Matt Gaden
Janus Henderson Investors is expanding its offering to New Zealand institutional investors by launching a New Zealand Dollar denominated version of its Global Multi-Strategy Fund.
The Janus Henderson Global Multi-Strategy Fund – Institutional NZD seeks to achieve a positive absolute return regardless of market conditions through a broad range of diversified alternative investment strategies, as well as using the manager’s skill to balance low correlation between the strategies and enhancing risk-adjusted returns for investors.
Janus Henderson says making the fund available in NZD helps protect local investors from cross currency volatility between the Australian and New Zealand dollar.
Unlike other alternatives products that might only employ a single strategy, the Janus Henderson Global Multi-Strategy Fund – Institutional NZD is made up of seven internally managed strategies.
Six of the strategies seek to identify opportunities in what the fund deems are ‘normal’ market conditions, and the seventh strategy, a dedicated protection strategy, seeks to deliver returns in troubled market environments where volatility is rising and where other strategies typically underperform.
The seven investment strategies are:
- Convertible arbitrage: aims to capitalise on mispricing of convertible bonds
- Event driven: looks to exploit pricing inefficiencies around corporate events or capital structures
- Equity market neutral: seeks to deliver alpha by investing long and short across pan-European equities
- Price pressure: aims to generate returns through the provision of capital to liquidity opportunities
- Risk transfer: looks to capitalise on supply/demand-driven imbalances in derivatives markets
- Fixed income, currency and commodity relative value: invests in fixed income, currency and commodity relative value opportunities.
- Portfolio protection: seeks to mitigate left tail risk through a multi-faceted protection strategy.
David Elms, Co-Portfolio Manager and Head of Diversified Alternatives at Janus Henderson Investors said “Our philosophy is that diversification works well in up markets but can be unreliable in down markets. You only have to look back as far as March 2020 when investor panic caused risk assets to fall in a synchronised manner. This fund addresses those types of challenges by having a protection strategy that is the mirror image of the diversified return-seeking strategies we use to generate returns in more normal markets.
“An all-weather fund denominated in New Zealand dollars will give our NZ clients greater peace of mind when market conditions are at their most volatile.”
The overall investment strategy is co-managed by London-based Elms, and US-based Portfolio Manager, Steve Cain. The pair are supported by a Diversified Alternatives team of 22 specialist investment professionals based in Australia, the UK and US, boasting an average 19 years of industry experience and 12 years at Janus Henderson Investors.
The newly launched fund will aim to outperform its benchmark, the Reserve Bank of NZ official cash rate, by 7% per annum (before fees) over rolling three-year periods.
Matt Gaden, Head of Australia at Janus Henderson Investors, added: “The fund re-confirms our commitment to the New Zealand market, as we tailor one of our flagship funds towards the needs of local investors.
“Janus Henderson is committed to providing opportunities for both institutional and retail investors when and where it makes sense to best suit respective needs.”