Focus bows out of boutique business

Focus Investment Managementfounder Stephen O’Brien has confirmed the boutique funds management house will cease business after only 18 months in operation.

The group was set up in March last year by O’Brien and business partners Jim Reid, Stephen Thompson and Paul Khoury. Reid and Thompson were both previously with Equitilink, as fund manager director and equities director respectively, while Khoury was previously associate director atHopkins Partners Funds Management. Prior to starting the group, O’Brien was business development director atSchroders.

According to the group, the reason for its closure is due to industry concerns over the size of the manager’s team as well as possible issue with the capital backing of the group.

It states in a press release that while Focus did have some success since launching, it was unlikely that funds under management going ahead would be sufficient to keep the business open.

Focus offered two types of investment products the Focus 20 and Focus 40 funds which had stock holdings at a maximum of 20 and 40 per cent with estimated performance of three to five per cent over benchmark.

In actual fact the funds returned in excess of five per cent with the Focus 20 returning 5.55 per cent and the Focus 40 returning 5.13 per cent from June 1 last year to May 31 this year.

The stock selection was based on active selection from the S&P/ASX 200 which created the buy list for the two funds.