Pengana Capital (Pengana) has ramped up its push to attract high net-worth investors to its Asia Special Events Fund, securing fund inflows from a dealer group of $12 million.
Pengana director of distribution Damian Crowley said the dealer group has reserved space for up to $50 million in investment on behalf of clients. He declined to identify the group but said it had about $2 billion under advice.
The fund is basically a hedge fund which looks to exploit mispriced assets in Asia-Pacific markets which have yet to absorb details of acquisitions, corporate restructuring and earnings surprises on the upside or downside. As a result, the influence of the overall direction of financial markets on the fund is scant.
Crowley, who joined Pengana in July from Perpetual, said the fund was scoring some wins, including its inclusion on the Macquarie Wrap platform, a three-star rating from Standard & Poor's and an 'investment grade' rating from Lonsec.
Since its October 2008 inception, the fund has delivered an annualised return of 14.4 per cent.
"Once you've got a three-year track record, that's a critical time to approach research houses and dealer groups," Crowley said.
The fund's commitment from a single dealer group is the first step towards Pengana's targeted $150 million to $160 million in investment from advisers and direct investors in Australia. The range represents about 40 per cent of the fund's total capacity of around $400 million.
The fund stands at $47 million, including the dealer group's $12 million.
To reach its goal, Crowley said Pengana's distribution team would first target advisers who use Macquarie Wrap because they tended to be boutique firms with high net-worth clients with at least $1 million to invest.
"We're looking to get a mix of support from the various distribution channels. That reduces the risk of any one client leaving and impacting the fund. While institutional money and offshore money can be large licks, it can take a while to get but it can go fairly quickly.
"Adviser money and direct [investor] money is a lot stickier so that's why it's good to have a bit of a mix," Crowley said.
