Stenham Asset Management has publicly launched the Stenham Global Resources Fund, which it has been running internally since July 2006.
Stenham Asset Management has publicly launched the Stenham Global Resources Fund, which it has been running internally since July 2006. The fund’s primary focus is non-energy related sectors such as water, agriculture and soft commodities, using managers with long track records trading the underlying commodities.
The long-biased fund is a concentrated portfolio of 10 to 15 managers with an annual target return of Libor plus 6 to 8 per cent and volatility of between 8 and 11 per cent per year. The minimum investment is USD25,000 with monthly liquidity and no lock-up period, and the fund is also offered in the sterling and euro share classes. In the six months to February, the fund returned 14.8 per cent in US dollar terms.
‘Continued global demand for resources particularly from China, India and worldwide globalisation is going to push prices up for the foreseeable future,’ says Stenham chief investment officer Kevin Arenson. ‘Growing energy demands from an ever-increasing population and the threat of global warming, which will result in the need for increased investment and technological developments to save these valuable resources, makes this a compelling investment opportunity.
‘One of the key themes of the fund is water. Meeting the United Nations goal of halving the number of people without access to clean water and sanitation by 2015 will cost USD12bn per year beyond current spending, which is less than a quarter of global annual spending on bottled water.
‘Water has been cited as the single biggest impediment to China’s long-term success. While China is the most obvious example of a pressing water need, India and other mostly Asian markets are not far behind and are expected to make similar massive investments.’
Harry Wulfsohn, head of institutional business development, says: ‘By investing in the Global Resources Fund, investors have an opportunity to access a sector that has a compelling case for strong potential upside in the medium term. However, this space will be volatile in the short term. Stenham has a 20-year track record of constructing diversified fund of hedge funds portfolios that capture the upside but through diversification materially reducing the downside."
