New RWC Fund Aims To Make Big Returns In Japan

Tom Burroughes

31 March 2015

, the active investment house with $10 billion of assets, has launched a fund focused on Japanese equities, designed to be a long-only vehicle and as part of the firm’s joint venture with Tokyo-based Nissay Asset Management.

The RWC Nissay Japan Focus Fund will be a sub-fund of RWC’s Luxembourg SICAV, closely replicating an existing alternative investment fund launched in 2005, RWC said in a statement yesterday.

At present, the fund has around $40 million of client assets and there is a “significant pipeline”, RWC said.

The existing fund started in 2005 and has generated performance (as of 27 February) of 34 per cent over the TOPIX index of Japanese equities since inception. Last year, it finished up by around 30 per cent, outperforming the TOPIX benchmark, RWC said.

RWC said the newly launched fund will be registered in the major European jurisdictions with the appropriate tax requirements.

With the Japanese government’s reflationary policies proving to be a supportive but not dramatic factor, this is an auspicious time to launch such an investment offering, James Tollemache, head of sales at RWC, said.

“The ostensible purpose of Prime Minister Abe's decision to call a snap election in December 2014 was to confirm his mandate for the so-called `third arrow’ reforms which he has been trying to push in his `Abenomics’ programme. As part of this initiative he has been leaning on corporate Japan to reduce its excessive cash pile and to focus on shareholder value, echoing similar complaints from shareholders over the years. There has also been the introduction of a 'Stewardship Code' for big investors and we can expect a corporate governance code to be coming soon,” Tollemache said.