Wilson Asset Management (WAM) has launched an unlisted trust variant of its popular WAM Leaders Fund offering, providing both retail and wholesale investors with the opportunity to access the investment strategy outside of a listed investment company (LIC) structure.
The WAM Leaders Fund portfolio comprises of large-cap companies and has consistently surpassed the S&P/ASX200 Accumulation Index, delivering an annual outperformance of 7.1 per cent over the last five years and 5.2 per cent since its inception in 2016.
The recently launched trust requires a minimum investment of $25,000 and, much like the original WAM Leaders Fund, will charge an annual management fee of 1.025 per cent of the net asset value of the fund and a 20.5 per cent performance fee, applicable when the fund outperforms the S&P/ASX 200 Accumulation Index.
Wilson Asset Management chair and chief investment officer Geoff Wilson explained the rationale behind the introduction of the trust, noting the firm had witnessed growing demand amongst investors for an unlisted option.
“The logic of WAM Leaders was to focus on the top 200 and to perform while investing there. You look at the performance and it really has been first class,” Wilson explained.
“Since we floated the [WAM Leaders Fund] we’ve had people asking us that aren’t necessarily invested in the LIC space, can we get access to it?
“By opening up this new product, which will obviously appeal to a lot of financial planners that don’t invest in LICs, we think there is a real opportunity to convince investors of the benefits of listed investment companies [also].”
According to WAM Leaders lead portfolio manager Matthew Haupt, the core investment strategy of the trust remains unchanged from the listed fund.
“It will mirror the WAM Leaders Fund portfolio, we will allocate between the funds and make sure that they replicate each other as closely as possible,” Haupt noted.
“The outcome of the fund is the differing factor, with the listed investment company being more stable dividends and the trust being more volatile distributions.”
Wilson Asset Management opened the trust for subscriptions on 3 October.
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