Brett Rock, a six-year veteran of 2010’s top performing Australian equity manager, Orbis Australia, will leave to establish a “true contrarian” boutique.

Rock, who after six years as an analyst at Orbis is serving out his last two weeks, said he wanted to start an Australian small caps boutique which had the ability to retreat to 100 per cent cash.

He said the boutique, for which he is currently seeking a seed investor as well as a responsible entity, would be marketed toward high net worth individuals.

He leaves behind an enviable track redcord at Orbis, which was the top performer on the Mercer Australian Equity Manager Performance Survey for calendar 2010. Its style of picking ‘underappreciated’ stocks from across the ASX300, such as biotechs, outperformed as postitive sentiment permeated the local market.

Rock stressed that his departure from Orbis was amicable, and noted that a part-time analyst had already been moved to full-time to help fulfil his responsibilities longer term.

Orbis Australia is 50 per cent owned by Orbis Group of South Africa and 50 per cent by chief investment officer, Simon Marais. It is understood Marais is close to extending the opportunity for equity ownership to staff.