Mayibentsha Fund of Funds wins HedgeNews Africa Award

The Mayibentsha Focused Fund of Hedge Funds won the Long-Term Performance - Fund of Funds category with a 12.63% annualised return on a Sharpe of 1.74. The annual awards, based on data compiled by HedgeNews Africa, recognise the best risk-adjusted returns of alternative investment funds in South Africa and in Africa.

South African hedge fund managers outperformed their global peers by some margin in 2011, gaining 8.79% against a decline of 1.9% in the HedgeFund Intelligence Global Composite. Hedge funds also fared better than the general market, with the JSE's All Share Index gaining just 2.57% during the year on a total return basis. The Mayibentsha Focused Fund of Funds returned a net +10.6% for 2011.

Fund targets institutional and retail markets

The Mayibentsha Focused Fund of Funds is part of a suite of funds of hedge funds portfolios that target different CPI+ objectives across the risk/return spectrum. It was launched in December 2008 and targets both the institutional as well as retail market and currently has R490 million in assets under management. The investment philosophy followed for the Focused Fund is to invest in a concentrated portfolio of uncorrelated local hedge funds. The Focused Fund targets CPI+ 4.5% a year, with volatility of returns lower than that of the FTSE/JSE All Share index.

Novare Investments has been managing funds of hedge funds since April 2003 and currently manages R4.8 billion across different funds of hedge funds and multi-manager products. Funds of hedge funds are well suited to pension funds looking to take up an investment in alternatives, especially following recent regulatory developments that clarified the extent to which pension funds may invest in hedge funds.