Top Decile Balanced Performance - Laurium celebrates their five-year track record in the multi-asset high equity category on 9 December 2020, having delivered excellent risk-adjusted returns relative to their peer group, ranking of 10/134 funds since inception to 30 November 2020, with a net annualised return of 6.6% versus the peer group average of 3.8%.
Laurium Capital is an employee owned boutique asset manager with offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town and London. Founded in 2008 by Murray Winckler and Gavin Vorwerg, Laurium has grown to over R30bn in assets under management and provides a suite of long-only and hedge fund strategies in South Africa, as well as the rest of the African continent.
When starting Laurium, Murray and Gavin opted to focus the business initially on hedge funds only, with the launch of the Laurium Long Short Prescient RIHF in 2008. Being experts in the space and understanding the flexibility, variety of tools and opportunities available, it resulted in the first five years of strong growth which laid the foundations for the future. However, unlike their contemporaries, Laurium's focus was Pan African. Their goal: to be “the” African investment house, capitalizing on opportunities spanning from Cape Town to Cairo for their global clients. With a 12-year track record of generating significant alpha across the continent, clearly things have paid off. Having a roster of CFA’s and CA’s has worked very much in their favour with regard to the type of analysis they employ. Bottom-up fundamental research and valuations is the core of Laurium’s philosophy, complemented with top down views. In addition to this, they have the skills and experience to take advantage of special situations and trading opportunities, which differentiates them from their competitors. Couple that with an extensive knowledge and strong relationships in South Africa and the rest of Africa, one can start to see how this team has developed an eye for opportunities. “Shifting our focus from hedge to long only funds became a necessity as the hedge fund industry in South Africa failed to scale, with the launch of the Laurium Flexible Prescient Fund in Feb 2013,” says Murray. Following the success of the Laurium flexible Prescient Fund, which is ranked 3/32 funds in the multi-asset flexible category since its inception on 1 February 2013, Laurium launched the Laurium Balanced Prescient Fund on 9 December 2015 for clients interested in a Regulation 28 solution. In March 2020, the fund merged with the Amplify SCI Balanced Fund, following the appointment of Laurium by Amplify Asset Management for their multi-asset high equity offering. Laurium retain complete responsibility and discretion for the management of the Fund, which is managed by Murray Winckler, Gavin Vorwerg and Brian Thomas.
Laurium celebrates their five-year track record in the multi-asset high equity category on 9 December 2020, having delivered excellent risk-adjusted returns relative to their peer group, ranking of 10/134 funds since inception to 30 November 2020, with a net annualised return of 6.6% versus the peer group average of 3.8%. This is a multi-asset, high-equity solution with a moderate risk profile for investors with a five-year investment horizon. The fund’s asset allocation is actively managed against a strategic asset allocation framework, and the equity component is a function of the Laurium House View. The aim is to deliver long-term investment growth over time for investors, by investing in a balanced manner across a broad range of asset classes, such as equities, money market instruments, bonds, listed property, as well as international equities and fixed interest assets. The solution holds a maximum of 75% in equities (including offshore equities) and is Regulation 28 compliant.
Why Invest In This Fund?
Why Is A 5-Year Track Record Important?
The important objective is to differentiate investment skill from luck, and to identify which funds have the greatest likelihood of future success. A longer track record gives a comprehensive indication of a fund’s true risk profile and permits investors to evaluate the performance of a fund through a more complete market cycle. Longer track records allow for the effects of a manager’s particular investment “style”, as a manager’s style may produce better results in some market conditions than others. Over the short-term, these differences in “style” may create a distorted impression of overall performance, but over the long-term differences in fund performance attributable to the manager’s style are far less significant. Using a longer-term track record enables fund evaluators to assess managerial skill through differing market cycles, and results in an evaluation that should separate luck from skill.
So What Is Laurium's Secret To Success?
It has to do with their core principles. Firstly, the company says that they do not have a factory or any machinery, and instead are completely focused on the people that they employ. Part of their success has been to cultivate an environment that places the company’s and employee’s ethics in alignment with one another. The result is that the team becomes a highly functional unit, capable of executing their mandate with accuracy and passion. “We cannot emphasise how demanding working in this space is,” Murray Winckler says. “We have been very careful in selecting our team to make sure that they are the right fit. Our team are hungry, driven, and passionate, as is expected; however, they also operate with the utmost integrity and honesty. To back this up, all our clients’ investments run concurrently and in parallel with our own. It’s how we keep our checks in place. There is no better way to invest than with experts who put their own money into the same investments as their clients. Furthermore, we have no interest in investing in spurious and technical trends. We need the fundamentals to make sense.”
For further information, please visit
www.lauriumcapital.com or contact
ir@lauriumcapital.com
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