Mason Stevens launches first global managed account

Boutique investment manager Mason Stevens has announced the launch of what the company believes is the first global stock portfolio structured as a managed account.

Mason Stevens Global Concentrated Portfolio will be managed by Caledonia (Private) Investments, according to the managing director Thomas Bignill.

Mason Stevens will hold and administer the individual stocks via its managed account service, giving investors direct international equities ownership.

Bignill said the launch of global equity managed accounts was previously thought to be impossible, and admitted the company was forced to overcome numerous challenges.

“One of the biggest challenges is execution – you are breaking it up down to the individual parcels for individual clients,” Bignill said.

“The second challenge is currency – you’re doing an enormous amount of foreign exchange in between different currencies,” he added.

Bignill said that Mason Stevens’ product contained global portfolios across eight different stock exchanges in six different currencies, trading in the United States, United Kingdom, Italian and Hong Kong markets, among others.

However, he said currency reconciliation would only happen between Mason Stevens and Caledonia.

Caledonia uses thematic investment strategy, investing in global companies that are associated with chosen themes.

Bignill said that financial planners in the company’s advice distribution network had indicated they would support the product.

“Global equities are part of every asset allocation or most allocations when you see a financial planner, so we think this could grow substantially over the next 12 months,” Bignill added.