Damien Hatfield

Mantis Funds has partnered with Balmoral Investors to bring the Balmoral Investors Micro Cap Fund (the “Fund”) to Australian investors. The Fund provides a diversified portfolio of quality micro-cap companies with a focus on those with a market capitalisation of less than $750 million at the time of investment.

“There is strong and growing interest from private clients and their advisors in quality micro-cap investments managed by seasoned investors. However, accessing experienced portfolio managers with capacity is very challenging. We are privileged to have reconnected with our old friends and colleagues, Tim Canham and Wik Farwerck, to bring their capability to our clients.

“Tim and Wik have outstanding track records in the micro-cap universe and we are excited to see how they blossom in their new (wholly investment owned) guise,” said Damien Hatfield, Partner and Head of Distribution at Mantis Funds.

“We are delighted to be able to offer a new capability in micro-cap investing, albeit with two experienced portfolios managers at Balmoral Investors. For too long micro caps have been seen as simply an addendum to small cap investing. We disagree with that and believe it is a very different skill set given the size, liquidity and capital constraints micro-cap companies face. We see this part of the market as very under-researched and below the radar of the passive investor cohort. Valuations are as attractive as I have seen across my career,” added Tim Canham, portfolio manager at Balmoral Investors.

“After managing one of the largest micro-cap products in the market at circa $500 million for over 15 years, with a strong record of alpha generation, we are very well equipped to invest in this space. By concentrating on a specific part of the sharemarket, namely stocks with a market cap below $750 million, we can focus our research and stock picking expertise.

“Our ability to maintain continuity with our previous portfolio construction methods, detailed financial modelling and investment process has given Balmoral a fast start to creating a new investment house,” said Wik Farwerck, portfolio manager at Balmoral Investors.

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Mark Yuen

Isola Capital and Mantis Funds are excited to announce that the Isola Fullerton Global Private Alpha SP (the “Fund” or “IFGPA”) has secured its anchor investors for a first close.

The Fund, which is sub-advised by Fullerton Fund Management, provides a diversified portfolio of leading global private equity, venture capital and private credit strategies with the objective to generate consistent and repeatable returns.

The anchor investors include Sun Hung Kai & Co. Ltd., a leading Australian single family office, and Australian multi-family office advisory firm, QuarterFive.  All the anchor investors are highly experienced in private alternatives with exposure across Asia Pacific and globally.

Isola Capital has partnered with Mantis Funds to create a feeder fund that provides access to Australian investors to global best-of-breed and best-in-class private alternative funds.

“As private market investment specialists representing institutional capital, we are dedicated to capturing global opportunities by leveraging our deep knowledge and extensive networks. We are delighted to have the backing of stellar anchor investors. Their familiarity with the private markets landscape, and commitment to our global private alpha strategy demonstrates faith in our capabilities. We look forward to delivering compelling outcomes to our new investors.” said Mark Yuen, Chief Business Development Officer at Fullerton Fund Management.

“During these volatile markets with the stress of higher interest rates, the clear value-add from top-quartile private alternative strategies will shine through. True alpha generation will be consistently created by the top asset managers who have institutionalized their process to weather economic storms and generate superior returns above the median. IFGPA is a timely solution for investors that are seeking to ensure the core part of their private alternatives allocation are comprised of deep-conviction top quartile strategies that have stood the test of time. The IFGPA fund series will ensure that investors no longer need to struggle to construct their core private alternative across vintages, as it will be a repeatable consistent solution to diversify each vintage across all the key private alternative asset classes with top performing strategies, which allows investors to supplement their portfolio with their own self-selection of deals and funds.” said Anthony Chan, CEO, Isola Capital.

“Family offices in Asia are increasingly looking to private markets as a means to access the real economy and diversify their portfolios. We are delighted to collaborate with Isola Capital and Fullerton Fund Management in participating in more private market strategies globally.” said Marcella Lui, Head of Investment Solutions at Sun Hung Kai & Co. Ltd.

“Australian wholesale investors and their advisors have been crying out for a better core private alternative solution. Existing diversified options accessible in Australia tend to be too concentrated in a particular strategy or sponsor to serve as a cornerstone holding for investors making their first foray into the space. We are delighted to have partnered with the Isola Capital and Fullerton Fund Management to launch an Australia wholesale unit trust feeder into IFGPA. The feeder, to be launched in July, is a closed-end fund with extremely competitive fees and institutional grade infrastructure. Investors in the Fund will benefit from the scale of IFGPA not only in accessing tier one private fund opportunities but also to co-investment opportunities” said Damien Hatfield, Partner and Head of Distribution at Mantis Funds.

The Fund provides exposure to leading private market strategies through a carefully curated portfolio managed by Isola Capital with Fullerton Fund Management as a sub-advisor, featuring high quality global private equity, venture capital and private credit strategies.

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Craig Brooke

Specialty financial services provider KeyInvest and technology-enabled multi-boutique platform Mantis Funds are proud to announce a partnership that will bring investment bond products to the financial advisor and high-net-worth individual (HNWI) markets nationally.

This exciting partnership arrangement sees Mantis become the exclusive external distribution partner for KeyInvest’s Life Events Bond and underlying funds. KeyInvest currently has a wide menu of well-recognised fund managers and will work with Mantis to increase access to alternative strategies via its integrated distribution and operations platform.

“We are very pleased to be working with KeyInvest to help educate a new generation of wholesale investors and their trusted advisors on the benefits of investment bonds.” said Damien Hatfield, Partner and Head of Distribution at Mantis Funds.

“As a partner, we look forward to enjoying the distribution reach that Mantis has across Australia with investors of a high-net-worth nature.” said Craig Brooke, CEO at KeyInvest.

In the year to 30 June 2023, many of the underlying funds in KeyInvest’s Life Events Bond outperformed what was a great ASX index performance over the financial year, and retained a ‘Highly Recommended’ Lonsec rating. Mantis is expected to distribute exciting new investment products, including Private Credit asset class investments, that KeyInvest will be bringing to market soon.

Private Credit has been one of the fastest growing asset classes in the past decade, allowing investors to enjoy a risk-adjusted return that is similar to equities, however backed with property as security. 

“Mantis have a proven track record of innovation and delivery, and we see this partnership as critical to the strategy that KeyInvest is about to deploy in Australia.” said Craig Brooke, CEO at KeyInvest .

“It’s pleasing to be working with an Australian firm as most of our fund manager partners are based offshore. KeyInvest has a long history in Australia and we plan to bring their investment bond offerings to a broader audience.” said Damien Hatfield, Partner and Head of Distribution at Mantis Funds.

The climbing net worth of Australian baby boomers, supported by large super balances and record house prices, is predicted to cause a great intergenerational transfer of wealth. The low-cost and tax-effective nature of investment bonds means they can play an important role in estate planning and wealth transfer.  

Investment bonds, which are taxed at the corporate rate, provide an incentive for high income earners in a structure that offers access to a broad range of investments across asset classes within one convenient product and without the need for annual tax reporting.

“In an environment where further changes to superannuation taxation laws are on the horizon, investment bonds are becoming increasingly attractive for investors seeking flexible, tax effective wealth management solutions.” said  Dion Silvy, Chief Investment Officer at KeyInvest.

“In the last three decades, tax planning has been very superannuation and offshore fund focused, a trend which we believe will change in the next decade.” said Damien Hatfield, Partner and Head of Distribution at Mantis Funds.

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Damien Hatfield

Mantis is excited to announce that we have partnered with Isola Capital to bring the Isola Fullerton Global Private Alpha Fund (the “Fund”) to Australian investors. The Fund, which is sub-advised by Fullerton Fund Management, provides a diversified portfolio of leading global private equity, venture capital and private credit strategies. Mantis will work with Isola Capital to build a feeder fund for Australian investors.

“There is strong and growing interest from private clients and their advisors in alternative investments. However, accessing the best private alternative fund managers globally has been challenging. Prohibitive minimum investment sizes, key vintage and strategy scarcity and even administrative challenges around managing multiple capital call processes have meant that all but the largest institutions in Australia are locked out of the space. We are privileged to be working with Isola Capital and Fullerton Fund Management to bring their market leading fund-of-funds capability to our clients. Based in Hong and Singapore respectively, both firms have outstanding track records in the alternative investment space”, said Damien Hatfield, Partner and Head of Distribution at Mantis Funds.

“In collaboration with Isola, Fullerton is pleased to be the sub-advisor to the Fund. As an award-winning, active investment specialist, we have a deep understanding of private assets across market cycles, and considerable expertise in selecting private equity funds. Fullerton has been managing capital for a wide range of investors for two decades, and our seasoned Alternatives team has an average 16 years of industry experience. Our ability to identify deep value opportunities coupled with robust risk management, can help investors unlock value and achieve their long-term return objectives while providing diversification for portfolios”, said Mark Yuen, Chief Business Development Officer at Fullerton Fund Management.

“Against a volatile macroeconomic backdrop, the return premium to patient investors has never been higher. Private markets can balance portfolio volatility while delivering alpha and balancing potential risk in a less correlated way than traditional asset classes. In building private market exposure, we believe it is critical that investors construct a diversified portfolio across strategies and vintages of best-in-class fund managers. Even for large institutions, accessing the top tier of investment managers can be challenging. Both Isola and our sub-advisor Fullerton Fund Management have well-established track records of disciplined institutional fund selection and rigorous due diligence. Through Fullerton’s strong network the Fund is able to access allocations with top decile asset managers across the selected strategies globally. We are delighted to partner with Mantis to bring our capability to the Australian market”, said Anthony Chan, CEO, Isola Capital.

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Mr Green joins as a board member and advisor which follows on from his previous funds management stints as MD of Treasury Group, which proved highly successful in raising funds for fund managers, and at Perpetual Investments as Chief Investment Officer and Head of the Funds Management arm.

Mantis Funds CEO, Timothy Cheung, welcomed Rodney to the new venture.

“Rodney brings a wealth of experience to our business and we are incredibly grateful to have access to his guidance as an advisor.

“Mantis Funds might be the new kid on the block, but the expertise and track records of our executive team and board represent decades of highly successful fund distribution and strategy development. Mantis Funds will differ from its rivals because we provide a full distribution and operations capability to our fund partners without extracting equity as a prerequisite.

“If we do end up with equity it will be success based and earned. In this way, the fund manager controls their business and both partners benefit from mutual success,” said Mr Cheung.

Fellow Mantis Funds founder, Damien Hatfield, echoed this sentiment.

“I am seeing more of the better-placed fund managers wanting access to marketing smarts and ideas. We are also getting a strong response to our technology which, we believe, will make seamless funds transfers and client communication a reality,” said Mr Hatfield.

Rodney has over 35 years’ experience in the industry as both a top-level executive and investor. Prior to the Perpetual role as Head of Investments (1995-2001), he worked at Citibank overseeing its entry to the Australian market and earlier with Zurich Insurance and GIO.

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