Blackwattle looks to Antipodes for global equity launch
Blackwattle has appointed former Antipodes founding partner and portfolio manager, Sunny Bangia, to launch a new global equity fund.
Bangia is one of four investment professionals joining Blackwattle who have previously worked at Antipodes as the firm moves into the global equities market.
He spent eight years at global and emerging market equities fund manager Antipodes until June 2023. Before becoming a portfolio manager, he first served as a senior investment analyst at Antipodes from 2015 to 2017, covering industrials, commodities and emerging markets.
Prior to this, he was an investment analyst at Platinum Asset Management, focusing on Asian equities.
As well as Bangia, Blackwattle will be joined by senior analysts Edward Li and Nicholas Tan, and analyst Isaac Boorer, all of whom used to work at Antipodes.
The new hires will launch Blackwattle’s Global Quality fund – its first global equities strategy – and will have a focus on quality and high conviction design. This will invest in 20–35 high quality opportunities and aim to deliver 8–12 per cent annual investment returns over the long term.
Bangia said: “Unlike many traditional funds, which often spread their investments thinly across a wide range of opportunities, our fund focuses on the very best possible companies. Our all-weather approach to quality investing allows us to recognise a company’s persistent edge and durability of earnings, allowing us to be dynamic and flexible.”
Blackwattle managing director and chief investment officer, Michael Skinner, said: “Given current market opportunities and the performance of incumbent managers, the move into global equities with an outstanding team led by Sunny is the next strategic step for our clients.
“We believe our structured assessment of business quality combined with the team’s extensive global experience will add significant value to our investors and set a new benchmark in the industry.”
This is Blackwattle’s sixth fund, it currently manages Small Cap Quality, Small Cap Long-Short Quality, Mid Cap Quality, Long Short 130/30 Quality and Large Cap Quality.
Blackwattle was launched last year and is currently managing $100 million across five portfolios.
Its fifth fund – the Small Cap Long-Short Quality – was previously managed by Watermark as the Watermark Absolute Return equities and was taken over and rebranded by Blackwattle last October. This saw the fund now focus more on smaller companies and retain higher market exposures through the investment cycle.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
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