For Professional Advisers only
HSBC MultiAlpha North America Equity Fund
Fund Information Sheet
What are the advantages of investing in MultiAlpha?
1. Our local research network. To truly discover the best for
our clients, we need to be where the investment talent is to
be found on the ground. This is why our extensive research
network has its foundations in the four corners of the globe
through our local presence around the world. Ultimately this
presence encourages understanding, manager discovery and
informs our monitoring
2. Investment rigour. It is the robustness and integrity of our
research and portfolio management process that drives how
we establish and continuously stress test the construction of
our funds and chosen managers, ensuring that we maintain
a consistency of focus on the achievement of positive risk
adjusted results
3. Transparency and risk management. Our ongoing
research gives our analysts day-to-day familiarity with the
managers we invest in. The use of both qualitative and
quantitative monitoring, both on a formal and informal basis
gives us a multiple lens approach to truly understand our
managers and their portfolios. Our process is designed to
ensure that the managers who are strong enough to be
selected continue to invest in a way that remains consistent
with their expertise
Why buy the HSBC MultiAlpha North America Equity
Fund?
‘Best of breed’ blended management style. Creating
a winning team. The five investment managers provide
the fund with our best ideas in the North American equity
arena. These managers range from growth style to value
style and quantitative basis
Flexible portfolio. The underlying managers have been
blended using risk, return, qualitative and quantitative
criteria in order to smooth out ‘peaks and troughs’ that
can occur in an individual manager approach
Outstanding global presence and local intelligence
in North America. We can provide top level market
intelligence thanks to the location of our
Multimanager regional offices
and specialist teams
Asset allocation and
diversification benefits.
The fund can be used as a
stand-alone fund or as an
actively-managed building
block investing in a region
that offers a huge range of
investment opportunities. The
fund offers investors with smaller
monetary sums the means to achieve
good portfolio diversification
Access to specialist managers. These managers might
normally only be available to institutional investors (due to
the size of investment required) or they are investment
boutiques that are off the beaten track
Why focus on North American equities?
Largest global economy. This offers unrivalled
investment scope and the opportunity for development.
Economic data releases for 2009 have been more
positive. Many quarterly earnings releases have beaten
analysts’ forecasts
Highly established market with a vast range of listed
equities. This offers our funds the broadest range of
companies to invest in. The strength and stability of the
North American markets ensure equities are always
available to buy and sell, on demand
The investment strategy
A blend of our best selection of the most
complementary managers available. This should allow
the fund to perform well in a wide variety of market
conditions
Focused, specialist teams. The multimanager team
believes that the selected investment managers offer a
unique flavour, providing high quality, specialist research
and analysis with high quality judgment and investment
decisions
Well-diversified portfolio. The fund aims to insulate itself
against the peaks and troughs in fund returns by blending
the five managers’ approaches rather than focusing on
a single approach. Manager strategies do not all carry
the same level of risk, so the weight we hold in each is
tailored to ensure the fund has a balanced exposure
Use of cash is unconstrained. The fund manager has
the option of rapid entry into the market when investment
opportunities arise. A cash allocation also offers downside
protection in difficult markets
About the specialist managers selected
Winslow Capital Management (Winslow). Winslow is a
100% employee-owned investment management firm based
in Minneapolis. The firm’s only product focus is the Large Cap
Growth strategy. The three managers and the Chief Financial
Officer own the firm. Winslow seeks stocks with a weighted
average earnings growth rate of 15-20%, based on internal
forward earnings estimates, and that are on reasonable
valuations.
Portfolio construction is a significant driver of excess return.
Portfolios are created in a way that maximise active bets
versus the benchmark, but also diversify these bets in a
number of unique ways to minimise risk.
Los Angeles Capital Management (LA Capital). LA
Capital is an independent investment advisory firm, which
was founded in 2002. LA Capital focuses on quantitatively
driven risk aware active investment strategies. This is an
experienced and stable research team, with founders of the
research process and alpha models remaining active in all
aspects of the firm. LA Capital’s dynamic alpha stock selection
model is based on historical analysis and identification of
risk factors/exposures that drive equity returns and excludes
elements that are unrewarded. The firm continuously
enhances the original premise and the underlying alpha
factors along with validation of existing signals and ‘new
factors.’
Cohen & Steers. Cohen and Steers was founded in 1986
as the first specialist real estate securities investment
advisor in the US market. The large cap value strategy was
started by the current portfolio manager Rick Helm in March
2001 at WM Advisors. Helm has been the engine behind
the process and decision-making, and has over 22 years of
experience investing in value equities. The team believes that
dividend growers outperform over the longer term, since an
increase in dividends is a management signal of strong future
fundamentals. The focus on dividend growth, rather than
dividend yield, differentiates this strategy from most dividendfocused peers.
Eaton Vance Management. Eaton Vance is a wholly owned
subsidiary of Eaton Vance Inc., a public company. The firm has
a long track record in the investment management business.
There is a cohesive and stable team of portfolio managers,
analysts, and traders, with an average of 23 years of
experience. The strategy team, based in Boston, MA, consists
of lead portfolio manager Michael Mach, three other portfolio
managers, and a team of central research analysts supervised
by Director of Research, Charles Gaffney. Roughly 13 of the
18 analysts in this central pool support the large capitalisation
value strategy in US equities. The manager believes that
companies with strong business franchises, attractive longterm growth potential (including dividend growth potential)
should outperform over time.
Rainer Investment Management (Ranier). Rainier is a 100%
employee-owned investment management firm based in
Seattle. The firm and its predecessors have been focused on
Growth/Growth At a Reasonable Price investing since 1973.
Underlying Manager Breakdown (as at 31 December 2009)
Cohen & Steers
Capital Management, Inc.
Rainier
19.24%
19.63%
Eaton Vance
Management
Winslow Capital
Management, Inc.
20.04%
20.59%
Los Angeles Capital
Management and
Equity Research, Inc.
20.50%
Fund details (as at 31 December 2009)
Fund manager Randeep Brar
ISIN code LU0358929072
Base currency USD
Fund size in millions USD 285.5
NAV (distribution shares) 8.66 USD
Minimum investment horizon
> 5 years
Launch date 7 July 2008
Benchmark 100% MSCI USA (USD) NR
Fund manager – Randeep Brar
Randeep joined HSBC as a Senior Analyst in September 2007.
Randeep’s main responsibilities include portfolio construction and
research coverage of US Small and Mid Cap Equity asset classes.
Prior to joining HSBC, Randeep was an analyst at SEI Investments
where he was responsible for the research and portfolio construction
of their US Small Cap Manager of Managers platform. Randeep
started his career at Roger Casey & Associates as an Investment
Consultant and progressed within the company to become Associate
Director responsible for US Equity Manager of Manager research,
Portfolio Construction and Asset Class Specialist. Randeep has over
15 years experience in the Investment Industry. Randeep holds a
bachelor of engineering degree from Punjab University, India and is
also a Chartered Financial Analyst Charterholder
With its origins dating back to the mid-19th
century American Football is arguably the
most popular of USA’s national sports.
Its annual showpiece – the Super Bowl –
attracts TV audiences in excess of 90 million
every year. Known for combining strategy
with physical play, players have highly
specialised roles – offensive, defensive or as
part of ‘special teams’ that are all essential
elements of a successful team.
The Portfolio Managers have significant investment
experience, and each of them has focused on the Growth
style of investing throughout their careers. In addition there
is a high alignment of interests as the portfolio managers
own a significant portion of the equity. Rainier looks to buy
stocks with attractive growth prospects that are trading at
fair valuations. The team looks for positive earnings surprise
and positive estimate revision trends during the idea
generation stage.
About HSBC Multimanager
Our local research network. The value of global research
is often underestimated because there are not enough good
fund managers around who exhibit a consistently defined
skill when making investment decisions. The world’s truly
outstanding investment managers are to be found in far
flung places because technology has improved information
flows making it possible to be based anywhere in the world.
To truly discover the best for our clients, we believe that
we need to be where the investment talent is to be found
on the ground. We are committed to research and have
invested heavily in our network of 40 investment specialists
situated in 12 locations around the globe.Ultimately
this presence encourages understanding, aids manager
discovery and informs our monitoring.
Investment rigour. It is the robustness and integrity
of our research and portfolio management process that
drives how we establish and continuously stress test the
construction of our funds and chosen managers, ensuring
that we maintain a consistency of focus on the achievement
of positive risk adjusted results. Every one of the strong
managers we invest in is subject to ongoing assessment
to justify their continued inclusion relative to the new and
exciting managers and investment opportunities uncovered
by our research process.
Transparency and risk management. Our ongoing
research gives our analysts day-to-day familiarity with
the managers we invest in. To know our managers inside
out we use both qualitative and quantitative monitoring,
both on a formal and informal basis to give us a multiple
lens perspective. Our approach fosters a stock level
understanding of the dynamics within our portfolios and
is designed to ensure that the managers who are strong
enough to be selected continue to invest in a way that
remains consistent with their expertise. We must not
only identify good managers but specifically those whose
approaches and sources of skill are differentiated.
HSBC Multimanager team
Philip Glaze
Global Chief Investment Officer and Global Head of
Research
Joanna Munro
Global Chief Executive Officer
EMEA Multimanager
Raphael Sobotka
Chief Investment Officer, Europe
Product specialist
Alasdair Prescott: alasdair.prescott@hsbc.com
Tel. + 44 (0) 207 024 0682
Asia Multimanager
James Hughes
Head of Multimanager, Asia Pacific/ Head of Business
Development
Product specialist
Emily Ho: emily.p.y.ho@hsbc.com.hk
Tel. +852 2284 1165
Americas Multimanager
Lane Prenevost
Head of Multimanager, Americas
Product specialist
Rahul Khasgiwale: rahul_khasgiwale@hsbc.ca
Tel. +1 (1) 4416 868 1556
Product specialist
Juan Pablo Scasserra: juan.scasserra@hsbc.com
HSBC MultiAlpha range – next steps
You can contact our investor services team on +44 (0) 20
7992 4172† or alternatively e-mail us at multialpha.services@
hsbc.com
Lines are open from 9am-5pm Monday to Friday (excluding
public holidays). Contact details for the transfer agency in
Luxembourg, who undertake all administration of the HSBC
MultiAlpha Fund range are:
RBC Dexia Investor Services SA
14, rue Porte de France
L-4360 Esch-sur-Alzette
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
Telephone Number 00 352 2605 9553
Fax Number 00 352 2460 9500
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