Bennelong Funds Management has signed an agreement with US-based equity manager Security Global Investors (SGI) for the distribution of a global equities fund to investors in Australia and New Zealand.
Bennelong will initially distribute SGI's global long-only equity fund, but more funds are likely to be added over the next few months.
SGI manages more than $20 billion in fixed income, US equity and global equity portfolios for mutual funds, institutional clients, corporate and public pension funds and charitable foundations.
The company's global equity team is based in San Francisco and consists of 13 staff led by senior investment managers John Boich, David Whittall, Scott Klimo and Mark Kress.
Bennelong's primary strategy so far has been to incubate boutique fund managers. It holds equity stakes in three other boutiques.
But Bennelong chief executive Jarrod Brown said a similar approach was not possible in this case.
"It's a distribution model, because in this asset class you couldn't incubate a team of such quality quickly," Brown said.
"It would take a considerable period of time to find the talent, bring them together, build a team, develop a culture, let alone illustrate investment capability where you can tap into a partnership like this."
Brown joined Bennelong 18 months ago and initially aimed to develop five non-correlated investment strategies in five years.
But the partnership agreement with SGI is already the fourth strategy he has added to the company since his instalment in the top seat.
"As we started to get some traction and visibility the calls we received increased," he said. "But we are not in a rush. It's critical that we execute well in our first boutiques."
