A joint venture between UK-based financial services group Dawnay, Day and local investment managers Les Walden and Jonathan Ramsay aims to bridge the gap between institutional investment requirementsand existing hedge fund products.
Setting up operations in Australia and New Zealand, the joint venture will adopt a boutique-style approach in the opportunistic style of Dawnay, Day, which has collaborated with local experts incommercial property, asset management, private equity and structured products in markets such as Poland, Russia and India.
Dawnay Day Walden managing director Les Walden said it had identified a business opportunity in traditional markets that are currently overextended, and with increasing competition amongstinstitutional mandates for absolute returns.
“We saw funds flow to traditional balanced portfolios in the early 90s, to traditional sector-specialist portfolios in the late 90s, and are now seeing funds flow to boutique style investment housesor hedge funds that offer a more focused and creative value proposition,†he said.
Dawnay, Day Walden director and head of research Jonathan Ramsay said he believed the new venture held an advantage in the current fast-moving Australian marketplace because of the “consensual modelsadopted by large traditional managersâ€Â.
