Fund manager Jun Bei Liu has announced plans to establish her own firm while migrating the $1.5 billion Tribeca Alpha Plus Fund, which will continue to be managed under her guidance with the same strategy.
Speaking to InvestorDaily, portfolio manager Liu said she “pretty much grew up” at Tribeca and felt it was time to pursue her own venture.
Liu began her career at the firm as an analyst in 2005, covering sectors such as healthcare, retail, and media, before becoming co-portfolio manager of the Tribeca Alpha Plus Fund in 2016, and taking full control of the fund in 2019.
“I’ve been running the fund for five and a half years, we got the fund performance to top of the Australian fund manager ranks, and we’ve grown from $300 million to $1.5 billion. It just feels like the right time for me to go out and step out into my own business – with the blessing of Tribeca, which I’m excited about – and the support of my largest clients,” she told InvestorDaily.
Liu confirmed she has the support of Tribeca’s managing director David Aylward, who will join the advisory board of her new firm in early 2025.
“I like to draw upon his decades-long experience in the finance market, both here in Australia and globally, so I’m very much looking forward to that,” she said.
Liu will lead the new firm with a team of “smart and experienced” investment analysts, although a name change for the Tribeca Alpha Plus Fund is anticipated.
A new business partner is also set to come on board, she said, but noted that further details will come next month ahead of the firm’s formal launch mid-January.
Liu noted that her decision coincides with a pivotal moment in the asset management industry.
Morningstar research earlier this year revealed that Australian asset managers are facing challenges, including net outflows, increasing ETF popularity, and fee pressures that are contributing to a decline in their ranks.
A number of funds have closed shop in recent months, including small caps manager NovaPort Capital in May, ethical fund manager Ethical Partners in July, and specialist income manager Wheelhouse Investment Partners in September.
Others have been forced to merge, particularly those of a smaller scale.
However, Liu remains unfazed. She is convinced space will remain for active managers who are able to deliver on their investment promises.
“We’ve always believed, if you’re a good performer, if you’re a good active manager, there will always be good support. We have found in the last five and a half years we’ve been getting inflows from both institutional and retail, and wholesale support. If anything, we found we receive a lot of inbound flows from any number of clients, even internationally,” she said.
“So I truly believe, if we can deliver the performance as we’ve promised, consistently, the market may change but we will continue to take active market share.”
With Australian and global markets increasingly embracing passive strategies, Liu sees this as a “fantastic opportunity” for the remaining active managers to step up and capture market share.
“Personally, my job is to deliver the performance that I’ve promised clients and that’s my end of the bargain.
“So, if an active manager couldn’t deliver active performance, then that’s really hard to justify. Also, when you can’t deliver on performance, there will be fee pressure,” she said.
Liu added: “I want to build the best team that’s dedicated and very specialised for what I do and get the best people to do their best. That’s why I’m really excited for this venture.”
The Tribeca Alpha Plus Fund aims to achieve long-term outperformance against the S&P/ASX 200 Accumulation Index by investing in both long and short positions in listed Australian equities, employing a blend of quantitative and fundamental investment strategies.
The fund has delivered a 28 per cent return over the 12 months leading to September, exceeding the benchmark's return of 21 per cent. Since its inception, it has returned 11.32 per cent, compared to the benchmark’s return of 7.17 per cent.
Reflecting on its strong track record, Liu said the fund’s long-short strategy has played a significant role in allowing her to be nimble to opportunities.
“I love investing and the good thing is, because the fund is a long-short fund, I can hedge off a lot of risks that other people aren’t able to do, so I can hedge off inflation risk, China risk, interest rate risk, and at the same time, I can jump at every opportunity, be very agile, to be able to deliver returns,” Liu told InvestorDaily.
“Our ability to be agile and be pragmatic in managing hedging of our downside risks really helped us to deliver a very consistent return.”
