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EQT chosen for Paradice’s new emerging markets fund
Paradice Investment Management is looking to recruit a team to invest in small and mid-cap stocks in emerging markets, following the success of its global small-cap fund run out of Denver in the US.
The firm, which has used Equity Trustees as its responsible entity (RE) for the global fund, is expanding the service provider’s brief ahead of the emerging markets portfolio management team being put in place.
Paradice’s original Australian small-caps fund remains closed to new investors to protect the existing holders’ returns. The global fund was also soft-closed late last year, at about $2.5 billion.
The new fund will enable smaller investors to access emerging markets with an actively managed small-cap tilt, which has traditionally been difficult except through ETFs and other index funds. Emerging markets managers, like small-cap managers, are always concerned about their capacity.
Paradice founder, David Paradice, moved to Denver to launch the global fund in 2010. He subsequently opened a sales office in San Francisco.
While declining to speak about individual clients, Harvey Kalman, Equity Trustees executive manager of corporate trustee services, said there had been a strong growth in institutional managers appointing REs and launching unit trusts so they can broaden their investor reach outside the traditional institutional mandate market.
As announced last week, Cooper Investors has also appointed Equity Trustees as an RE so it can go down this path with its two global equities funds. The funds will now be available to retail investors via platforms.
In a statement last week, Peter Cooper, the firm’s founder, said the move was in response to strong interest in the global funds from high-net-worth investors and advisors. The firm also announced it had appointed Andrew Hall from K2 Asset Management as head of retail distribution.
