Speaking to InvestorDaily’s sister brand Money Management, chief executive Damien McIntyre said the funds would be available to Australian retail and wholesale investors as the firm takes advantage of the burgeoning demand for private markets.
One will be an income fund and the other will target growth with a minimum investment of $25,000.
The fund will be a feeder fund into two existing North American private markets funds – CI Private Markets Growth and CI Private Markets Income – run by CI Global Asset Management (CI GAM). These have been running for two years with commitments of around CA$2 billion since launch.
CI GAM has around CA$500 billion ($560 billion) in assets under management across Canada and the US, and its parent company, CI Financial, purchased a stake in GSFM in 2016. McIntyre flagged the large scale of CI Global meant GSFM should be able to offer the fund at an attractive fee.
With CI GAM visiting Australia last week, the firm took the opportunity to meet with financial advisers, research houses and institutional investors to assess domestic demand, which it said was “overwhelmingly positive”.
“We have been looking at it for a while and wanted to assess interest and determined after the meetings there is indeed sufficient interest to take the next step for a launch. The fund has been running for two years, but we wanted to make sure it suited the Australian market.
“It will be a multi-manager fund investing in different asset classes: infrastructure, venture capital, private equity, private credit and real estate. A one-stop solution for private markets which will be really well-diversified across those varying asset classes and will reduce manager concentration.
“It’s being run by a large high-net-worth business in North America for those sophisticated investors, so the product has been curated really to meet their needs.”
This isn’t the firm’s first foray into private markets as it already partners with Tanarra Private Credit on a private credit fund. The two firms partnered in 2023 to provide retail investors with access to Australian private debt assets and runs the TCP Private Debt Income Fund.
According to research by Natixis Investment Managers, nearly half (48 per cent) of wealth managers in Australia said meeting the client demand for unlisted assets would be a “critical factor” in their growth plans. Local portfolios are relying on a mix of 88 per cent allocated to public assets and 12 per cent to private assets; however, this spread is set to narrow as the focus on private assets intensifies.
