Macquaire

Macquarie combines hedges in a boutique
(From The Australian (Australia), provided by LexisNexis)
Publication: The Australian (Australia)
Robert Clow
Investment
MACQUARIE Bank has rebranded and simplified its hedge fund offering, grouping just over $1 billion in funds under the newly designated MQ Specialist Investment Management umbrella.
Consistent with the investment bank's freedom within limits strategy, and its strategy of attaching alternative investment management operations to its investment bank, Macquarie is trying to create an internally managed boutique hedge fund management firm.
It was important that the group had a boutique feel because Macquarie was aiming to create a group that was entrepreneurial and flexible in its investment strategies, but grounded with the bank's strong risk management and operations disciplines, said Cathy Kovacs, a division director in the equity markets group.
Macquarie is already one of the world's largest alternative asset managers through its infrastructure and property funds and it is increasingly venturing into private equity.
Building the bank's hedge fund offering and leveraging off its distribution and risk management strengths fits with Macquarie's broader plan. Ms Kovacs also acknowledged there had been client confusion over Macquarie's varied hedge fund brands. ''What we wanted was to combine the various hedge fund activities that we have been involved in,'' she said.
MQ will rank in the top five Australian hedge fund managers by assets under management.
The MQ funds are comprised of $602.5 million in funds which invest in a portfolio of other hedge funds (funds of funds), $327.3 million in single-strategy funds and $136.8 million in fund structured products.
MQ will offer a variety of different Australian, Asian and Japanese equity-based strategies as well as a global commodity futures fund and a multi-strategy fund which will group together a number of MQ's different hedge fund offerings.
Aside from their regional flavour, the funds' other distinguishing element will be their quantitative bias.
MQ's growth strategy will focus on attracting more offshore fund of funds money and more Australian superannuation fund money.
Despite producing two months of unimpressive performance, hedge funds globally attracted a record $US42 billion ($55.6 billion) in new investments over the past quarter, according to HFR.