Best Investor Relations: Shortlisted

The word 'independence' underlies investor relations for Veritas Asset Management.

Being an independent, privately-owned company, the boutique asset manager has been able to grow the business in a controlled manner. This has allowed the company to focus on delivering fund performance and a high quality of service to investors without having commitments to shareholders influence decisions and the path the company takes, says Richard Meyrick, director and head of sales and marketing for Veritas.

This approach, belives Veritas, does not put the pressure on the company to show expansion that the larger, listed companies do. Instead Veritas prefers to limit its size in order to look after its clients.

This means Veritas is able to make decisive calls, such as capping funds so performance is not diluted by over capacity.

"Capping funds is also about servicing clients and giving them access to the manager when they need it; an impossible task if there are hundreds of clients in the strategy. It is one of the ways being small and independent assists our managers in delivering the best returns for investors," Meyrick says.

Veritas has what it terms a 'dual tailor-made and holistic approach' to investors. Meyrick explains: "We treat each investor as a unique individual, catering for their specific needs but we also focus on treating all investors equally and fairly."

Veritas' investor base for its hedge funds is broad including private wealth managers for individual clients through to large foundations and pan-European private banks. Considerable resource go into understanding clients and responding to their needs. "A lot of our clients have specific reporting needs, such as in the way information is presented, or they need access at different times, and we can bespoke the service we give in this way," Meyrick adds

Also key is the company's transparency pledge which the company initiated from day one. "Running both long only and hedge funds, we apply the same level of openness and accessibility across all the funds we manage," says Meyrick.

This includes detailed written reports from the fund manager, setting out his thinking in terms of the macro picture and the micro detail of where it is considered the opportunities lie for the fund.

Detailed statistical analysis is provided on a monthly basis alongside quarterly conference calls with the manager, setting out the views of the portfolio team. This also gives investors a chance to ask questions. Clients also receive an indicative net asset value (NAV) on a weekly basis with finalised monthly and quarterly reports.

Clients can access an the investor relations team. A further benefit of being an independent boutique, Meyrick adds, is that the teams all work closely together. "We talk to the fund managers on a daily basis and have access to the underlying portfolios and so we able to answer investor questions quickly and without having to necessarily refer to the manager," he notes.

That level of communication applies in good times and bad, he stresses. "Should the funds be suffering then we would pick up the phone and talk to investors directly. To date this has not happened as we have never enforced a gate, side-pocketed or suspended the NAV," explains Meyrick.

"At the end the day it really is about working in partnership with investors and delivering real returns," concludes Meyrick.