Rothschild Australia Asset Management Limited(RAAM) has launched a global fund of hedge funds as part of an increasing suite of hedge funds products slated for release.
The fund, the Rothschild Global Return Fund, will be available to clients of financial planners through master trusts but is being pitched at higher net worth individuals with a minimum investment amount of $100,000. A full retail version will follow in the next few weeks.
It will sit alongside the Rothschild Total Return Fund which is a domestic fund of hedge funds managed by Rothschild and is also pitched at high net worth clients of financial planners and some corporate superannuation funds.
Rothschild has launched the Global Return Fund in conjunction with US based group Grosvenor Capital Management. As such, the fund will be a multi-manager and multi-strategy fund with exposure to about 40 US-based hedge funds, investing in markets in US, Europe and Japan.
Grosvenor will act as the investment adviser for the fund and will cover the overall investment programme, including portfolio management, reporting RAAM. Rothschild will be responsible for local distribution, client reporting and day-to-day client service.
Despite a spate of hedge funds being launched recently, Rothschild denies this fund is part of a grab for market. Head of Corporate Affairs Rob White says the fund was in development for four years in a bid to supply stable returns in the event that recent double digits returns in equities would drop away.
He says dealer groups and institutions had been looking for other products to provide returns outside the equities market which led the group to explore the rollout of hedge funds.
The relationship with Grosvenor brings Rothschild’s links with overseas fund managers to two, but White says the group is in discussions with other managers and hopes to launch new products in the coming months after it signs with two more overseas managers.
