Ventura on the menu

VenturaInvestment Management, the new funds management arm of dealer group Professional Investment Services (PIS), has received its first stamp of approval with news that one of Australia’s largest master trusts, Navigator, will add the fledgling group to its menu of investment managers.

The Norwich Union owned Navigator is expected to add Ventura to its preferred list of managers in the next scheduled upgrade of its investment menu, exposing the new entity to the 75,000 individual investors and more than 3,000 investment advisers who use the master trust.

The news comes just six weeks after PIS, arguably Australia’s largest independently owned dealer group, struck a deal with the Frank Russell Company to develop the new funds management arm.

Under the deal, Frank Russell, a specialist multi-manager investment group, will distribute its series of sector specific and diversified multi-manager funds through Ventura.

The adoption of Ventura by Navigator means the fund manager now has a presence on two master trusts, with Ventura having been previously added to the manager line-up of PIS’s wholly owned master trust, Mentor Investment Services.

PIS is also in the process of marketing the funds offered by Ventura directly to other independent dealer groups and advisers.

PIS is offering the dealer groups and advisers equity participation in Ventura if they support the funds.