Who we are

Geoeconomics determines how we work, not only where we look. Research establishes the view, which is then tested against scenarios we construct, historical and hypothetical, covering shocks to rates, spreads, currencies, correlations and liquidity. What they measure is asymmetry: potential gain against potential loss, and the distance between the portfolio and a loss from which it could not recover.

Direction is a matter of judgement; size is determined by the framework, always against the stressed case. Liquidity is held as a position rather than a residual. Before capital is committed, the view is verified through local partners and inspection of the assets concerned.

Modern portfolio theory assumes a combination of uncorrelated assets. In a liquidation, positions are sold because they can be sold, and correlations converge within days. We therefore diversify by thesis rather than by asset label. Two holdings in different asset classes that depend on the same policy outcome are treated as one position, not two.

Real estate expresses this view over a longer horizon, ranging from high street retail and residential to commercial office. Income is established first, in assets where structural demand is already in evidence; value is then created through refurbishment, repositioning and re-letting. Through a dedicated smart property fund we are invested in Cypriot real estate, in a market with among the highest levels of solar irradiation in the European Union, and in an Abu Dhabi project undertaken with government participation, upgrading buildings to smart specification within the value creation programme rather than as an additional cost. Environmental infrastructure is the next application, and we are developing plans across Eastern and Southern Europe and the Middle East.

Global macro trading ranges from money market derivatives to listed single stock investment, expressed in instruments deep enough to exit when the view changes. These are not separate businesses, but one view expressed over different holding periods.

A third position exists whose purpose is not return under normal conditions. Expressed through high yield bonds and derivatives, it addresses the events that sit outside every scenario: rare, irreversible and decided in days rather than quarters. Convexity is bought when it is cheap and sized so that a single extreme event cannot end the fund. Real estate provides the income, global macro the capital gain; this position insures the portfolio against the market itself.

Each investor is served through a dedicated mandate rather than a commingled product, with investment policy, risk limits and reporting cycle defined with the investor at the outset. The firm and its principals invest alongside investors in every mandate.