Ireland-domiciled Latitude’s Horizon Fund, which uses an absolute return strategy with an ‘old school’ equity/bond split has beaten its peers in the bealeagured sector by returning 18.8 percent
The funds main equity holdings include large US banks such as Goldman Sachs and Bank of America and also mega cap tech firm Alphabet. The fund also has some large positions defensive stock such as soaps to tea maker Unilever and car parts provider Autozone. The fund has over 30 percent in its top 10 holdings and also has more than half its portfolios in highly liquid bonds.
Managed by Freddie Lait, this fund has an annualised growth rate of 150 percent and in addition to bonds, also has non-equity positions in gold and currencies.
Mr Lait, the CIO and founder of Latitude Investment Management, said: “Our consistent strategy and strong portfolio positioning has seen the Latitude Horizon Fund deliver sector leading returns over its first three years. We are delighted to have grown our sales and investment teams, allowing us to build our client offering and continue our excellent momentum.
“I would like to thank our investors for their support, and we are very much looking forward to continuing to grow the fund and delivering returns for our investors in the future.”
The investors Mr Lait is referring to include a variety of institutional and private wealth investors, who only have to pay 75 basis points for this product. One issue with absolute return funds is that they can be complex when trying to maximise gains in all market conditions, often using complex derivative instruments to achieve that goal.
However, this alpha comes at no greater cost to investors, it has no performance fee yet given the late stage of the market cycle is doing well using a strategy that has seen other firms almost collapse, such GAM’s absolute return strategy. With just £136 million in assets under management and given the size of the companies it invests in, it seems unlikely there are any capacity issues so perhaps a good choice for those seeking equity exposure with a large degree of risk management.
