The latest news on investment offers, financial products and other services relevant to wealth advisors and their clients.
Black Rock
Investment giant BlackRock has launched the BlackRock Global Small Companies Fund.
The fund, which is available to UK investors, aims to capitalise on the high alpha potential in the small and medium-sized enterprise sector, a market area that has historically outperformed larger companies over the long term, the company said in a statement.
Global small caps are currently trading at a 26% discount to their larger caps (and even more so in the UK), near all-time highs, compared with a typical premium of around 10% for the sector.
The fund is co-managed by Matt Betts and Dan Whitestone from BlackRock’s emerging companies team, who have a combined experience of over 50 years in small business research. The team has a long track record of investing across a wide range of market capitalisations, both in the UK and overseas.
“As an active manager, we believe small-cap stocks represent the most attractive investments because these companies tend to operate in less efficient and less researched parts of the market, which has the potential to benefit our clients over the long term,” Whitestone said.
“We believe that small-cap funds can offer superior long-term investments given the current attractive valuation opportunities and historically superior performance relative to large-cap stocks. Within this large investment universe, the companies we invest in feature strong management teams, defensive market positions, differentiated or competitive product offerings, and are supported by structural growth drivers,” Betts added.
The MSCI World Small Cap Index is representative of the Fund’s investment target and should be used by Unitholders to compare the Fund’s performance.
Prekin
Preqin, the alternative asset data, tools and insights specialist, has launched Term Intelligence, providing a large, searchable database of limited partnership agreement (LPA) terms globally, enabling enhanced private fund negotiations.
“Access to this database provides alternative fund managers, investors and legal advisors with greater clarity when considering and benchmarking LPA terms. Ultimately, Term Intelligence enables them to see whether terms are competitive within the market and whether these terms, as well as fees and expenses, are in line with market standards to support LPA negotiations,” the company said in a statement.
Preqin introduced Term Intelligence to reduce the complexities faced by industry professionals when drafting and negotiating LPA terms. The company further stated that investment professionals on both sides of the investment find the process of investing in funds, including legal due diligence and negotiations, to be too complicated and time-consuming.
Preqin said it believes that Term Intelligence allows investors to conduct thorough pre-investment due diligence on fund terms and understand the “objective criteria” that constitute market rates. Meanwhile, fund managers can compare their LPA terms with a range of funds, helping them craft competitive, data-backed fund terms to secure capital for fundraising. Finally, law firms can provide data-driven guidance to their investor and fund manager clients to expedite LPA negotiations, the company added.
