Jim McKay

Multi-boutique asset management firm, Warakirri Asset Management Ltd (Warakirri) has launched four retail funds, including a new Global Emerging Markets equities fund, following the announcement of its partnership with specialist equity manager Northcape Capital Pty Ltd (Northcape) earlier this year.

After more than 20 years as wholesale only investment offerings, the Warakirri Ethical Australian Equities and Warakirri Concentrated Australian Equity Funds are now open to retail investors.

Both funds offer investors access to best ideas portfolios of no more than 40 stocks managed by Northcape, winner of the 2019 Golden Bull award for Best Australian Equities Manager, who seek to invest in quality businesses that offer above average growth prospects and high rates of return on equity.

Northcape has been successfully managing Australian equities since 2004 and has a proven history of delivering solid outperformance.

The Warakirri Ethical Australian Equities Fund and the Warakirri Ethical Global Equities Fund – an unhedged, actively managed portfolio of between 20 to 40 global equities – also offer investors the added feature of incorporating both positive and negative ethical screens applying Warakirri’s proprietary Ethical Overlay, which has been utilised by Ethical investors including Charities and Foundations for more than two decades.

Jim McKay, Warakirri’s Managing Director said: “We have successfully run ethical portfolios for not-for-profit and other wholesale investors since 1993 and are seeing increased demand from advisers and their clients for investments with a focus on ethical and sustainable businesses that exhibit sound Environmental, Social and Governance practices.”

“This commitment to ethical investing that was central to the establishment of our business 26 years ago remains a central tenet of our business as we expand our offering to the retail market,” Mr. McKay added.

Warakirri is also launching a new Global Emerging Markets Fund that invests in a hand-picked, high quality portfolio of Emerging Market businesses with clear opportunities for growth.  It is managed by Northcape’s experienced investment team, focused on deep fundamental stock and sector research and will hold between 20 to 40 stocks.

While the Warakirri Global Emerging Markets Fund itself is a new fund with no performance track record, the Northcape emerging markets strategy has delivered strong returns since its inception in July 2008 to 30 June 2020, having produced a return of 11.91% per annum, outperforming its benchmark by 740 basis points, and a return of 12.52% over the past year, with outperformance of 1,405 basis points.

“We are excited to launch these retail funds with Northcape as the investment manager and Warakirri acting as the exclusive partner in Australia to distribute their equity capabilities to the non-institutional market.  Enabling access to these funds provides advisers and their clients with access to a quality equities manager with an impressive track record of delivering resilient, solid returns across all of their strategies,” said Mr. McKay.

Warakirri is the Responsible Entity (RE) of the new funds and investors can gain access with a minimum investment of $25,000.

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