Pick’n’mix fund that eyes aircraft leases is taking off
S SWISS-owned Pictet Asset Management remains a secret to most private in investors in the UK UK. But it may not stay that wa way for long if theh multili asset i investment team poached late last year from rival Barings has its way.
The triumvirate of managers are determined to make their mark at Pictet’s London offices and show that multi asset investing provides a perfect one-stop solution for investors looking to have their long-term wealth managed.
One of the trio is Andrew Cole, who was for 28 years a Barings man. He says: ‘I love what I do as an investment manager and I don’t want to give it up – but I didn’t want to stay at Barings and become the grumpy old man in the corner. I can now build a track record that investors will find compelling and put Pictet firmly on the UK investment map.’
Worldwide, Pictet manages assets of £104billion but only £3billion of that is on behalf of its British investors.
Until the multi asset team came on board, Pictet was more known in the UK for its oddball mix of funds – specialising in agriculture, clean energy, health, timber and water – rather than investment excellence.
Since joining in November last year, Cole together with Shaniel Ramjee and Percival Stanion, have been busy. First, they established a multi asset fund based offshore. Then, in June this year, they launched a replica fund available to UK investors, the Pictet Multi Asset Portfolio.
It is early days for the Multi Asset Portfolio – the fund, just £10million in size, is not quite five months old – so little can be inferred from its difficult start, which has resulted in paper losses for initial investors of 2 per cent.
But Cole is determined to build a track record very much on a par with the Baring Multi Asset fund that he ran between March 2009 and September 2014, with help along the way from Ramjee and Stanion. The emphasis, as with the Barings fund, will be as much on capital preservation as it is on delivering stellar returns.
As the fund’s name implies, Pictet Multi Asset invests across a range of assets – from equities to bonds, property and cash.
It will also invest in unconventional ‘alternative’ assets – such as aircraft leases – if they see an opportunity to make money.
Cole says the key is ensuring they own the right assets at the right time. ‘Getting the asset allocation right is crucial,’ he says. ‘It’s where the bulk of the fund’s performance will stem from.’
The three of them have not been frightened of changing things around – part of a process they call ‘dynamic’ asset allocation.
So in early August, the portfolio was 53 per cent invested in equities – primarily in developed markets, such as Britain and America.
But concerns over the sustainability of earnings growth, triggered in no small part by China’s economic slowdown, caused the trio to take this exposure down to 18 per cent.
Equities now form just over a third of the portfolio and there is no exposure to emerging markets.
Multi asset investing is big business in the UK and will become more important as the new pension freedoms grip and people over the age of 55 look to manage their investment portfolios conservatively well into retirement.
Cole says Pictet Multi Asset provides an ‘ideal’ pension solution.
Pictet, founded more than 200 years ago, is independently owned by its partners and has its headquarters in Geneva.