Challenger Financial Services' boutique fund managers will have grown to almost $7 billion in funds under management (FUM) by the fourth quarter of this year.
The company's newly established boutiques Bentham Asset Management and Merlon Capital Partners will add an additional $2.2 billion in FUM to the company's current $4.5 billion, Challenger chief operating officer and chief financial officer Brian Benari said at the UBS Australian Financial Services Conference yesterday.
Challenger's boutique fund manager business has grown quickly after sharemarkets reached their lowest point in March 2009.
From then on, FUM grew from $1.2 billion to $4.5 billion in just 12 months. The company did not add any new boutique managers during that period.
The largest growth came from Australian equities manager Greencape Capital, which quickly gathered mass after attracting several institutional mandates, including those from industry super funds.
Greencape manages two funds, the Greencape Broadcap Fund and the Greencape High Conviction Fund.
The manager has already closed the Broadcap fund to new institutional mandates and is also only weeks away from closing its High Conviction fund.
The two funds remain open to retail investors.
Challenger's line-up of managers consists of eight, including 5 Oceans, Kinetic, Greencape, Kapstream, Ardea, Wavestone, Merlon and Bentham.
