Barclays Capital will launch its third fund in Australia, a global macro-style hedge fund, sometime this year.
The London-based firm has already gathered about $60 million for two funds, a long-short commodities fund and a global stock fund.
Barclays’ strategy is to cultivate asset consultants for a couple of years so that its funds will be recommended to superannuation funds.
The company is also giving advice on tactical asset allocation, seeking to supplant some of the work that traditionally has been done by consultants. Barclays is aggressively selling its hedge fund products.
“As asset class return dispersions have increased, dynamic asset allocation has a greater role to play,” says Christopher Faddy, a Barclays Capital director.
Australian investors have embraced some hedge funds, BlackRock, GAM, Winton and GMO, but Australia’s superannuation funds as a whole are less open about investing in hedge funds than US pension funds and Swiss private banks, says Caroline Saunders, a Barclays Capital director.
“It’s unusual if asset allocation for a hedge fund is more than 10 per cent in Australia,” says Saunders.
