Manager Research

We have downgraded the rating on the Obsidian SCI Balanced Fund to Tier 3 following our last review with the team. Obsidian offers a differentiated offering to investors through this fund, and the founders and portfolio managers, Royce Long and Richard Simpson, have a demonstrated ability in implementing a top-down macro driven investment philosophy in the local market, which is quite rare. This has resulted in a fund with a strong and less correlated performance profile relative to peers and a passive alternative.

Our concerns are primarily around the maturity of the business given their size, and how they have grown and managed the business over time. There are various aspects which still need development and we need evidence of real progress in institutionalising the business to provide us with the comfort needed to invest long term.