Coupland Cardiff (CCAM) is a specialist Asian and Japanese fund management group, focused on managing capacity constrained, performance focussed funds within a risk controlled framework.
Richard Cardiff is CEO of the firm and he tells us more about its ongoing strategy. “We follow a bottom-up, fundamentally driven research process, focusing our time on detailed company visits and proprietary analysis. We believe that over time this will achieve superior results.

“In order to further enhance returns for our investors, we believe that all funds should be capacity constrained, concentrated and freed from any benchmark constraints. This allows us to express our best ideas.

“The stability of the firm over the last 12 years and the quality of portfolio managers and analysts we have in place enables us to continue to deliver exceptional returns for investors over the coming years in the fastest growing markets in the world. These are markets that have not only grown rapidly over this time but also have excellent prospects for the longer term. We’re confident that we will continue to deliver superior returns and service our clients around the world to the highest quality.”

In December 2015 CCAM launched the CC Japan Income & Growth Trust plc, the first Japanese Investment Trust for 20 years. It was also the first income orientated Japanese investment trust to be launched. Managed by Richard Aston, who also runs a similar open-ended strategy and despite difficult market conditions, it now has nearly £100m in net assets. In addition, last year the trust met its stated dividend of 3p per ordinary share. The share price has also increased by 22.4%.
As CEO, Richard is tasked with overseeing the management of the firm, sales and marketing activities, as well as overseeing the management of all operational aspects involved in delivering excellence to clients, however he is quick to praise his dedicated team.

“Being a boutique asset manager, our staff are everything to CCAM and the quality of our staff is, we believe, second to none. All play a significant role in the success of the firm from front to back office. CCAM is wholly owned by members of the team and as such is not distracted by external factors or required to make compromises to our main objectives, which are to achieve excellence in three key areas: investment performance, operations and client service. Testament to this is the fact that staff turnover has been very low.

“Our fund management team have spent their careers investing across Asia and Japan and have strong track records. All 7 portfolio managers are specialists in their investment field and between them they undertake around 2000 company visits a year. We believe that the combination of scrutinising data as well as analysing companies at a face-toface level allows us to truly understand a stock, interpret markets with greater clarity and deliver superior performance.”

Indeed, the feedback received from CCAM’s clients is very encouraging. “The key feedback we get is that they very much like the concentrated portfolios and our commitment to capacity constrained products. Also that we specialise in investing in Asia and Japan instead of trying to be a ‘jack of all trades.’ The fact we are single area specialists and are prepared to be frank about the prospects of regions, whether good or bad, sets us apart from more generalist investors and is of great appeal to our clients.”

With regards to the future, Richard sees both opportunities and challenges ahead, for 2017 and beyond. Not least the fact that more investors are moving away from the crowded and unproductive centre-ground offered by more generalist funds into both the EFT and the highly active fund specialist market. “As a specialist, we are perfectly placed to benefit from this trend,” he comments.
“The challenges we’ll face are similar to many other asset management firms and will be based around regulatory changes and any potential challenges that might materialise as we move closer toward Brexit. It’s also important for us to continue to ensure we have the highest quality of staff to service our clients around the world.”

“Speaking of the wider industry, again, it’s the continuing deluge of new regulation coupled with how we will have to operate as a business in the new post-Brexit world - when we discover what Brexit means for the industry. No-one knows what that will look like yet so our strategy in Europe will undoubtedly adapt to any potential new model.”

Company: Coupland Cardiff Asset Management Name: Richard Cardiff Email: enquiries@ccam-asia.com Web Address: www.couplandcardiff.com Address: 31-32 St. James’s Street, London, SW1A 1HD Telephone: 44 207 321 3470