National exec returns to head own group

Former National Asset Management (NAM) chief investment officer Stephen Hiscock has returned to funds management as head of his own boutique operation in Melbourne, after luring across a number of key investment staff from NAM.

Hiscock left NAM three months ago and in opening his own operation has been joined by the small cap and listed property trust (LPT) teams from the group. As a result the group’s first offerings will be trusts in these asset classes.

The new group, named after Hiscock, will keep the same management style, value active, as the team used at NAM with Hiscock emphasising that nothing had changed except the team was now working for themselves instead of a large organisation.

“We wanted to create a specialist boutique investment manager that had the experience of being part of a multi-billion dollar fund manager while keeping the funds small enough to ensure investment returns are maximised,” Hiscock says.

The company has outsourced all the back-office operations to Equity Trustees which is also offering the small caps trust to retail investors.

Both trusts are aimed at the wholesale market, although high-net worth investors that have more than $2.5 million of assets, can invest directly.

The small cap trust will be managed by Adrian DiMattina, which is the same role he had at NAM and at the time of departure the NAM small cap fund had $450 million invested. According to a Mercer survey from May, the team was ranked fourth with a five-year return of 19.5 per cent against a benchmark of 4.2 per cent.

The LPT trust is being managed by Grant Berry who will be joining Hiscock in a few weeks. He held an identical role at NAM and managed about $800 million in LPTs at his former employer.

A similar survey by InTech in April rated NAM LPT performance third with a three-year return of 7.6 per cent against a benchmark of 6.2 per cent.

There has been no shortage of investors wanting to take a stake in the new manager, Hiscock says.

“We are 100 per cent owned by the principals of the company and we have had offers for people to take stakes, but all were declined,” he says.