Equitas CEO and Founder, David Thomas voiced his appreciation and pride over winning the ‘Best Multi-Strategy, Multi-Manager Fund Award’ of 2021. “This award is the culmination of years of effort we poured into the Equitas Evergreen Fund. The strength of our organisation, our personnel, our due diligence process, and the resulting performance, deserve recognition. We couldn’t have done it without support from our strong staff, impressive network and, of course, our loyal clients,” Thomas concludes.
Equitas CEO and Founder, David Thomas voiced his appreciation and pride over winning the ‘Best Multi-Strategy, Multi-Manager Fund Award’ of 2021. “This award is the culmination of years of effort we poured into the Equitas Evergreen Fund. The strength of our organisation, our personnel, our due diligence process, and the resulting performance, deserve recognition. We couldn’t have done it without support from our strong staff, impressive network and, of course, our loyal clients,” Thomas concludes.
Equitas works as a fiduciary in the capacity of an outsourced Chief Investment Officer. The company designed and built the Evergreen Fund in-house as an alternative solution by fusing hedged investments and private equity, providing for both liquidity and growth.
Overcoming challenges
The last 18 months have certainly been a challenge for the market. “We followed our plan by staying true to our process and delivered results for our partners,” stated Director of Investments, Derek Fossier. “At Equitas, we never try to predict the future, only recognise current opportunities and position accordingly.”
Senior Analyst, Rachel Kaplan adds: “Our hedged investments performed as designed last year and our private equity achieved an outstanding year. All 21 funds in our portfolio were positive.”
Equitas will expand the Fund investor base through selective marketing, while continuing to follow the company’s long-term investment strategy.
The Four P’s
Regarding challenges in the market over the last year-and-a-half, Thomas believes that it is essential for all limited partners to understand the People, Philosophy, Process, and the Portfolio within the Evergreen Fund. “These are four ‘P’s that lead to the fifth ‘P’: strong, long-term Performance,” Thomas explains. “Having this foundation of understanding leads to a better appreciation of the Fund, fewer surprises, and higher longevity for the investor relationship.”
On industry trends, Thomas says that alternatives are becoming a more widely accepted and widely used asset class, led by university endowments and family offices. Equity investors, especially in the technology sector, are seeing how much cheaper the valuations are, and how much growth is possible before companies go public.
However, Thomas believes that the bond market is less of an investment solution today, than it has been for the past 40 years. “With Bellwether Treasury bond yielding around one per cent, and the potential for inflation to return, investors are seeking to diversify into other low correlation asset classes to achieve investment goals.”
For decades, Equitas has predominately been an institutional investment firm, but the company is expanding its business into family investments.
“We encourage families to think about their investments as a business, such as a family endowment, not as a hobby or a part-time job,” Thomas states. “We manage family investors the same way we manage small institutions, although sometimes they grow to become large institutions.”
David Thomas, Chief Executive Officer, Senior Investment Management Consultant, Equitas
After 20 years with Wall Street firms, in 2002 David Thomas formed Equitas and the Evergreen Fund, a multi-strategy, multi-manager, alternative investment fund, which has won awards and is tracked in the Bloomberg Database. Thomas is a contracted writer for Forbes Online and writes his investor commentary called the KnowRisk® Report.
Derek Fossier, Director of Investments, Investment Management Consultant, Chief Compliance Officer, Equitas
Derek Fossier is an Investment Management Consultant with 12 years of experience in the industry. A native of New Orleans, Fossier earned his Bachelor of Science in Economics from Tulane University. Subsequently, he joined the MBA program at the A.B. Freeman School of Business, where he still serves as advisor to the Algorithmic Trading Club.
