Phillip Capital Management has partnered with Boston-headquartered Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co (GMO) to launch a feeder fund to retail investors in Singapore.
The Singapore-based firm filed an application with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to roll out the Phillip Global Quality Fund, according to the regulator’s records.
The product is a feeder fund that will invest its assets in the GMO Quality Investment Fund.
This is the first time that Phillip Capital partnered with a US-based firm to launch a product, said Martin Chong, director of portfolio management at Phillip Capital, adding that the product is also the firm’s first feeder fund.
With the fund still being subject to regulatory approval, Phillip Capital is now finalising the product’s expected launch date and distribution partners, he told our sister publication Fund Selector Asia.
“Our management team is finalising the expected launch date and distribution partners,” he noted.
Details
The GMO Quality Investment Fund, which is a Ucits product, was launched in 2010. It is managed by Tom Hancock, Ty Cobb and Anthony Hene.
The product invests in high quality companies globally, which usually have “an established business that will deliver a high level of return on past investments and that will utilise cash flows in the future by making investments with potential for high levels of return on capital or by returning cash to shareholders through dividends, share buybacks or other mechanisms”, according to the prospectus.
As of the end of September, the bulk of the fund’s assets is invested in the US (81.9%), with the technology and healthcare sectors accounting for the largest sector allocations, at 35.5% and 24.9%, respectively, according to the fund factsheet.
The product has a US-domiciled version, managed by the same managers, although there are very little differences. For example, both funds have the same top holdings, but slightly different weightings for each company. The US-domiciled fund has $6.4bn in assets and incepted in 2004, according to the firm’s website.
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