While Bell Asset Management continues to prosper from its distribution deal with Bridgewater Associates for its strategies in Australia, the manager is also slowly building its home-grown international equity capability.
The Bridgewater funds represent the major share of BAM’s funds under administration – at $1.89 billion for the Pure Alpha fund and $2.29 billion for the All Weather fund – but the Melbourne-based investment team also manages $180 million in “self-managed” global equities and $188 million in Australian equities.
Chief executive officer, Ned Bell, said the firm plans to grow its locally managed funds under management to $500 million over the next two years.
Bell already manages some funds for a US Taft Hartley fund, and has just appointed a third-party marketer in the US, with a view to boosting the reach there.
“That’s something we were looking at for a while,” Bell said.
The six-member Melbourne-based global equity team is unusual in that it manages both Australian equities and global equities but Bell says that that is a function of their sector approach.
“[Senior equity analyst Nicole Mardell will] looks at Tesco in the UK, it makes sense for her to look at Woolworths here,” Bell said. “It’s actually a big advantage.”
The investment team has a 10-year history, and a track record averaging 4.14 per cent per annum return over the past 10 years, compared to a benchmark return of 1.55 per cent, in its all-cap fund. The global small-cap capability returned 9.54 per cent per annum over the same time frame, compared to a benchmark return of 5.69 per cent.
“We’ve done well in large caps but we’ve done better in small caps,” Bell said.
Discrete global mandates in their global small cap capability are now available and Bell was hopeful of the firm’s first client being signed up soon for that strategy.
BAM is the responsible entity for the Australian-domiciled Bridgewater funds, which have grown from zero in 2004 when the relationship began, to a combined total of $4.18 billion under administration today. Bridgewater had been launched in Australia and represented in the 1990s by Tony Tuohey and Sheridan Lee.
The Pure Alpha fund closed to new investors in 2005. The All Weather fund has had a solid increase in funds under administration over the past 15 months, growing 30 per cent from $1.76 billion in December 2011 to the $2.29 billion cited above.
