Thursday, October 20, 2011

NZARA update...October 2011

Hi. Welcome back to the NZARA Blog. The core NZARA group continues to operate in what is a very challenging environment for investment managers - both from a market environmental perspective, and also from a regulatory perspective. New Zealand managers are coping well in context, albeit with year-to-date performance that is slightly negative (see chart above -3.57% YTD). With global equities down almost 14% YTD at the end of September, it appears that there remains significant diversification benefits from being exposed to New Zealand managers in a portfolio. The HFRX Global Hedge index is down over 8% YTD which shows that not only are New Zealand managers an appropriate diversifier for a standard portfolio - but also for an hedge fund portfolio. The index is still annualizing at above 12% over its 4 year history - through one of the worst episodes in financial market history. The association continues to experience steady membership growth with several innovative investment strategies making their way onto the NZARA roster over the last 12 months. As usual, the NZARA members will meet in December in Auckland for an end-of-year function - this year on Auckland's beautiful harbour. This will be a time to catch up with each other as well as to introduce the managers to a range of important local investors. Please feel free to make contact if you wish to have more information on the NZ alternatives industry and/or its constituent managers.