60 Acquisition International - Hedge Fund Awards 2017 Rubrics Asset Management Ltd Best Emerging Markets Fixed Income Fund (1 Year): Rubrics Emerging Markets Fixed Income UCITS Fund (A-USD) & Best Boutique Investment Manager 2017 - UK Rubrics Asset Management Ltd Company: Rubrics Asset Management Limited Name: Marcos Volich Email: Marcos.Volich@ rubricsam.com Web: www.rubricsam.com Address: 23rd Floor, 20 Fen- church St, London, EC3M 3BY Phone: +44 (0) 207 186 9939 HF170042 Sequoia Capital Fund Management LLP Best Quantitative Investment Manager 2017 & Best Short-Term Systematic G10 FX Strategy (5 Years): Sequoia Systematic Fund Sequoia Capital Fund Management LLP Company: Sequoia Name: Douglas Garistina, CEO and CIO Address: Ground Floor Lincoln House, 137-143 Hammersmith Road, London, W14 0QL, UK Phone: +44 (0) 20 3588 4770 Email:
[email protected] Web: www.sequoiacapfm.com HF170067 Rubrics Asset Management is an independent, boutique investment manager, specialising in providing innovative fixed income strategies for institutional and private clients. Steven O’Hanlon provides us with an overview of the services the firm provides in this area and how it aims to offer the very best solutions on the market for its clients. Founded in 2011, Sequoia Capital Fund Management LLP (SCFM) was created as an alternative investment management company specializing in investing via quantitative strategies, which are the result of several years’ research and development of algorithmic trading strategies. Rubrics Asset Management offers a combination of different alpha generating fixed income based products which, when combined, can satisfy any client risk/return requirement. This is achieved by maintaining only two of the three available fixed income risk types (FX, duration, credit) in any one portfolio. Steven explains how the firm meets the ever evolving needs of its client base, which includes asset managers, fund-of-funds, high net worth individuals, charities and endowments. “Through ongoing client interaction and the employment of dedicated business and product development resources, Rubrics have the knowledge and capability to satisfy any our clients’ needs efficiently and effectively. More generally, through ongoing interaction with clients and industry bodies, Rubrics maintain an overarching knowledge of industry change. Our knowledge of the changing regulatory landscape towards offshore funds was a key driver towards reorganising all our products as UCITS which are today seen as highly marketable.” The firm follows a robust investment process which has delivered consistent returns for over 10 years. Within this there is a strong emphasis on risk management which has SCFM pursues a strategic goal to be a trusted provider of highly differentiated, superior risk-adjusted returns to the blue chip institutional investment community. The firm is a research-driven firm focusing its investment process on short-term systematic strategies in highly liquid markets. Its first and current strategy exploits macro signals from interest rates, equities and other factors to identify short-term misalignments between the currencies of the G10. This strategy combines signals from hundreds of independent models using a multivariate factor approach. During the five years since the strategy was first launched, SCFM has made considerable advancements in its models, capabilities and capacity, at the same time growing its AUM to $105m, primarily with institutional assets. As the assets in and revenues from the current strategy grow, SCFM’s wider business plans involve using these additional resources to launch further systematic strategies that it has been developing. The ultimate aim of these plans is to offer its pool of investors a capacity of at least $2B across its suite of strategies. As with the first and current strategy, SCFM helped deliver a lower volatility profile and higher risk adjusted returns than many other long only fixed income funds. This forward thinking approach will help the firm adapt around future challenges, as Steven explains. “Despite the recent Brexit vote, it is our view that London will continue to act as a centre for financial services due to the large skilled labour force along, having a very favourable time zone and the incumbency of the industry. “Should a hard Brexit take place, Rubrics will continue to be based in London though will arrange financial authorisation via Ireland. The domicile of our product range will remain as Ireland.” Looking to the future, Steven emphasises that the company is eager to build upon its current success. “Over recent years Rubrics Asset Management has reorganised its business into a scalable and technologically advanced fixed income asset manager. Moving forward we are keen to use these resources, as well as adding additional investment, risk and client management staff to further enhance our product performance and client servicing.” sees its remit in the alternatives space as delivering uncorrelated systematic strategies focused on the short to medium term. With over 9 years working together, the SCFM team has deep experience in algorithm development and has built an array of proprietary tools for developing, testing and trading strategies. Together with its seamless operations servicing its institutional clients, the firm has a strong foundation for this next leg of growth. Looking forward, the team is very excited about the prospects for the current strategy over the medium to long-term as interest rates finally commence their rise and bonds give up the gains they have made over the past several years. Although the strategy has virtually nil correlation to equities, bonds, hedge funds, CTAs and other FX styles (as highlighted in a research briefing released last year), the strategy does tend to show a weak negative correlation to Treasuries and a few other asset indices during left-tail events in these markets. This leads the team to believe the timing is right to push forward on its growth plans to exploit the opportunities forthcoming in the new terrain.