Winston is a leading third-party marketing and distribution firm with a strong track record of raising early-stage seed capital for new boutiques, supporting the retail distribution efforts of open-ended funds, and executing successful closed-ended capital raisings.

Upon completion of the transaction, in which Pinnacle will acquire 100% of the Winston business, four Winston sales executives will join Pinnacle’s retail distribution team led by Ramsin Jajoo, Pinnacle’s Director, Head of Retail.

“This is an important investment in the continued expansion of Pinnacle’s retail distribution capabilities that will deliver our multi-affiliate network additional resourcing across Australia and help in bolstering our entire Group’s ability to scale and grow,” said Mr Jajoo.

“Over the past 15 years, Pinnacle has developed what is now a market-leading retail distribution team that connects with more than 21,000 intermediaries, including financial planners, brokers and wholesale consultants. The retail distribution footprint spreads across the Australian and New Zealand intermediated market and is reinforced by proprietary business intelligence and data analytics technology.

“Adding highly credentialed executives such as Winston’s founding partners Stephen Robertson and Andrew Fairweather, along with the broader team, further enhances our presence and strong market relationships.

“In particular, this transaction provides Pinnacle with on-the-ground representation in Western Australia for the first time, with Andrew Fairweather to continue residing in Perth upon transitioning into the Pinnacle business.”

Andrew Fairweather, Founding Partner of Winston Capital Partners said joining forces with Pinnacle is a transaction that will deliver strong outcomes for investors.

“We thank our valued partners who we’ve worked with during almost a decade of success in third-party retail distribution. We are now thrilled to join another success story in the Australian asset management industry and work with an incredibly high-performing family of investment boutiques,” said Mr Fairweather.

Stephen Robertson, Co-Founding Partner of Winston Capital Partners also commented, saying both Pinnacle and Winston have shared the same values and goals over many years.

“We share Pinnacle’s belief that investors can achieve stronger client outcomes in a boutique environment, where they’re not distracted by non-investment functions. The Pinnacle Group’s long-standing mission of enabling better lives through investment excellence is one that very much aligns with what has motivated all of us at Winston over many years.

The acquisition follows the announcement of Pinnacle’s fully underwritten dividend reinvestment plan, in which funds are to be primarily used to acquire an additional 10% stake in Coolabah Capital Investments (CCI), taking Pinnacle’s total equity ownership of CCI to 35%.

Winston was a distribution partner of CCI, and the existing distribution rights will be transferred to Pinnacle as part of the transaction. Following a brief transition period, Winston’s executives will end all existing distribution partnerships with non-Pinnacle affiliated investment managers.

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Speaking about the decision to launch such a product, Steve Shepherd, Head of Asia Pacific, CFM, said that demand for long term trend-following and managed futures programs in Australia is growing exponentially, as advisers and investors alike seek real portfolio diversification, in a low-cost and liquid form.

This is highlighted by IS Trends Trust already being awarded the coveted “Recommended” rating by major ratings house, Lonsec. Lonsec notes that, “by undercutting the competition on fees, CFM has potential to disrupt a high margin sector”.

Mr Shepherd explained that IS Trends Trust is a diversified and managed futures trend-following trust, which capitalises on the fact that much of the returns from managed futures strategies can be explained by long term trend-following.

“Trend following has been shown to work for the past 200 years – it’s a strategy which takes advantage of trends in a large range of global assets and markets”, he said.

Long Term Trend Following is the core of many managed futures and CTA programs and is a well-known strategy amongst Australian financial advisers and investors.

According to Stephen Robertson, Managing Director of Capital Fund Management LLP’s Australian distributor, Winston Capital Partners, “CFM’s IS Trends Trust is a welcome addition to the Australian market.

Alternative beta strategies have been shown to provide strong returns over the medium to long term and are designed to perform in both rising and falling markets – all with a low correlation to traditional asset classes.

Financial advisers have been increasingly asking us for competitively priced, quality options in this space, but these have been few and far between.

And that’s where we believe IS Trends Trust may have some added value – it’s a managed futures trust that provides investors with access to long term trend-following in 5 asset classes in over 100 different markets. It is diversified and plays to the long term strength of CFM,” he explained.

With the launch of the CFM IS Trends Trust, investors will have two Unit classes to choose from. Class A has a 10% volatility target and class B has a 15% volatility target. Class A has a 0.6%pa management fee (capped MER of 0.8%pa) with 10% performance fee and Class B has a management fee of 1.125%pa (Capped MER of 1.45%pa) with 0% performance fee. Under RG97 these competitive fees will be welcomed by Australian advisers, managed account programs, wealth based multi manager funds and investors.

The CFM IS Trends Trust has already received a “Recommended” rating by major ratings house, Lonsec. Lonsec highlighted that CFM IS Trends Trust is well designed to provide a pure ‘trend following’ strategy and is “managed by CFM group’s high quality and experienced investment team which has a long and successful heritage in active quantitative hedge fund investing.”

In conclusion, Mr Shepherd said that “there is no question of the power of managed futures strategies in creating diversified portfolios, and that a research-based quantitative approach is an efficient way to access them”.

“CFM is one of only a handful of global investors to apply academic techniques to stringently test every investment strategy – and to be at the vanguard of the opportunity on offer from massive shifts in data proliferation globally.

“Our strategies are quant-based and well diversified across and within asset classes and markets, and executed with our systematic trading strategies.

“We have no doubt that our latest Australian Trust, IS Trends Trust, will provide advisers and their Australian clients with true diversification and access to the benefits of “long term trend following across multiple asset classes”.

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CFM Alternative Beta has pioneered an award-winning approach to financial markets. Its global diversified alternative beta strategy has resonated strongly with Australian financial advisers and investors. Funds under management has grown to $47 million since the Fund’s introduction in November 2015.

Head of CFM Asia Pacific, Steve Shepherd said the Zenith rating caps a strong 2016 and follows other notable milestones including a Lonsec “Recommended” rating, and a “Superior Rating” awarded by SQM in April 2016.
“The Fund has been designed to offer investors a diversified portfolio of well-known and persistent alternative strategies that can be systematically harvested from markets, but at a fraction of the cost of the typical ‘2 and 20’ model*, and with far greater liquidity,” Mr Shepherd said.

“These attributes have been recognised by financial advisers looking for true-to-label alternative solutions that aim to have zero correlation to equity and bond markets, whilst aiming to deliver returns of cash plus five per cent per annum, with constant volatility of six per cent per annum (over a full investment cycle).”

Key points from the Zenith rating:

Stephen Robertson of Winston Capital – the Australian distributor of the CFM Diversified Alternative Beta Fund – said key aspects of the Zenith Recommended rating reflect the increasing value placed by financial advisers on strong alternative beta investments.

“The entry of high-quality global managers like CFM into the retail marketplace has enabled financial advisers to access true-to-label investments with proven track records of delivery against defined risk and return objectives.
“Zenith noted that it believes the Fund offers investors an ‘attractive multi-strategy investment solution, which is supported by a high-quality team, with a long history in developing and managing quantitative alternative hedge fund strategies’, he said.”

“Zenith also noted that: ‘CFM is one of the global leaders in multi-strategy hedge funds, in which their flagship strategy is closed for investment and maintains a long waiting list of clients. CFM has partnered with Winston Capital Partners (Winston) to distribute the Fund in Australia. Zenith has a positive view of this type of arrangement given Winston specialise in retail distribution within the Australian market’, Mr Robertson said.”

“Zenith believes the Fund offers investors a relatively low cost way to gain exposure to a liquid and diversified portfolio of hedge fund strategies which is backed by a well-resourced and pedigreed quantitative hedge fund capability.”

The CFM ISDiversified Trust is currently on the investment menus of Colonial First Wrap, Netwealth, Hub24 and Powerwrap.

*“2 and 20” describes a typical fee structure of two per cent management fee and a 20 per cent success fee ascribed by many alternatives or hedge fund asset managers.

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Winston to help Yellow Brick Road and Morphic grow FUM.

Winston Capital Partners (Winston) has announced a number of new clients and personnel initiatives as demand from funds management firms seeking quality third party marketing and distribution services continues to grow.

New clients include Yellow Brick Road Wealth Management for their Smarter Money Fund and Morphic Asset Management for their Global Opportunities Fund.

Commenting on the deal, Darren Harvey of YBR Funds Management stated, “we are very pleased to have appointed the Winston team to distribute our active cash solution to financial advisers and small institutions.”

“Winston’s strategic approach has really stood out and we are seeing the pipeline develop substantially in a very short time. Having such depth of experience in distribution made a great deal of sense for us given the 60 plus years of experience among Winston’s founders, which has ultimately fast tracked our market entry with a well planned approach.”

And Jack Lowenstein, Managing Director of Morphic Asset Management stated that “We are very happy that after an exhaustive search we have found a long term partner like Winston with whom we can grow our Funds under Management in what we expect to be a rapid but sustainable manner. We have been impressed by the thoroughness with which Winston has analysed our Fund and distilled its key messages, as well as the depth and breadth of its industry contacts.”

To support that growth, Winston today announced the appointment of senior industry executive Rory MacIntyre as Partner. Mr MacIntyre is joined on the Winston team by Chad Nikolov, Associate – Business Development.

Winston is led by founding partners Stephen Robertson and Andrew Fairweather. “Winston launched almost 12 months ago with a clear target of being Australia’s leading specialist funds management and third party marketing and distribution firm. The firm is on track towards this goal, and we welcome the addition of two new appointments in Rory and Chad to their respective roles with Winston,” said Founding Partner Andrew Fairweather.

“We have brought on new clients and are in discussion with a number of equally sophisticated asset management businesses. Each represents a high benchmark in quality and execution discipline in their respective asset classes. We of course seek to complement this expertise with matching service and market experience depth.

“There is a clear gap for high quality specialist marketing and distribution services in both the wholesale and retail sector, for which Winston is resolved to meet,” he said.

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The firm has also announced a foundation alliance with Australian specialist investment management firm Select Asset Management.

Winston is led by founding partners Stephen Robertson, Nathan Wares and Andrew Fairweather. The management team brings to market a unique combination of world class financial services marketing and distribution expertise, together with seasoned funds management experience honed over a combined 60+ years.

The firm will build its presence in the Australian market based on four key pillars: funds formation, third party distribution, capital raising and specialist advisory.

“Winston fills a gap in the Australian investment management market for professional distribution, capital raising and advice services which, at their core, link best in class domestic and offshore fund managers to philosophically aligned investors,” said Winston Founding Partner, Stephen Robertson.

“Kindred to these services, Winston will also develop specialist asset management product lines which will target the growing demand for innovative alpha generation and investment capability in Australia,” Mr Fairweather said.

 Winston understands that many investment managers seek to focus on their core activity of managing investments.

By partnering with Winston, managers can focus on their passion knowing their capability is professionally delivered to investors that place a greater reliance on working with a trusted funds management provider. For international fund managers, Winston would undertake the often complex market entry tasks. By partnering with Winston, offshore managers will enjoy a successful and risk mitigated experience across the spectrum of investment and fiduciary requirements, regulatory obligations and investor needs.

Select Asset Management
Key to bringing great asset managers to investors involves assessing operational standards and the alpha generating ability of each manager or investment offer. To provide that end-to-end proposition, Winston is pleased to announce an alliance with Select Asset Management (Select).

Select brings an important element to Winston’s value proposition by providing due diligence services through its Fiduciary Service offer; manager and investment assessment through its Investment Consulting capability; and Responsible Entity and trustee services required to successfully deliver quality products to investors.

Winston and Select will now offer a complete service, covering back office, regulatory and compliance, marketing, distribution and product packaging, benefiting fund managers and investors with a convenient all-in-one solution.

Commenting on the alliance with Winston, Brendan Foley, Select’s Chief Executive Officer said: “the launch of our new product manufacturing, fiduciary and due diligence services headed by Alex Wise, combined with Winston Capital’s distribution and marketing services, delivers a compelling proposition to managers and end investors. Having also appointed Winston to represent Select in the market, ensures that our current customised portfolio solution clients will have the same level of service from Select as always. Select will also have the ability to look at new clients with Nathan and Stephen’s extensive network.”

Commenting on the establishment of Winston Capital Partners, founding partner Stephen Robertson said: “The future is bright for specialist service providers in our sector. Winston has made a great start, having secured two advisory roles to an infrastructure fund and international manager; and the third party distribution function with Select. We look forward to working with Select and the broader market moving forward.”

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With more than 40 years’ experience working with the poor, Opportunity is a leading provider and pioneer of socially focused microfinance and support services. Its Social Performance Management (SPM) project commenced in 2008 and is a multi-year project aimed at enabling Opportunity’s microfinance institution (MFI) partners to gauge the effectiveness of their work in three areas:  delivery of services; their ability to reach target clients (those living in poverty); and the impact on clients’ lives.

Opportunity says that the effective delivery of services is dependent on robust up-to-date information on who is using the services and how their lives are changing as a result. However, with no standard methods of managing social performance, Opportunity’s MFI partners have struggled to assess their impact. Opportunity’s program provides this information and enables MFI partners on the ground to access and apply this information themselves.

So far the project has designed and piloted an innovative and effective program to assess client protection and outreach. The support from the Macquarie Group Foundation will enable Opportunity to roll-out these two elements across MFI partners’ operations, and to assist them in developing systems to assess how microfinance is transforming clients’ lives.

The project will be rolled out initially in India and has the potential to assist its partners across the other regions it operates, namely Indonesia, the Philippines and Africa.

Stephen Robertson, Philanthropy Director at Opportunity International Australia noted: “The successful deployment of this project will enable our microfinance partners to effectively monitor and implement their programs to achieve their overall mission to help people out of poverty. As a result of this project we expect our microfinance program will target the right people with best-fit services which will deliver lasting benefits to them, their families and their communities. We are enormously grateful to the Macquarie Group Foundation for their support.”

4 July 2012

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