Russell launches OpenWorld® specialist fund range
New single manager fund range designed in response to evolving investor needs
SEPTEMBER 8, 2009 –Russell Investments today announced the launch of its new OpenWorld® fund range which will for the first time give wholesale investors in Australian access to some of Russell’s most innovative boutique fund managers on a single manager basis.
Russell OpenWorld has been designed in response to evolving needs of investors and is the next evolution of Russell’s traditional multi-manager approach to investing. Globally the new range offers investment professionals - whether portfolio managers, advisors and consultants, or institutional investors - access to some of Russell’s highest conviction managers, offered through a single manager platform. The funds include a wide range of strategies including frontier emerging markets, commodities, infrastructure and micro cap, with managers usually appointed on a performance fee basis.
In Australia, access to Russell OpenWorld will initially be available to large institutional investors such as public sector and industry superannuation funds.
Russell OpenWorld specifically targets niche boutique managers who are often unavailable or unknown to a wide investor base. By leveraging Russell’s global research operation, these managers can be accessed by a wider audience. Russell actively manages the managers on the platform, providing investors with the necessary governance and control required to invest in managers operating in specialist, thematic areas. The widespread use of performance fees on the Russell OpenWorld platform provides clear alignment with client’s interests. It also enhances Russell’s ability to secure access to exciting managers early, and is an innovation in the third party distribution business.
Speaking at Russell’s annual client investment summit last week, the Chair of Russell’s Asia-Pacific business Mr Alan Schoenheimer said investors increasingly wished to reflect macro-economic trends in their investment programs. In addition, large super funds in particular were continually searching for well-managed, innovative high alpha funds to slot into their established ‘core and explore’ portfolio model.
“Being able to take advantage of themes such as climate change, the ascendance of frontier emerging markets, and the demand for commodities is becoming more and more important to investors. However, investors often face challenges accessing these types of product. The real specialists in these areas tend to be small, highly focused firms, with limited capacity or little international presence,” Mr Schoenheimer said.
“Russell’s long institutional heritage gives us a first mover advantage in identifying new talent as it comes to market. We are embedded in the fund management community; our long term investment outlook is well known and our research relationships with individual managers often span many years. This makes us an attractive client to new firms looking to seed innovative investment strategies, or build an investor base early in their development.”
Russell has a long history of investing in emerging boutique managers with boutiques making up more than half of the managers hired in Russell’s global multimanager fund range over the past three years.
“Our research shows that these managers can offer a substantial return premium. Delivering these manager research ideas through the Russell OpenWorld platform on a single manager basis allows our clients complete flexibility to customise their investment programs, slotting Russell OpenWorld strategies into portfolios of more traditional investments, whether held with Russell or elsewhere,” said Ian Barnes, head of Russell OpenWorld.
Russell OpenWorld funds will be available via a Dublin-domiciled UCITS platform. Product development will be highly dynamic and compelling new ideas will be made available efficiently and quickly.
In May Russell announced the creation of five new global service lines: Consulting and Advisory Services, DB/DC Outsourcing, OpenWorld®, Retail, and Russell Investment Services (RIS). The new service lines have been designed to complement existing global offerings including multi-manager, Pantheon (private equity) and the Russell Indexes. The global service lines work with the regional business units, leveraging the firm’s global resources and enhancing Russell’s ability to deliver innovative intellectual capital and investment products and services to any client, anywhere in the world.
More information on Russell OpenWorld® can be found at www.russellopenworld.com
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