Wealth & Finance International - Fund Awards 2015

www.wealthandfinance-intl.com 33 Arowana Asset Management Best Multi - Strategy Fund of Funds - The Arowana Asian Fund Arowana Asset Management is an independent asset management and advisory firm focusing primarily on hedge funds but also long only funds. The team has over 50 years’ of experience in global markets and has been analyzing hedge funds since 1998, combined with an extensive network of relationships worldwide. Their CEO & CIO, Pierre Hoebrechts, was in touch with us to tell us about his company and more. Arowana Asset Management offers three main services: asset manage- ment, advisory, operational due diligence. With regards to asset manage- ment, we are the investment manager of the Arowana Asian Fund which is a multi-strategy fund of funds investing in Asia. We can also build tailor made funds or products/portfolios at the request of clients. As for advisory, we provide an extensive list of services from fund selection to markets and risk research as well as analytics. With respect to operational due diligence, we have developed a unique in-house standardised report on a long list of Asian funds based on our extensive experience. Similarly to asset management, we also provide ‘bespoke’ reviews, focussing on specific areas requested by a particular client. Our investment process is driven by a number of key factors. Firstly, we aim to maximize risk adjusted returns, whether it is at the portfolio level or when assessing underlying funds as potential investment candidates. Expected return per unit of risk taken will be the key factor in driving strategy and fund allocation. Scenarios where we cannot assess the downside potential will be discarded. Furthermore, we tend to favour funds with a reasonable level of assets under management. It is our belief that smaller funds have greater potential to profit from niche market opportunities as well as providing much better risk adjusted returns and a closer alignment of interests with investors. We also favour funds investing in liquid securities and strategies with conservative amount of leverage. Last but not least, a high level of trans- parency is required to provide us with the necessary tools to monitor the funds’ risk accurately. What separates us from our competitors is that we are one of a few fund of funds groups based in Asia. Our location within the region gives us frequent and meaningful contact with the funds we monitor and we have built up an extensive network of relationships within the region over the past 9 years. We are able to hold over 200 meetings with Asian fund managers each year, which is of tremendous value to clients with no or little presence in Asia. Our CIO has also spent 10 years in NYC providing a unique perspective and experience to analyse the Asian hedge fund industry and markets. Moreover, we have also developed a unique operational due diligence platform. The fact that we also act as investors provides us with a per- spective that stand alone service providers might lack particularly when it comes to understanding the correlation between operational risk and market risk. As a boutique firm with a small number of clients, we can provide tailor made services with a high level of care and attention to each client and ensure we are always available to them as their partner in Asia. As well as these attributes, we have a highly professional and experi- enced team. We believe the key point is our focus on understanding the several dimensions of risk which helps tremendously in generating high risk adjusted returns. We perform detailed analysis and monitoring of the market to help us understand the alpha generated by each manager as well as performing thorough operational due diligence. At our firm, we have established a high standard of professionalism and innovation, which drives the way due diligence and research is performed by our team. Our extensive coverage of markets and focus on risk is a key determinant in maximising clients’ risk adjusted returns and is at the centre of all the decisions we take. As a result, we ensure we always match the risk profile of our clients with the products we recommend or structure for them. Frequent attendance at industry con- ferences and regular contacts with market participants helps us ensure we are up to date with emerging developments and trends. At the present period, there has been an increasing demand for Asian investments as valuations in the US and Europe are looking rich and the economic growth potential increasingly moves east. As investors discover the abilities of Asian hedge funds and funds of funds to provide very high risk adjusted returns, we expect asset allocation shift to the region to increase. As we reflect on our success, and look to expand our business even further, we are delighted to be receiving this award. It is very gratifying to receive external confirmation that we have achieved top notch perfor- mance for our investors. This provides us with strong evidence that we are on the right path to develop an asset management firm where excellence is the goal. These awards are an important validation for the managers like us who wish to demonstrate their abilities in a global con- text as well as relative to their peer group. The fact that it is independent provides substantial credibility to this achievement. Going forward, we believe that continuing to differentiate ourselves through high risk adjusted performance will provide numerous oppor- tunities to develop our business, whether it is increasing our AUM or developing new tailor made products for our clients.