Absolute Alpha on acquisition trail

30 October 2008
| By Liam Egan |

Hedge fund manager Absolute Alpha has begun talks with a number of Australia-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 “remaining 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 É to invest in strategies which display full transparency [and] daily liquidity with clear valuation methodologies”, according to Wood.

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 the 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.”

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest developments in Super Review! Anytime, Anywhere!

Grant Banner

From my perspective, 40- 50% of people are likely going to be deeply unhappy about how long they actually live. ...

1 year 10 months ago
Kevin Gorman

Super director remuneration ...

1 year 10 months ago
Anthony Asher

No doubt true, but most of it is still because over 45’s have been upgrading their houses with 30 year mortgages. Money ...

1 year 10 months ago

Ethical super fund Australian Ethical has announced the appointment of Anthony Lane as chief operating officer....

4 hours ago

Cbus CEO Kristian Fok has criticised lead generators promoting superannuation switches, with the Shield and First Guardian problems being the “tip of the iceberg” for sup...

3 hours ago

A global report from Mercer shows that pension systems with no or limited restrictions tend to perform better, while sharing recommendations on how Australia can improve ...

5 hours 37 minutes ago

TOP PERFORMING FUNDS

ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND