Industry veteran Chris Cuffe is looking for funds for his Third Link Growth Fund which directs investors’ fees to Australia’s non-profit sector.
The multi-manager public investment fund is now $38 million in size, “somewhat disappointing and considerably short of (the) target of $150 million”, Cuffe said, “but hardly surprising given the unfortunate timing of the launch in May 2008”.
Instead of investors’ fees being paid to the usual recipients, those fees – met of expenses incurred – are donated to Social Ventures Australia which is currently receiving from $40,000 to $50,000 a month in donations from the Third Link Growth Fund.
Cuffe, former golden boy of Colonial First State and Challenger, said the fund had outperformed the Morningstar multi-sector growth-market index by 5.5 per cent net of fees per annum, and had also outperformed cash.
“The first figure is good for the fund managers,” he said, “and the second one, for cash, is comfort for investors – and this is the most satisfying for me.”
Since the fund launched, more than $700,000 has been contributed to the non-profit sector through Social Ventures Australia.
When the fund began in early 2008, Cuffe said the allocation was up to 60 per cent growth in Australian and overseas equities.
After May last year, he began to increase that exposure to 85 per cent growth in equities, with the remaining allocations going to property and cash.
The minimum investment size is $20,000, with the largest investor holding about $3 million in the fund.
