Foord Asset Management, a firm with South African roots and a Luxembourg presence since 2013, is expanding its global reach by offering long-term investors in Australia a new feeder fund for its Foord Global Equity Fund registered in the Grand Duchy.
The new Foord Global Equity Australian Feeder Fund invests exclusively in the Foord Sicav- Foord Global Equity Fund (Luxembourg). The fund held assets worth 472 million dollars at the end of 2021, with holdings in for example Alphabet, Tencent, JD.com, Freeport-McMoran and Alibaba.
The fund aims to achieve a higher total rate of return than the MSCI All Country World Net Total Return Index over a full market cycle, without assuming greater risk. It is managed by chief investment officer Dave Foord and portfolio managers Brian Arcese, Ishreth Hassen and Jing Cong Xue.
Foord has appointed Apex Group, one of Luxembourg’s largest financial services providers and employers, to support its expansion into the Australian market. Following a competitive process, Apex has been appointed to provide fund administration, transfer agency and custody services to Foord’s new Australia-domiciled fund, the firm said.
More new onshore vehicles in Australia
“We are excited to be working with Apex Group who have impressed us with their ability to provide a single-source solution, meeting all our fund administration and custody needs, delivered via one relationship with an experienced local team,” said Agnes Cai (photo), Chief Executive Officer at Foord Asset Management Singapore. “This efficiency and convenience of this model will allow us to focus on managing risks to deliver superior returns to Australian long-term investors.”
“We are seeing a significant increase in the number of managers looking to launch new, onshore fund vehicles in Australia,” said Nick Bradford, Head of Business Development, Oceania at Apex Group. “These managers require a service partner with the right experience and a global footprint to seamlessly support their administrative and operational needs as they expand into new jurisdictions.”
Equity Trustees has been appointed as responsible entity for the local offering in Australia.
‘Minimising permanent loss of capital’
“Central to our philosophy is the preservation of capital through the cycle,” Cai said. “Foord believes that minimising the permanent loss of capital is paramount to generating superior long-term returns. We are pleased and excited to work with Equity Trustees to offer the adaptable, high conviction, value-driven equity strategy fund to Australian long-term investors.”
According Foord’s 2021 Investment Manager report, its Global Equity Fund, with a one-year return of 2 percent, underperformed the benchmark last year as Chinese tech holdings retraced on the increased regulatory uncertainty for the technology sector. Portfolio holdings JD.com (-20.3 percent) and Alibaba (-49.1 percent) underperformed global peers as “Chinese regulators clamped down on anti-trust concerns and the online education sector given unhealthy perceptions for Chinese society.”
“We believe that prices of the Chinese tech investments will recover to the fair values implied by their fundamentals. Moreover, the regulatory interventions should also promote healthy development of the technology sector in the long term,” said Foord’s report, dated 29 February.
Shed Enterprises for distribution
For distribution of the fund across Australia, Foord has partnered with Sheridan Lee and her team at Shed Enterprises Pty Ltd, who will be responsible for sales and marketing connecting the fund and Foord to investors, building connections across the Australian marketplace. Shed Enterprises is a third-party marketing consultancy specialising in financial services, investment and corporate communications.
Foord, as independent, owner-managed investment boutique with some 10 billion dollars under management, offers a premium investment management service to long-term investors operating in Guernsey, Singapore and Luxembourg. Zimbabwe-born Dave Foord founded the firm in 1981 in South Africa.
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