WHTM eyes wholesale market

WHTM Asset Managementis opening its funds up to the wholesale market and has set a target of $3 billion dollars in funds under management in three years.

WHTM business development director Alan Beasley says: “We started out in the retail sector, but if you’ve got a good investment infrastructure it’s a waste not to go into wholesale. The genesis was retail but the natural evolution is to look at the wholesale business.”

Beasley says the group will essentially be reproducing the retail product for the different target market.

“The product will be the same for the wholesale market, just in a different package. We’re trying to ensure there is virtually no difference between the products, as differences between the retail and wholesale markets are reducing all the time anyway.”

Beasley says inflows into the wholesale product are already starting to increase off the back of interest in the product, which is charging a management expense ratio (MER) of around one per cent.

“The structure and process we have now, and the investment process we’re adopting, we think will be fine for the next two to three years,” Beasley says.

WHTM, which originally began trading as Wilson Asset Management, has already been listed on the Asgard investment platform but has also recently been added to a number of other platforms, including Navigator.

The group claims that as one of a few experienced, boutique, growth oriented managers in the wholesale sector, they are well positioned for success.

Samway notes that “at the moment, there’s not much in the way of boutique managers on the wholesale side, and very few growth managers”, while Beasley says “we believe, as does Stephen van Eyk, that we’re on the verge of a growth cycle”.

The group, which is yet to be rated by any of the research houses, recently completed a one week road show canvassing potential clients and intermediaries in both the retail and wholesale markets.