Ophir Asset Management has listed $440 million high conviction fund, the Ophir High Conviction Fund (OPH), on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) as listed investment fund (LIT).
It would be the second largest small/mid cap listed investment vehicle available on the ASX and it generated 20.2 per cent per annum after fees since its inception in 2015.
Ophir’s co-founder and senior portfolio manager, Andrew Mitchell, said that Ophir’s unitholders supported the conversion of the high conviction fund to a LIT and the fund was looking forward to welcoming new investors.
“We strongly believe closed-ended investment funds can provide a material performance advantage over the full length of a market cycle and we’re encouraged that our existing unitholders have agreed with this view,” he said.
“At Ophir, we have always focused on ensuring we have the best possible investment structure in place to deliver strong long-term performance. We have done this previously by restricting the amount of capital we manage in each of our investment funds and by personally co-investing alongside our unitholders.
Ophir currently manages two investment strategies in the small and mid-cap equities space, the Ophir Opportunities Fund and the Ophir High Conviction Fund. However, due to capacity constraints, both funds had previously been closed to any additional investment, the firm said.
Ophir’s investment director, Rob Saunders, explained that the listed structure would allow new and existing investors to again purchase units in the fund.
Additionally, the ASX listing would provide an ability for retail investors to directly access the fund, the first time either Ophir Fund has been directly available to the retail market.
The Ophir High Conviction Fund provided investors with a concentrated portfolio of 15-30 high quality companies listed outside the S&P/ASX 50.
