YBR, NWQ in new fund

Perth-based NWQ Capital Management has been selected by Yellow Brick Road to manage a new protected equities fund that it will seek to operate as a ‘hedge fund for retail investors’.

See also: Our BNiQ list of WA's largest fund managers. 

With a minimum buy-in of $10,000, the YBR-protected equities fund will target a return of 5 per cent to 8 per cent above inflation for rolling five-year periods.

The fund, which is designed to hold up to $1 billion, will be in addition to the around $100 million of funds currently under management by NWQ, which ranks the firm 17th in terms of WA-based funds managers.

In the arrangement, NWQ will select and manage a pool of more than a dozen fund managers to allocate the capital, and will target investments in the Australian equities market.

NWQ managing partner Jonathan Horton said the two companies had begun talks about the project when the NWQ Fiduciary Fund had ranked first in the Asia-Pacific in a Eurekahedge performance survey last year.

“We believe that all investors stand to benefit from our absolute return approach to investing and its potential to significantly improve the predictability of their investment outcomes,” Mr Horton said.

“In Yellow Brick Road, we have found the ideal partner to be able to offer our portfolio management expertise, gained from the many decades of combined funds management experience within the NWQ investment team, to a broader cross section of retail investors.”

Yellow Brick Road is led by executive chairman and Australian businessman Mark Bouris, who is known for founding Wizard Home Loans.

If the fund reaches the $1 billion mark, NWQ will be the seventh largest money manager in Western Australia, according to BNiQ, ahead of HBF.

It isn’t the first major deal among WA fund managers of late, with Euroz acquiring Entrust Private Wealth Management in early July.