Infovest21 Investor Focus
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INVESTOR FOCUS INVESTOR FOCUS Scott Gregorchuk Morning Investor Seminar/Breakfast: LGL Partners Strategy Outlook for 2011 LGL Partners is a multi-family office and investment firm. The organi- December 10, 2010, 8-11 a.m. zation provides investment/wealth management advice and family of- Princeton Club, 15 W 43rd St, New York, NY fice services to a select group of substantial individuals and families. The firm traces its origins to the sale of a privately held business to a Guidelines/Policies for Asset Allocation publicly traded corporation in 2000. Following this transaction, a mem- In addition to providing guidelines and policies for asset allocation, the ber of the family established a private office to manage the financial, speaker will discuss risk considerations and perils of forecasting. personal, and philanthropic needs for his family. Bill Luterman was Mikhail Munenzon, The Observatory hired in 2000 as chief investment officer. Opportunities in Various Strategies In 2010, having led wealth management businesses at Wall Street The investor panel will have an indepth discussion on where firms and served as an advisor to the family for a decade, Scott Gre- opportunities may be in the short term, medium term and long term - as gorchuk joined Bill Luterman and a member of the office's founding well as caveats to consider. Among the strategies being discussed are: family to launch LGL Partners. Long/short, Emerging markets, Convertible arbitrage, Fixed income (high yield, mortgage related, yield curve arbitrage), LGL Partners delivers a private family office solution to those who de- sire the objectivity, access, acumen, and experience that LGL has Commodity trading advisors, global macro, brought to its founding family. Distressed, Multi-strategy, Asset based lending, Short sellers Niche strategies/Alternative alternatives (e.g. real estate, infrastructure, Infovest21: Do you invest in hedge funds or funds of funds? life settlements, catastrophe bonds etc) Scott Gregorchuk: We have worked to establish a competitive ad- Funds of Funds vantage in hedge fund investing within the family office. We feel that Betsy Battle, Lone Peak Partners leveraging our extensive due diligence process, proprietary analytical Chris Cutler, Manager Analysis Services tools, and relationships across the community allows us a more tai- Maria Tapia, Alternative Investment Group lored, transparent, and efficient hedge fund allocation than one acces- Michael Marcus, Prelude Capital sible through a fund of funds. However, for particular mandates, e.g. affiliated foundations that may not have the requisite scale for a ded- $300 to register for funds of funds. Complimentary for single family icated program, a fund of funds can make sense. Our direct hedge offices. Call Jingle Huang at 212 686 6440 for information. fund experience gives us a leg up in selecting appropriate vehicles for such mandates. SUBSCRIBE TODAY! Infovest21: Tell us about your portfolio allocation. Scott Gregorchuk: Our overall family office allocation is roughly Please sign me up for one-year subscription to Infovest21 equally weighted. One-third is allocated to publicly traded securities, Investor Focus at $1,000. one-third to alternative investment funds (hedge funds and private eq- Please sign me up for the Infovest21 Publication Package, uity), and one-third to less liquid assets (direct investments, real as- which includes both Investor Focus Subscription and News sets, homes, art, collectibles, and real estate.) Provider Subscription at the price of $1,100. Save $595 Payment (check one): Public securities: We generally emphasize low cost, passive vehicles to access beta ex- Check enclosed (payable to Infovest21 LLC) posures. In less liquid, less efficient areas of the public markets, we Amex Mastercard Visa Diners may allocate to managed accounts. Card #: Exp. Date: Name: Hedge funds: Address: Our portfolio allocation emphasizes diversification across a number of City: State: Zip: dimensions. We look to diversity across conventional categorizations: Phone: Email strategies, tenure, geographical focus, and size, but also within these categories. For example, with respect to strategies we employ quan- 267 Fifth Avenue, Suite 104 titative and fundamental managers in equities, and discretionary and New York, NY 10016 systematic strategies in global macro. We employ two types of man- Tel: 212-686-6440 l Fax: 212.686.6289 Email: [email protected] agers i.e. more mature managers, with multi-year track records for their current fund; and others with newer funds, but have demon- 267 FIFTH AVENUE l SUITE 104 2 NEW YORK l NY 10016 INVESTOR FOCUS INVESTOR FOCUS strated portfolio management acumen from another earlier fund or ex- tween our team and a fund's team: calls and meetings with portfolio perience. managers, analysts, operation staff, references, and counterparties, generally over several months. We assemble a matrix of information That said, we do have a "sweet spot": US domiciled managers with a from inside and outside the manager, and validate our team's impres- strong pedigree, two to three years of performance, and $500 million sions through independent evaluations, culminating with a meeting of assets under management. our investment committee. Private equity: The individual fund target return profile depends on the strategy and Our priority is to diversify across vintage years and fund types, includ- how it works together with our other current or prospective managers. ing allocations to mezzanine funds, buy-outs, early-stage, and sec- A higher volatility manager on a stand-alone basis can actually reduce ondaries. We recognize that there is a good level of cyclicality to our overall volatility. Those are things we consider. private equity investing and that commitment and a long horizon is es- sential: both to smooth cash flows and ensure access to top-tier man- That said, we target, on average, a Sharpe ratio close to 1, and aim for agers with a demonstrated ability to outperform. Our reputation and high single-digit volatility. relationships in the space have given us a leg up in this respect. Infovest21: What do you look for in a hedge fund manager? Less liquid assets: Scott Gregorchuk: Dedication, the ability to run a business, and in- This area reflects the family's telligence. They are all essential - background and lifestyle objec- we believe that missing any of tives. We work to reconcile long- these lessens the chance of suc- term investment and asset cess. allocation goals with interests in We do have a “sweet spot”: US domiciled n private companies, properties, We target, on Dedication ensures the man- etc. managers with a ager will do what it takes to ferret strong pedigree, two average, a Sharpe ratio close to 1, and out ideas. You can tell that when Infovest21: What are some to three years of there is leadership from the top performance, and aim for high macroeconomic trends and single-digit volatility. that the entire team will be work- outlook for investing across $500 million under ing hard. Hard work in this busi- various asset classes? management. ness is critical. Scott Gregorchuk: There are three interrelated trends/issues n Hedge funds are small busi- that could influence our investing: nesses. Trading acumen is great, but it counts for nothing if it isn't 1. Pressure on the US dollar and other developed currencies and supported by assets, infrastructure, and appropriate policies and pro- "competitive devaluation." cedures. 2. Persistent unemployment, lingering housing overhang, and do- mestic demand issues in the US n Almost everything in the industry is smart. We look for managers 3. Commodity price volatility who have intelligence, but also a unique vision that they can articulate convincingly. In general, these are more macro-oriented factors. These outsized in- fluences on the markets have been partially responsible for the greater Infovest21: How much transparency do you get from managers? systematic movements in equity prices in recent periods, meaning that Scott Gregorchuk: We continue to be pleased with the amount of many equity managers have been harder pressed to generate transparency we receive. For the most part, if we request it, it is avail- stronger signals or higher conviction trades. They have to work harder, able. Realistically, however, position-level transparency is not always and we have to work harder to identify managers that are effective in valuable, and it is not something we insist upon. It is very easy to "miss this climate. the forest for the trees" when inundated with too much data. That said, we do monitor exposures across risk factors, and in situations where Infovest21: Tell us about your investment process, philosophy, our analytical systems start to suggest a manager may be deviating risk tolerance and target return profile. from their core mandate, we will follow up for greater detail about re- Scott Gregorchuk: Our investment process is extremely disciplined. cent activity. We have found the managers we work with to be very As a family office, we recognize that we are safeguarding wealth for accommodating. the long term, and our process reflects this. One way we ensure this is to request a very high level of transparency In our alternative investments, we insist upon multiple touch points be- at the outset of the due diligence process. A manager's response to 267 FIFTH AVENUE l SUITE 104 3 NEW YORK l NY 10016 INVESTOR FOCUS INVESTOR FOCUS these initial requests sets a tone and gives us a good indication office for over eight years. During that time we have developed propri- whether we should move forward. etary analytical and portfolio management systems that allow us to rigorously analyze individual funds and portfolios, both on a stand- Infovest21: Do you invest via managed accounts in underlying alone basis, and an incremental basis. We tease out the degree to managers? which a manager is doing what he purports to do, by decomposing Scott Gregorchuk: For certain types of public securities, we may realized performance against over 100 different factors.