Mercer Investment Consulting says it is to expand its global research of alternative investments, to give clients access to in-depth analysis of a broader and more diverse range of alternative products.
Areas in which Mercer intends to expand its coverage include equity-based hedge funds, fixed income-based hedge funds, directly-invested private equity funds and multi strategy funds. They say they are using their experience of Australian infrastructure funds over the last decade to research the growing number of infrastructure funds being launched elsewhere in the world as well.
Mercer’s research into currency funds, global macro funds, funds of hedge funds and private equity funds of funds is well-established.
“Institutional investors worldwide are increasingly looking to diversify their sources of return and thereby reduce risk,” says Tim Gardener, the Global Head of Mercer Investment Consulting. “Opportunities for investors have grown over the last couple of years, as new boutiques have emerged and the type of products available has increased. The challenge for investors is to distinguish the fundamentally sound from the merely fashionable.”
Mercer is in the process of doubling the number of alternatives specialists in its research team from six at the start of this year to a projected 12 at year end. Four additions have already been made to the team, with two more to come. In addition, Mercer’s 30 dedicated equity and fixed income researchers are expanding their coverage of equity-based and fixed income-based hedge funds respectively.
“We have over 2,000 clients around the world with more than US$2 trillion in assets in total,” adds Bill Muysken, the Global Head of Research at Mercer Investment Consulting. “The vast majority are telling us that they want to put more money into alternatives, and we expect this interest to continue to grow over time.”