Over 21 years, the business has grown steadily to manage approximately R19-billion across both hedge and long-only funds. Bateleur launched with a long-short equity hedge fund seeded with R11-million in January 2005, choosing the hedge fund structure because they believed it was the best vehicle for protecting investor capital – a view they still maintain two decades later.
The team
Kevin Williams has been in financial markets since 1996, having previously worked on the sell-side for various international investment banks, and has managed the long-short strategy since inception. Charl Gous joined Bateleur in 2008 and has managed the Market Neutral and Special Opportunities strategies since their respective launches.
The broader investment team of eight comprises five portfolio managers and three analysts, with all eight team members integrally involved in the fundamental research process. Including operations and distribution, Bateleur’s staff complement has progressively grown to 15, enabling responsible growth with an entrepreneurial culture and flat organisational structure that facilitates swift decision-making.
Investment philosophy
Bateleur Capital prides itself on its consistent investment approach, combining fundamental analysis with a top-down macro overlay. With 21 years of hedge fund experience, the emphasis is on delivering competitive real returns across its fund suite while placing a strong focus on capital preservation. In practice, this equates to the funds aiming to broadly keep pace with equity markets in favourable conditions and protecting capital in periods of market stress – an approach that has delivered outperformance over the medium to long term.
Product
Bateleur offers three distinct hedge funds alongside unit trusts and equity-only mandates:
• Bateleur Long Short Prescient RI Hedge Fund – one of the longest-running hedge funds in South Africa. The fund has consistently outperformed its CPI+4% benchmark. Since inception, it has also outperformed the JSE All Share Index at approximately half the Index’s volatility.
• Bateleur Market Neutral Prescient RI Hedge Fund – launched in 2008, this conservative strategy serves as a genuine alternative to cash and bonds, benchmarked to STeFI. In almost 18 years, the fund has never experienced a negative calendar year and has delivered returns at approximately half the volatility of the JSE All Bond Index.
• Bateleur Special Opportunities RI Hedge Fund – launched in 2018, the fund invests in under-researched JSE-listed small- and mid-cap opportunities where value is often unlocked over a multi-year period. The fund has materially outperformed its CPI+4% benchmark since inception.
Each fund targets a distinct investor profile while adhering to the same investment philosophy that has been in place since inception. All three funds are available to both retail and institu-tional investors, either directly through Bateleur or through the Glacier and Momentum platforms. The Market Neutral Fund is also available on the Ninety One platform, as well as the Old Mutual Wealth platform.
Contact information:
-
- Caylin Korff
-
- Telephone: 021 681 5077
-
- Email: info@bateleurcapital.com
-
- Website: www.bateleurcapital.com
