Hedge Fund Lions’ Den: Emerging managers face the test

Hedge Fund Lions’ Den continues with episode three, The Pitch. Strategis Capital Management, Laurentia Funds and Aperios Partners Investment have two minutes to impress the lions

Emerging managers face the lions and have two minutes to explain their funds

Pitching funds to investors is a talent. In episode three of Hedge Fund Lions' Den, the lions hear a two-minute offer from each manager.

First up to face the lions are CJ Donley and Robert Toffel from Strategis Capital Management followed by Neil Meadows of Laurentia Funds. The third pitch is by Christina McGuire and Gordon Eichhorst from Aperios Partners Investment.

All the managers are then interrogated by the lions: Andrew McCaffery from Aberdeen Asset Management; Luke Ellis, president of Man Group; and the godfather of the hedge fund industry, Stanley Fink, now chief executive of ISAM.

The Strategis offering, started just under a year ago, takes a quantitative approach to portfolio management but risk management is at the heart of its strategy, both at portfolio and trade level.

The Laurentia Global Fund, pitched by Meadows, seeks to generate double-digit annual returns by trading liquid core markets of bonds, currencies, equity indexes and commodities.

The final pitch is for the Aperios Emerging Connectivity Fund, an emerging markets equity strategy with a difference. It only invests in domestic companies operating in eight countries, ensuring there is no commodity or export-driven exposure.

Each fund is quizzed by the lions on their strategy, performance targets and other areas.

Episode four, which airs December 12, is the beginning of one-to-ones between each emerging manager and each lion. These encounters allow the emerging managers to ask questions about their business while the lions concentrate on what investors want to see in start-up managers.

Watch episode 3 of Hedge Fund Lions' Den