Roundtable: Capacity: Why smaller institutions should rejoice when larger ones exit alternativesSign up here for our free Roundtable Scripts - get this unique intelligence by email as Opalesque publishes them: Miami has become a destination for the entire world Citizens of every country are looking to reside and work there, it is no longer about just one or a couple of markets that are looking at Miami. Over the recent years, Miami has developed a functioning ecosystem that supports all professional and lifestyle needs of people and businesses. The Miami Downtown Development Agency (Miami DDA) has been instrumental in helping many financial services firms migrate to downtown Miami to either relocate or set up a regional office. These firms range from very large multinational organizations to smaller, more boutique alternative investment managers and consultants which are represented on this Roundtable. Even Chinese investors and developers are getting active, ahead of the implementation of direct flights. Many firms come to Miami to have the best possible access to Latin America, but an increasing number have also come because they “can," and technology allows them that benefit, and the right to live where they want to live. For example, Atyant Capital, an India focused hedge fund, has raised about 90% of their AUM since coming to Miami, and 100% of those new assets have come from university endowments and institutional investors. Apollo Aviation Group, who runs a liquid hedge fund strategy from Miami, found that office space prices are a fraction of what they were looking at in Connecticut, with high quality living accommodations all within walking distance of an office. The firm also found it to be very easy to recruit talent, which was an initial concern. Graham Walsh, CEO and founder of $1.2 bn hedge fund Prologue Capital, points out that it hasn’t been his experience that talented managers are coming here to kind of semi-retire. Rather, in order to be successful in the long run, people decide to add fundamental quality to their lifestyles so that they stay healthy and do not burn out. Traditional investments likely to disappoint, investors advised to include more alternative investments The consensus view at this Roundtable is that we are in an environment where traditional investments are highly unattractive. Courtesy of global central banks, fixed income markets are in bubble territory, and companies spent their cash flow on equity buybacks and dividends rather than investing in their core business. History shows that if you buy a classic domestic 60/40 equity/bond portfolio at today’s valuations and yields, the odds of making more than a low single-digit return over the next ten years are fairly slim, and the downside risks are substantial. Generally, a pension plan in the US requires a return between 7% and 8.5% a year, so this is not an attractive proposition. There will be opportunities in select global markets, but they will require timing skills and a most importantly stamina. The next ten years could well belong to alternatives. Because of regulations and structural changes in the industry, investors now have access to a myriad of new opportunities that were simply not accessible before the crisis. Substantial inflows will be coming from investors who are increasingly desperate to hit their required return target, be that a pension fund or a private investor. So we do think this is a great environment for alternatives, but not necessarily for all alternative strategies. Capacity: Why smaller institutions should rejoice when larger ones exit alternatives When you see a number of large US pensions moving away from hedge funds blaming high fees, or because a too small allocation to alternatives will not move the needle for them, the typical Board of Trustees of a smaller institution will not fight them, thinking that the large plans are “the real guys”. However over the long-term, it is the beneficiaries who will suffer. As the most attractive alternative investments will always come with certain capacity limitations, what most smaller investors miss to realize is that they actually do have an advantage over larger institutions. Size is not an advantage in this environment. Some people use the metaphor of a “house” of opportunities in this respect: If you are too big, you just cannot get in.
The Opalesque 2016 Miami Roundtable took place in November 2015 at the Downtown Development Agency in Miami with:
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