BT to join hedge fund scene

TheBT group is expected to join the growing list of major funds management groups in Australia to push headlong into the burgeoning hedge fund scene with the launch of a global fund-of-hedge-funds targeted at retail investors.

BT is in the final stages of formalising an alliance with a European hedge fund manager that will see it add the multi-manager hedge fund to the list of products it offers to advisers.

It is expected that BT will re-package for the Australian market one of the suite of funds already offered by the European group.

BT’s move to link up with the European manager comes after an extensive world wide search for a suitable hedge fund partner.

The move also puts BT on par with the swathe of fund managers in Australia who have already launched global fund-of-hedge funds.

Last year, Rothschild Australia Asset Management teamed up with the US based Grosvenor Capital Management to launch its global hedge-fund-of-funds, the Global Return Fund, while Colonial First State signed up Switzerland’s Harcourt Investment Consulting to launch a similar product, the Diversified Strategies Fund.

Deutsche Asset Management and AXA also launched multi-manager global hedge funds in Australia last year, although both groups relied on specialist in-house alternative investment units rather than teaming up with external groups.

It is expected the BT fund will be made available directly to retail investors as well as through BT’s wrap service.