Top fund managers launch new investment group with micro cap focus

The micro cap end of the market will be targeted by Balmoral Investors. Picture: iStock

Top Australian fund managers Tim Canham and Wik Farweck are launching a new fund to invest in micro cap stocks through their business Balmoral Investors in partnership with Mantis Funds.

A fund will be launched to invest in micro-cap companies with a focus on those with a market value of less than $750m.

The move comes with strong interest from private clients and their advisers in micro-cap investments.

The pair were previously fund managers at Colonial First State Global Asset Management and then First Sentier Investors.

They have managed one of the largest micro-cap products in the market at about $500 million for over 15 years, with a strong record of alpha generation.

The pair at Colonial and First Sentier ran over $1bn of funds under management over five years with strong risk adjusted returns, outperforming the relevant benchmark by 8.3 per cent per annum over that period.

Balmoral Investors is an independent, Australian based investment firm owned wholly owned by the founders.

Mantis Funds was launched in 2020 by industry veterans Damien Hatfield, Timothy Cheung, David Gray and Mark Paton.

It helps its boutique alternative investment managers deliver alpha to end-investors through its integrated distribution and operations platform.

It has 15 boutique partners spanning a range of actively managed strategies and asset classes who collectively manage more than $530bn.

The business is majority owned by its management team, while Tribeca Investment Partners are a strategic shareholder.