Eva Riou

The boutique model is very much part of the Australian business culture. Eva Riou, Manager of Business Strategy at Treasury, told Opalesque that, to them, a "boutique" is a fund management company specialised in a strategy and a style, where the partners, who usually are also the senior investment team members, have equity in the business - the equity being a majority part or a large minority.

"We make sure that there is an alignment of interest between the investment team and the clients," she added.

Treasury can assist managers with spinning off from a parent company or starting from scratch, with business development, liquidity needs, re-alignment of equity ownership, management issues. Its income comes from minority equity stakes in exchange for working capital and seed money or for services; or from revenue share for capital.

"It is the model that makes sense here but also everywhere else in the world because the trends are the same," Riou noted. "This is the reason why we are growing more and more internationally. There is still a lot to be done with talented people all over the world."

Treasury currently has stakes in ten boutiques, covering anything from 20% to 47.5%: four international fund managers, three Australian fund managers, and three alternative fund managers.

It was in September 2009 that Treasury invested in its first hedge fund, when it bought a 30% stake in Melbourne-based ......................

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This article was published in Opalesque's New Managers a top-down monthly analysis, news and research publication on the global emerging manager space.