TOMORR OW’ S TITANS 2023
shipping, aviation and energy sectors. The strategy carries out deep fundamental analysis on sectors and individual companies. Transport includes various types of shipping (dry bulk, container, crude, refined, chemical, LPG, cruise, shipyards and ports), freight, logistics, aircraft makers, airlines, airports, aircraft leasing, aerospace and defence, as well as freight and railroads. Energy includes integrated majors, exploration and production, additionally renewable energy (wind, solar, hydro, hydrogen, carbon capture) and utilities. Example trades include longs in dry bulk carriers and LNG carriers bought below NAV and shorts in a cruise line operator, a freight servicer and an airline. Between May 2019 and April 2023, the fund has more than doubled its return target of 8-10% and had moderate equity market beta, averaging 0.35 to MSCI World. It has also had much smaller drawdowns than seen in the Dow Jones Transportation, Stoxx 600 Energy, Russell 2000 Shipping and US Global Jets sector indices. Clausius was previously a senior fund manager at Helaba Invest. He has an MBA from SDA Bocconi and is a CFA charterholder.
Michael Coleman
CIO, CEO and Founding Partner Taika Capital Miami
Michael Coleman launched Taika Capital’s equity long/short strategy in August 2021, and assets have grown to about $185 million as of July 2023. It follows a “quantamental” (hybrid quantitative and discretionary) strategy that anticipates earnings beats and misses. The strategy uses proprietary quantitative multi-factor models as well as fundamental analysis. The objective is to avoid human behavioural biases while also reducing blind spots in quantitative models. Quant models, covering proprietary measures of earnings momentum, valuation, quality, and profitability, and earnings beats and misses, shortlist long and short candidates. Fundamental analysts perform a discretionary review to highlight the potential for earnings surprises. The strategy is typically invested in US listed mid and large caps and averages a net long bias, with longs being bigger and longer-term positions than shorts. Coleman was previously a portfolio manager and technology analyst at PNC Capital Advisors, LLC, where he belonged to the large-cap equity team that managed over $7 billion, co-managed the PNC Balanced Fund, and several multi-factor equity funds. Prior to that, he worked for mid-cap equity fund, Turner Investment Partner, LLC and traded options at Susquehanna International Group. Coleman has a BSc in Economics from Drexel University and is a CFA charterholder.
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Pontus Dackmo/Carl Gustafsson
CEO and Investment Manager/Investment Manager Protean Funds Stockholm
Protean Funds launched its inaugural fund Protean Select in 2022 and Protean Small Cap in mid-2023. Select runs a low but variable net exposure long/short strategy targeting 10-15% returns with less volatility than equities. Small Cap runs a small cap-focused long-only fund. The investment universe is Nordic equities for both. Protean Funds’ investment process gathers ideas from a range of sources and the managers pride themselves with adding an overlay of proprietary research while being nimble when skewed risk/rewards arise. Generally, the long book invests in core quality, growth tilt, and special situations while the short book contains single stock alpha shorts, covered calls and puts, and market hedges including index futures, options and customised baskets. The managers both have 100% of their net worth invested in the funds, which limit capacity to approximately $200 million and $400 million, respectively, in SEK-terms. Pontus Dackmo previously worked for SEB, Nordea Investment Management, Nordea Equities, Danske Bank and ABG Sundal Collier. Carl Gustafsson previously worked for Didner & Gerge, Danske Bank, and in journalism at Affarsvarlden and Dagens Industri as well as heading IR at Hexagon. Dackmo has a double BA from Umea University and Gustafsson has a MSc from Gothenburg University.
Paul ffolkes Davis
Chairman Rising Sun Management/Nippon Active Value Fund St Kitts and Nevis
Rising Sun Management (led by Dalton Investments’ co-founder and managing partner, James Rosenwald II) launched the LSE-listed Nippon Active Value Fund (ticker: NAVF) in February 2020 after three decades of investing in Japan. The fund harnesses local research in Tokyo from a team of native Japanese speakers at Dalton Advisory KK. The strategy invests in selected Japanese small and mid- caps, which are mainly domestic manufacturers, but also have export revenues benefiting from a weaker Yen. Valuations have historically been below book value and on single digit PEs with some companies having a high proportion of market capitalization in cash, liquid securities or other realizable assets. Rising Sun’s activism unlocks this value by encouraging management to change capital allocation, which can involve one or more of buybacks, dividend increases and stock options
to incentivize management. Some firms have also been taken private through MBOs. NAVF’s own governance boasts impressive board diversity: four of its five UK directors are women. The trust is augmenting its assets by rolling over the abrdn Japan Investment Trust (AJIT) into NAVF and raising its profile by switching its listing to the Main Market of the LSE. Paul ffolkes Davis has previously worked in privatisations at NM Rothschild, been Bursar of Trinity Hall Cambridge University managing its endowment, and founded a specialty property lender, the Cambridge & Counties Bank. He has MAs in Modern History from both Oxford and Cambridge universities.
Dr Anthony Dearden/Dr Jerome Callut
Principal, CIO/Principal, Chief Research Officer DCM Systematic Advisors SA Geneva
Anthony Dearden, Jerome Callut and Gaetan Maraite are principals of DCM Systematic which was founded in December 2014 and launched Diversified Alpha, a systematic, multi-strategy, non- trend CTA, in February 2016. The firm was created upon the belief that continually researching new ideas, learning from markets, and looking beyond traditional trading approaches could lead to successful investment outcomes. The result of this approach is Diversified Alpha, which employs over 20 independent strategies categorised into 3 styles: (i) behavioural (ii) relative value and (iii) macro; with most of the risk typically allocated to non- directional trades. The strategies focus on specific ideas connected to real world observations and are traded using liquid futures markets in equities (and volatility), commodities, fixed income and FX. Risk management is an integral part of the process and combines historical and forward-looking techniques. The firm has grown assets to over $550 million and the strategy can be accessed via a Luxembourg fund, separately managed accounts, and the Galaxy Plus managed account platform. Dearden and Callut previously worked at BlueCrest Capital Management as Senior Researchers working on the BlueTrend CTA strategy. Dearden has a PhD in Robotics from Imperial College London. Callut has a PhD in Machine Learning from UCLouvain in Belgium.
Theron de Ris
Founder and Portfolio Manager Sorengo Partners Ltd Cambridge, UK
Theron de Ris founded Sorengo Partners to manage a directional global equity long/short strategy, which has annualized double digit
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