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The Education Committee of reenwichThe oundtable G Knowledge,R Veracity, Fellowship 2010 In This Issue The Art of Asking Questions Best Practices in Hedge Fund Strategies Alternative Investments: DUE DILIGENCE Private Illiquid Strategies The Final Analysis The Greenwich Roundtable One River Road Cos Cob, Connecticut 06807 Tel.: 203-625-2600 Fax: 203-625-4523 www.greenwichroundtable.org Best Practices in alternative investments: www.greenwichroundtaBle.org due diligence Research About the Greenwich Education Council Roundtable Committee Tudor Investment Corporation The Greenwich Roundtable, Inc., is a not-for- BEST PRACTICE MEMBERS Blenheim Capital Management profit research and educational organization located in Greenwich, Connecticut, for investors Robert M. Aaron Bridgewater Associates, Inc. who allocate capital to alternative investments. Gilwern Investments, LLC It is operated in the spirit of an intellectual BlackRock, Inc. cooperative for the alternative investment Benjamin Alimansky Moore Capital Management community. Its 150 members are comprised of Glenmede Trust mostly institutional and private investors, who The Lumina Foundation collectively control $4.5 trillion in assets. Edgar W. Barksdale Federal Street Partners The purpose of the Greenwich Roundtable is to discuss and provide current, cutting-edge Ray Gustin IV information on non-traditional investing. Our Drake Capital Advisors, LLC mission is to reveal the essence of both trusted and new investing styles and to create a code of Damian Handzy best practices for the alternative investor. Investor Analytics Brijesh Jeevarathnam Commonfund Capital, Inc. Jennifer Keeney Tatanka Asset Management, LLC The Research Council enables the Jeffrey P. Kelly Greenwich Roundtable to host Summit Rock Advisors the broadest range of investigation that serves the interests of the Russell L. Olson limited partners and investors. This group wishes to help investors Former Director document the allocation process. Pension Investments Their business activities serve as Eastman Kodak Company an example to all of their sincere desire to educate investors and of their belief in our mission. Members of the Research Council not only The Education Committee has been working as a provide no-strings funding but have group of altruistic investors who contributed their also assisted the members of our time and worked to raise professional standards. Education Committee. The final result is intended to demystify alternative investing and to bring about greater understanding. Investing in alternatives is not well documented. The Education Committee is chartered to conduct original research and develop best practices from the investors’ point of view. © Greenwich Roundtable 2010 2010 G Best Practices in alternative investments: R Acknowledgements Once again I am grateful for—indeed humbled Commonfund in venture capital and private by—the dedication and commitment of so equity. many friends, investors, and members. This was truly a team operating at its best. Jeff Kelly contributed many basic ideas for the white paper. Damian Handzy added some It would be difficult not to acknowledge, first unique points of view on risk management and and most important, Rusty Olson. In his second a fresh perspective on manager behavior. Ben Investor education is Best Practices project with the Roundtable, Alimansky, having written our second Best “ Rusty literally wrote the book. Armed with Practices study in 2006, provided this group one of the greatest needs in 40 years of wisdom and relationships, Rusty with edits, insights and institutional memory. set the tone for this study by weaving together Finally, Bob Aaron weighed in with his 30+ the marketplace. many different philosophies and techniques. years of operational experience. Bob was ” His clear thinking and his clean writing one of the first members of this committee; he Stephen McMenamin style transformed this work into a readable, drove through a New England blizzard to make Executive Director enjoyable summary. its initial meeting in 2002. Ed Barksdale, a Roundtable trustee and We are deeply grateful to our colleagues chairman of the Education Committee, once in the general partner community. John again hosted the group around his round table McDonald helped us navigate the nuances of in Federal Street’s conference room. Also convertible arbitrage. Ed Kavounas described armed with 40 years of seasoning, Ed frequently how to approach real estate strategies. Hardy weighed in with his wisdom and challenged Murchison helped us understand how to conventional points of view. evaluate hydrocarbon and other energy strategies. Lee Graber provided profitable As we were finishing our white paper last year perceptions about mining strategies. Clark on portfolio construction, Jennifer Keeney Binkley, Joe Bachman, and Bill Proon shared was an angel who knocked on our door and the depth of their experience in timber suggested that we start writing on due diligence. strategies. Jan Perrson guided us on how to She rolled up her sleeves and drafted sections graciously decline an opportunity. on operational due diligence. The entire investor community is eternally Ray Gustin, also in his second committee grateful to Ray Dalio, Brian Feurtado, Paul project, provided a lot of our intelligence on Jones, Wim Kooyker, the Lumina Foundation, hedge funds. But this time Ray pushed to raise and Louis Bacon. These wonderful the bar and write what “no one has written philanthropists provided the funding to make before.” His ability to articulate nuances was this study possible. Not only did they respect invaluable, as was his willingness to carefully our need for independence but they also have proofread our manuscript multiple times. a deep-seated belief in providing education for investors. We thank them mightily. Brijesh Jeevarathnam wrote a valuable initial draft on private illiquid investments, sharing Steve McMenamin not only his own experience but also that of the Executive Director due diligence www.greenwichroundtaBle.org G 2010 R 1 Introduction The searing pain many investors suffered during For five years the Greenwich Roundtable the global financial crisis of 2008 provided has sponsored extensively researched white stark lessons for us. Many of the worst losses papers to help investors understand the best – headlined by the stunning collapse of Bernie practices in investing in alternative assets. The Madoff’s Ponzi scheme – could not have Roundtable began with several white papers happened if investors had undertaken the kind about due diligence on certain kinds of hedge Alternative assets of investment and operational due diligence funds, and then in 2009 the Roundtable issued “ each of us should do before entrusting our a seminal white paper entitled Best Practices in are founded on trust . money to another person, especially a manager Alternative Investing: Portfolio Construction. of alternative assets such as a hedge fund or a If one is not already familiar with the range Our only protection is due private illiquid investment fund. of alternative investments and how they can fit into an overall portfolio, one would find it diligence. Alternative assets are founded on trust, as we beneficial to read the Roundtable’s white paper ” give managers an essentially free hand to do as on portfolio construction before reading this they wish. Alternative assets are less regulated one on due diligence. than traditional investment options, and such flexibility can help by allowing the manager to The questions included here reflect the insights be more adaptive and to pursue more creative of the various members of the Roundtable’s strategies. But it can hurt, as the high fee Education Committee, which encompasses a structures attract investment managers of all remarkable range of experience in different levels of competence and integrity and can capital markets, finance, business, accounting, give them heightened incentive to take undue legal, and regulatory arenas. risks, or even to cheat. Firms can fail not only as a result of poor investment performance Chapter 1 discusses the due diligence process or fraud, but also for non-investment-related and covers the kinds of questions an investor reasons, such as poor risk management, weak should ask when considering any kind of operations, compliance gaps, and promising too alternative investment program. In fact, the much liquidity to investors. process and most of the questions in Chapter 1 are equally as relevant for more conventional Our only defense is due diligence – the investment programs, not just for alternative tremendous amount of research that we should investments. These questions, however, are do before deciding to make an investment. only some of the questions we must ask. It’s the painstaking discipline of investigating every aspect of an opportunity, not only the Subsequent chapters provide additional investment capability of the manager but also questions tailored to each kind of alternative the equally important but more mundane investment. Therefore, as we pursue due operational structure of his organization. If we diligence on an investment opportunity, we decide to proceed, we should pursue this due should combine the questions in Chapter 1 with diligence as long as we continue investing with those of each subsequent chapter that relates to that manager. the type of manager we are considering. 2010 G Best Practices in alternative investments: 2 R Introduction (cont’d) If we had followed the due diligence