Dexion Capital has launched Dexion Liquid Strategies, an alternatives UCITS platform, with its first offering set to be the Keynes Dynamic Beta Strategy Fund (KDBS) managed by Dr Sushil Wadhwani of Wadhwani Asset Management LLP.
KDBS is due to launch in June.
Dexion Liquid Strategies is an Irish-domiciled ICAV which is UCITS-compliant. The platform will allow Dexion to provide a range of liquid alternative investment strategies to its investor base in the UK and, increasingly, in Europe. This will complement its success in managing and distributing real asset and alternative credit strategies as listed closed-end investment companies and private funds.
Magnus Spence (pictured), Head of Asset Management at Dexion, says: “This platform gives Dexion the ability to combine its talent for researching and selecting alternative asset classes and managers with its strong distribution capabilities in the UK and Europe. We look forward to offering differentiated and compelling investment solutions to our investors and to partnering with outstanding investment managers who want to grow their assets under management in the UK, Europe and Asia. In this regard, we are delighted that Dr Sushil Wadhwani, whose career spans academia, policy making and investment management, will be the manager of our first fund, KDBS”.
KDBS employs a systematic and tactical approach to asset allocation, which complements medium and longer term discretionary asset allocation decisions. This approach is expressed through quantitative models which have been used by Dr Wadhwani in the Keynes Funds since 2005 and builds on models he has been working on for over 26 years. Prior to founding Wadhwani Asset Management LLP, Dr Wadhwani was a full-time member of the Monetary Policy Committee from 1999 to 2002, before which his roles included Director of Quantitative Systems and Partner at Tudor Group, and Director of Equity Strategy at Goldman Sachs International Ltd. Commenting on the strategy, Dr
Wadhwani says: “The strategy we have developed looks to harvest traditional and alternative betas, across bond and equity markets, taking an agile approach through dynamic weightings and non-linear interaction. This allows us to navigate market cycles in different ways to traditional long-only asset allocation mandates.”
KDBS will have daily liquidity and will be keenly priced with a management fee of 0.75 per cent (reduced by 0.1 per cent for those investors investing at or during the first month from launch) and no performance, subscription or redemption fees. The total expense ratio has also been capped at 1.0 per cent for all investors.
Spence says: “We want this fund to sit at the heart of an investor's portfolio, either by delivering timely asset allocation between the equity, bond and cash components or as part of an allocation to alternative investments. KDBS is priced to compete with long-only funds on the one hand and to offer outstanding value against most other alternative investment funds on the other. We expect our pricing strategy to be attractive to anyone with a balanced portfolio and a sensitivity to fees”.
