RWC Partners’ Priya Kodeeswaran (pictured) has hired Colin Moar to join his team as a senior analyst.
Moar has over 17 years’ investment experience with research expertise across a number of sectors, with a particular focus on technology. He started his career at Aviva Investors as an analyst on the UK and pan-European equity teams for five years followed by seven years on the Global Equity team as an analyst then fund manager. Moar then spent a year at HSBC Asset Management as a fund manager on the Global & Emerging Markets team before joining Polar Capital’s Technology team.
Kodeeswaran is responsible for the RWC Global Innovation Absolute Alpha Fund which is up 11.6 per cent in 2015 and 42.0 per cent since it launched in February 20101. The fund is a global long/short fund that takes positions in companies and industries that are undergoing change often caused by innovation. Kodeeswaran has a long history in this space having developed the approach when he was at Cheyne Capital from 2004 to 2009. Since inception in February 2010 the RWC fund has outperformed the Hedge Fund index (HFRXEH) by over 39 per cent with volatility of 6.5 per cent and has been able to consistently make money in each year since it was launched.
Priya Kodeeswaran, fund manager of the RWC Global Innovation Absolute Alpha fund, says: “Colin is highly experienced in the areas we focus on having spent over 17 years analysing and investing in technology stocks across global and emerging market equities. Our core philosophy is to focus on change and evaluate when those changes are mispriced by the market. This often leads us to technology orientated areas and the global universe allows us to take advantage of a broad set of opportunities.
“Currently, noticeable shifts in global central bank policies are causing macro level changes in FX and risk premiums that are not yet reflected in consensus estimates and market valuations. We feel that as a global long/short fund we are well placed to take advantage of these recent changes, particularly how the market values growth in different regions.
“Besides these macro-induced dislocations, we continue to exploit our historic secular change themes globally, whether in relation to mobile monetisation challenges in internet companies, the changing nature of media consumption particularly in video (broadcast to “on-demand”), or the payments space where we continue to see a structural move away from cash.
“Looking ahead, as the Fed considers removing excess liquidity in the financial system, driving up risk premiums, there will be greater focus on companies with weak business models, particularly recent IPOs that had taken advantage of the low cost of capital and will now be tested by the more pernicious market environment.”
James Tollemache, Head of Sales, says: “It has not been an easy year for many absolute return funds with significant swings in the momentum of markets, however Priya has stood out by navigating the year incredibly well. Colin’s recruitment bolsters the team’s ability to take advantage of an approach that is working well and differentiating itself from the peer group. UCITS long/short investors are broadening out their needs beyond pure regional strategies and we are seeing significant interest in Priya’s fund as they look to diversify to strategies that are both proven and differentiated.
