Property fund manager addresses VFM seminar

Toby Hayes from Insight Investment Management Limited, fund manager for the La Valette Multi Manager Property Fund, was the guest speaker during a sales seminar organised by Valletta Fund Management Limited for Bank of Valletta employees recently.

Insight Investment Management, part of the Halifax Bank of Scotland Group, acts as the sub-investment manager of the La Valette range of funds. During the seminar, held at the Radisson SAS Golden Sands Resort and Spa, Mr Hayes outlined the success factors of the La Valette Multi Manager Property Fund, which as at last January 3 had more than ?60 million in the fund, and since launch on September 13, 2005, to January 3, delivered an annualised return of 11.53%.

Mr Hayes said: "This success has primarily been achieved due to the fund's focus on underlying funds that invest directly into real estate property rather than investing in indirect property funds.

"Moving forward, the fund intends to continue to focus mainly on direct property funds to give investors the most pure exposure to the property asset class. While direct property funds were also a solid contributor to returns over the year, tactical allocations to undervalued markets, such as Asia, also added value."

Addressing the BoV employees, Peter Perotti, VFM general manager, said: "Over the course of 2006, Valletta Fund Management Limited has continued to register strong growth in its funds under management.

"Besides the success of the La Valette Multi Manager Property Fund, the Vilhena Dynamic Multi-Manager Fund, which was launched in November 2006, has generated more than ?22 million worth of investment as at January 17."

Mr Perotti also touched on the advantages of the multi-manager concept, introduced in Malta by VFM in June 2004. "Multi-manager funds are designed to package together teams of specialist investment managers from across the market into a single fund," he said.

"They therefore give the investor exposure to a range of expertise and investment management styles that would otherwise be difficult, if not impossible, to replicate. Multi-manager funds have been identified as a good way of spreading one's investments without the time-consuming and costly exercise of selecting both the funds and the fund managers necessary to hold a diversified portfolio."

The sales seminar was also addressed by David Pace Ross, from Bank of Valletta's stockbroking, advisory and portfolio management unit, who gave a review as well as an outlook of the local market; and Mark Vella, head of marketing at VFM, who spoke on the wide range of euro-denominated products that VFM has to offer to Maltese investors as the country gears itself to adoption of the single European currency next January.