Spire Capital raises AUD$175m in 2018
Boutique funds manager with focus on global opportunities in alternative asset classes, Spire Capital has announced it raised AUD$175 million in aggregate in 2018.
The 2018 funds included the Spire USA ROC IV Fund, Spire USA ROC Office Funds and Equity Venture Partners Venture Capital fund II, it said.
Spire’s director, Dales Holmes, said that the Australian wealth management industry enjoyed strong returns over the last 30 years from a strong domestic listed market and real estate bias, as Australian shares and property were beneficiary of declining long term interest rates.
We believe there is a confluence of factors that will continue to challenge that strategy and domestic returns generally, going forward. Moreover, there are significant risk and return advantages for portfolios to have exposure to institutional quality, Global Alternatives,” he said.
We think the changed market dynamic, coupled with consumer scrutiny over value, will see Family Offices and Private Wealth Managers seek to allocate listed market exposures towards low cost "beta" and re-allocate more of their risk and fee budgets towards alternatives.
The company would continue to focus on specialist opportunities in venture capital, private equity, global private equity real estate, private debt, infrastructure and other alternatives as the best planners and family offices would trend towards institutional portfolio construction and allocate more to alternatives due to the challenges currently the Australian listed market faces.
Also the firm has currently three global partnerships, with approximately $700 million funds under management (FUM), with managers focused on global real estate, global smaller companies and venture capital.
Recommended for you
In the latest Meet the Manager profile, Money Management speaks with Michael Skinner, founder and managing director at Blackwattle Investment Partners.
Perpetual has seen AUM rise 6 per cent in the last quarter but the departure of a longstanding JOHCM fund manager led to outflows of $2.2 billion from his strategy.
Global fixed income fund Bentham Global Opportunities has been added to several major platforms, enabling it to be accessed more easily by financial advisers.
Following yesterday’s news about First Sentier Investors closing four investment teams, a second global asset manager has announced it is closing its only dedicated Australian fund.