Masters of the Capital Raising Universe
Adam Taylor-Campbell on the complications of capital raising for funds and how best to overcome them.
Q1 Summary: What's Hot, What's Not
Whether it be Index Arbitrage, Real Money, Real Asset, Single Strategy, or Special Situations funds, a topic consistently raised in discussions is the need for a distribution specialist - someone with proven relationships and track record in successfully raising capital.
This is typically followed by a number of questions:
• which investor base do you want to access - Institutional, Super fund, Sovereign Wealth, Endowments, Family Offices, Sophisticated Investors, Wholesale, Advisors, Private Banks, (Ultra) High Net-worths, Retail?
• are there specific geographies you want to access - Australia, South Pacific, Southeast Asia, North Asia, Middle East?
Low and behold, the next question is quite often “do you think we can find someone with all/most of that?”
In all truth, there isn’t really those that can do it all … those that could (they’ve probably dealt which each investor base over the course of their career) are now managing and leading teams/businesses and are very rarely still “on the tools” across the whole investor base.
So these funds then need to decide on the investor base they want to prioritise and target -where is that next pot of gold? - to ensure they have a compelling enough opportunity for both the capital raiser and their investor base. This needs to include a competitive fee offering; a platform with scope; the right collaborative cultural environment; a broad range of successful strategies and, of course, a compensation/incentive structure to attract quality professionals. If you can’t offer that, there ultimately lies your biggest challenge.
If you’re looking for a partner to navigate this challenge and help you find your Master of the Universe, get in touch with the team and we’d be happy to discuss a plan of action.
