking to re-invest in more attractive strategies while maintaining our risk/return objectives.

“We are beginning to see potential value in the equities market and we want to capitalise on that value without being fully exposed.”