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Returns to be found in niche strategies

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The last seven years have been challenging, but Gardena Capital has kept steady through the storms. Cristiano Committeri, Director at Gardena talks through the firm’s investment philosophy and how the team prioritises its clients.

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The last seven years have been challenging, but Gardena Capital has kept steady through the storms. Cristiano Committeri, Director at Gardena talks through the firm’s investment philosophy and how the team prioritises its clients.

How have client needs and demands changed what has your response been in terms of your service offering?

Following the recent inflation spike and the consequent coming to an end of a multi-year low interest rate regime, some investment products are no longer meeting the standard clients’ demand. We have been looking closely at how to better provide them with funds that help us stay true to our expertise and try to achieve higher returns without increasing the risks they are exposed to too much. The answer took the form of a new multi-strategy fund which will blend the best strategies we have to offer in one single investment vehicle.

What are the primary challenges your firm and your clients are facing and what is critical to these being overcome?

As we are the first investors in our funds and very much aligned to our clients in terms of interests, we need to make sure that “OUR machine” is always fit for purpose and best in class. With the rising cost of the IT infrastructure, maintaining a state of the art set up has become more expensive. We need to be diligent and creative in the way we handle our platform to keep on providing the tools our PMs need to continue delivering for us and our clients.

How can you best ensure you deliver value-add to your client base?

Our mantra is to stay true to our origins and learn from previous mistakes. We don’t pretend to offer advisory services in areas we haven’t mastered. We think we have an edge when investing in Italian government bonds markets and securitised products using a low latency infrastructure. That is the secret behind what we have been doing every day since 2016. By ensuring our service providers and partners maintain the same high standards we expect of ourselves, we are convinced we will keep on adding value to our clients.

What is your outlook for the hedge fund space for the coming year and how is your firm best placed to support clients navigate the environment?

We think the future for alternative investment firms is bright, but we are aware of the ever-rising costs to maintain a structure which is compliant and efficient. We think in Europe, the “absolute return” concept still has a lot of room to grow, luring assets away from the mutual funds industry. This is where we want to be going forward. As for the clients, we believe there is a simple way to continue making them comfortable with what we do; that is to have frank, regular and honest discussions about our views and our strategies. Communication is key to retain clients’ trust. 

Can you list three key learnings you are passing on to clients in the current environment?

Since we started Gardena in 2016, we had Brexit, Covid, wars and multiple government changes. In seven years, we had to handle a lot and we were able to do so quite well. Our first message to existing and prospective clients is to stick to the people who have shown resilience and constant returns. Don’t be fooled by one major result as that might have just been an occasional bet. The second message is to be demanding with your investment manager. We are happy to be challenged as we think we are doing most (if not all) the things right. Finally – returns are to be found more and more in niche strategies so look for people like us – we might well have the answer you were looking for (at least for a part of your portfolio).


Cristiano Committeri, Director, Gardena

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