AI Hedge Awards 2017
Acquisition International - Hedge Fund Awards 2017 39 Pluscios Catalyst Fund Best Distressed Securities / Event Driven FoF (10 Years): Pluscios Catalyst Fund Pluscios Catalyst Fund Pluscios Management LLC is an alternative asset solutions provider that creates customized solutions to access the hedge fund market. We invited Kelly Chesney to tell us more about the firm and the investment opportunities it provides to its institutional clients. Company: Pluscios Management LLC Name: Kelly Chesney Email:
[email protected] Web: www.pluscios.com Address:1603 Orrington Ave. Suite 750, Evanston, Il 60201 Phone: 224-420-7044 HF170081 Pluscios is a boutique firm focusing on hedge fund investments that was launched in 2006 by two veterans of JPMorgan. The firm’s co-founders draw on their deep capital markets backgrounds and over 20 years of hedge fund investing experience to assist individuals and institutions in building investment portfolios with attractive risk/return profiles. These expert services are provided to a range of institutional clients including pensions, foundations and endowments. Kelly discusses how the firm supports these clients by offering them solutions which meet their needs. “From the very beginning we knew that hedge funds were only one part of most portfolios, and that the rest of the portfolio is probably in place before we get involved. As such we have always believed in providing tailored hedge fund solutions to investors. To achieve this, we offer co-mingled products, single investor products, and advisory services that range from total completion strategies to ala carte services like manager due diligence. We are well known and well connected in the industry and have access to the best and brightest minds in our underlying managers; but we also attend industry, fund, and client focused events in order to keep our finger on the pulse of what is happening. “This tailored approach is a central part of our mission: to be a good partner to our clients, underlying funds, and employees while providing the best possible hedge fund investment services.” Operating within such a competitive market, differentiation is of vital importance, and as such Pluscios works hard to set itself apart by providing innovative services that cannot be found elsewhere, as Kelly outlines. “We feel that we differentiate ourselves from our competitors by combining the best qualities of a boutique, customer-focused organization with institutional expertise and process. We focus on risk adjusted performance, not gathering assets. This is achieved by consistently applying an active, forward looking investment process using portfolio construction to move the portfolio towards opportunities or away from threats. We also use smaller, emerging and focused managers to diversify across investments the biggest hedge funds do not look to and to access talent that thinks and trades in a unique way.” Looking ahead, Kelly is optimistic for an exciting future for both her firm and the wider investment industry. “Overall, we have always believed strongly in including emerging and diverse managers in our portfolios, it makes solid investment sense. Unfortunately, in the current environment it is even more difficult for those types of managers to attract institutional investors. We always check for diverse managers when adding exposure to our funds but this is one instance where our size does not allow us to have a huge impact. “As such we currently have two initiatives we are working on in this regard: the first is a direct hedge fund that we have partnered with an emerging/ diverse manager to start. Pluscios provides the infrastructure/operational backbone as the GP and the manager is the sole sub advisor. The hope is that by building a track record and relationships with investors, the subadvisor can one day take over the fund and continue to build a business. In the meantime, we benefit from the returns generated by this outstanding sub advisor. Within the wider investment market, we see institutional investors struggling to incorporate diverse hedge funds into their portfolios so we have been tracking a group of diverse managers for over 4 years now that represent a solid sustainable portfolio and we are actively looking for an institutional investor to seed a fund. We believe that a co-mingled fund further reduces risk to the ultimate investors and can provide more scale to both the managers and the investors.”
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