Castlestone said the fund is designed to complement existing real asset holdings within a portfolio; it aims to limit single manager risk and its holdings are diversified across multiple regions, small and large cap companies and investment styles.
The fund will be managed by Castlestone’s investment committee, headed by CEO Angus Murray. The committee currently manages Castlestone’s two physical precious metals funds: the Aliquot Gold Bullion Fund and the Aliquot Precious Metals Fund.
“Castlestone sees the potential for precious metals to be one of the stronger asset classes over the next 10 years as the risk of inflation and geopolitical tensions persist. An equity fund like this should accompany, rather than replace, an allocation to physical precious metals to maximize the possible areas of return resulting from this growth,” said Murray.
“Our strategy for the fund uses a greater number of managers than a similar fund might allocate to, primarily because many IFAs and their clients want to be linked to the general performance of an asset class rather than the managers.
“This approach stresses diversification and couples Castlestone’s expertise in precious metals with the small- and mid-cap bias of specific managers.”
The portfolio is currently invested in three gold and precious metals equity funds; Castlestone anticipates this number expanding to include more equity funds and individual equities in the coming months.
Benchmarked against the FTSE Gold Mines Index, the British Virgin Islands-domiciled fund has a minimum investment of $10,000 for intermediaries. Castlestone says Sterling and euro-denominated share classes “may open in the near future”.
