The Fairbanks Fund
FUND CASE: THE FAIRBANKS SMALL-CAP U.S. EQUITY FUND
Background
Whittier Wealth Management, a Boston-based fundamental equity shop, specializes in running small-cap portfolios. Its specialty is a concentrated style with fewer than 50 stocks. It has one core portfolio with an eight-year record with a goal to outperform a small-cap index and other small-cap managers.
Key characteristics of the fund include these:
- Russell 2000 is the index benchmark.
- Fully invested U.S. equity fund, with the ability to maintain short positions.
- Selection universe includes small-cap companies, plus stocks in the Russell 2000 small-cap index.
- Analyst teams are organized into five sectors.
The Problem
The CIO is interested in promoting the fund with the goal of increasing assets from $10 million to $250 million. Assets are currently in a partnership structure, much like a long-biased hedge fund, but the CIO is open to new fund structures.
The Assignment
To promote the fund, a document needs to be prepared explaining the objective of the fund, operation of the fund, its current portfolio structure, and performance analysis. In addition, a review of the current operation should be conducted, including realistic suggestions for improving performance. Finally, a review of analyst performance, both individual stock recommendations and actual sector performance, must be conducted. A comparison of the live portfolio performance and paper stock recommendations needs to be completed ...