The princely family of Liechtenstein didn't get to be Europe's richest royals, with a fortune estimated at $4.5 billion, by not taking care of their money. Along the way they've developed quite a penchant for managing other people's riches as well.
Their ventures did not always win the family praise, but Prince Hans Adam II von und zu Liechtenstein, the ruler of the tiny principality located between Austria and Switzerland, and his younger brother, Philipp, have displayed a regal knack for snatching victory from the jaws of seeming defeat.
Consider the saga of LGT Chancellor. After spending a decade building a global asset management business, the princes unloaded this once-premier firm to Amvescap in 1998 for $1.1 billion. To the world they looked like forced sellers. LGT Chancellor was disintegrating, beset by poor returns and bitter infighting. Yet for all the bad publicity they earned, the canny princes managed to make a killing -- parlaying an investment of $318 million into a nearly $800 million profit. Moreover, they exited from traditional fund management at what turned out to be close to the high-water mark of what buyers were prepared to pay for asset businesses.
家庭的初步违背对冲基金也是一个惩罚。王子在不合适的长期资本管理中创立投资者。当LTCM于1998年融化时，LGT集团为王室为王子的货币管理行动，占据了3000万美元的击中。尽管如此，LGT仍然取得了两位数的初始投资回报。如何？警惕对冲基金账户的不断增加，王子们曾卖过这一年的大部分股份。
The early success of the LTCM investment whetted the princes' appetite. In 1996 they created what is now known as LGT Capital Partners to manage their alternative assets and to solicit third-party co-investors. The proceeds from the 1998 sale of the LGT Chancellor mutual fund operation helped ignite the business, even as it led to a restructuring of LGT Group. The royals, who own vineyards, large tracts of forest and a private art collection that includes a dozen paintings by Rubens, narrowed their focus principally to their private bank, LGT Bank in Liechtenstein, and to building a business in alternative assets -- creating funds of funds for hedge funds as well as for private equity investments in venture capital and leveraged buyouts.
Marketing chiefly to institutions and to very-high-net-worth customers, the princes have built a thriving operation. Based in the tax haven of Pfäffikon, Switzerland, halfway between the private banks of Zurich and the princely castle in Vaduz, Liechtenstein's capital, LGT Capital Partners now manages $3.7 billion -- $2.4 billion in private equity and $1.3 billion in hedge funds. With institutional money management businesses desperate for expertise in high-margin alternatives, fund-of-funds businesses are changing hands at 10 percent of assets, or five times the valuations of mainstream firms. In seven years LGT Capital has blossomed from little more than the princes' family office into a business that could be worth $400 million.
Not that the family has any reason to sell. LGT Capital contributed mightily to LGT Group's reported 2002 profits of Sfr115.9 million ($89.2 million). And it manages a healthy chunk of the family fortune, about 40 percent of the princes' estimated $1.3 billion in liquid assets. Altogether about one seventh of LGT Capital's assets is the royal family's own money, evenly divided between hedge funds and private equity.
这种基金的这种混合是LGT Capital的大卖点，它已经开始了私人银行业务积极的积累。随着近海银行的诱惑，在9月11日的11月11日恐怖主义袭击事件上，LGT在美国的恐怖主义袭击事件中，已经转移了伊斯特州的重点，今年在德国开设了六个私人银行办事处。毫无说服地拥抱它的遗产，它是与口号“投资王子投资”的服务。
“We believe this is an important point of differentiation," says LGT Capital Partners CEO Roberto Paganoni. "As well as the money from the princely family, most of the partners' investable assets are in the funds. We think it is the best way to align the interests of clients, the firm and its owners."
The approach is old-school Europe -- emphasizing capital preservation and a low risk tolerance. "We are in this business because we are passionately convinced that alternative investments, hedge funds and private equity -- are an important asset class that can protect and build wealth," says LGT Capital partner Thomas Weber, a 14-year veteran.
LGT进入对冲基金主要由42岁的德国出生的韦伯策划，他有博士学位。在圣加仑大学的数学中，瑞士金融精英的整理学院。从那里，1989年，他被任命为前LGT集团董事长基督教诺格伦特别助理。菲利普王子将诺格伦取代了那一年，在涉及ABB Brown Boveri接管基于U.S.的燃烧工程的内幕交易丑闻中的内幕交易丑闻中的作用之后，他是他是董事。
韦伯然后担任股票投资组合经理，后来领先一个发展量化模型的小部门。他对对冲基金的兴趣被皇家回报激动了王子的LTCM的投资屈服。在1994年的十个月内，LTCM上涨了20％;1995年，43％;1996年，41％。截至1997年底，允许原始投资者首次出售时，投资于LTCM的10美元价值超过28美元。
In 1996, LGT Group began to look at other hedge funds. Though LTCM's returns were exceptional, Weber found they were far from unique. So he persuaded LGT Group to found an investment firm, then called LGT Non Traditional Advisers, and to establish an innovative fund-of-hedge-funds vehicle, Castle Alternative Invest. To encourage institutional investors Castle Alternative Invest was listed as a closed-end investment fund on the Zurich Stock Exchange in September 1996, only the second fund-of-funds vehicle to list in Europe.
“我看着对冲基金的越多，我越深刻，我就是机构应该能够获得资产类别，”韦伯说，交流上市对征求资金至关重要。“这是当时在瑞士工作的唯一陆上结构，而且声誉良好的原因，优先投资陆上的机构，而不是在可用的离岸车辆中。”
Pfäffikon邻居RMF投资集团于1992年由Ranier-Marc Frey成立于1992年，作为欧洲的第一个基金资金业务之一，在LGT非传统顾问中占据了20％的股份，并帮助投资建议。（2000年，瑞士生活集团将RMF作为投资者替换。）
现在的基金筹集了1.2亿美元和440美元ion. Then in early 1997, LGT Non Traditional Advisers established a private equity division and appointed Paganoni, a former McKinsey & Co. partner, as chief executive and Ivan Vercoutère as head of private equity investments. Vercoutère had worked at Pacific Corporate Group in La Jolla, California, managing money for the likes of California Public Employees' Retirement System and the World Bank. The executive team also includes Maximilian Brönner, the leader of the private equity investment team; Tycho Sneyers, in charge of business development; and Kassandra Wipf, responsible for legal and compliance issues.
Castle Private Equity, launched in June 1997, was the first exchange-listed private equity fund of funds in continental Europe. It now has committed equity of $800 million and total assets of $1.2 billion.
最初,一切顺利。1997年,城堡选择来说ive Invest returned 12.95 percent net of fees. Then came 1998. Castle lost 2.12 percent for the year, having sold down its LTCM stake as the fund grew less and less transparent and began losing money. Investors fled. From June through October, Castle's portfolio suffered a cumulative drawdown of 10.15 percent.
但LGT没有走出对冲基金。相反，在1998年初销售LGT校长之后，突然有超过10亿美元的液体资产，它将其致力于资产课程。
The princes asked Weber and his team at LGT Non Traditional Advisers to design an asset allocation strategy for the windfall. Weber in turn asked the biggest and best investment banks and fund managers, including Goldman, Sachs & Co., Morgan Stanley and UBS Warburg, for advice on model portfolios. Meanwhile, he and his team fed return and volatility assumptions into a portfolio optimizer and ran thousands of simulations.
韦伯建议王子将20％的资产投入到对冲基金和20％的私募股权。投资组合的余额几乎在传统的长期债券和股票之间均匀分裂，其中大多数长期以来投资被动或QuasipAsivAsive指数跟踪任务。这种杠铃资产分配最近在学术期刊中变得时尚，但随后是反应的。
“我们做了很多关于战略资产配置的量项，但最终，分配是基于我们的判断，”韦伯说。“我们决定从对冲基金和私募股权经理的技能产生alpha的可能性。我们很乐意为此技能付出代价。没有技能生成测试版，因此我们希望为此付出相对较少的支付。“
对于LGT追溯到1920年的LGT，这是管理皇家资金来征求外人的投资。PAGANONI表示，LGT正在追求一项保守的增长战略，使公司与投资者的伙伴的利益对准。“有些公司希望增长，因为他们的校长想要退出，其他人因为他们是由配送机驱动的，”他说。“我们投资于我们的资金，受到风险控制性能的推动。”到那个结束LGT没有抱在资产上的野心。相反，它希望继续为一个小而复杂的机构客户群提供服务。
“We learned a lot from LTCM," says Weber. "We analyzed what went wrong, changed our approach to risk management and built up our team and resources." From three full-time employees in 1996, LGT Capital Partners now has 50; more than half research and do due diligence on hedge and private equity funds.
Paganoni adds: "We don't want to be the biggest alternative investment house in Europe. We want to be the best in terms of performance and client service. Successful investing in alternative assets is about controlling growth and managing capacity, not maximizing assets under management. We want a select group of relationships with committed, long-term investors who understand the asset class."
The support of a royal family that has been around since 1719 probably helps nurture this long-term perspective. It is an approach that has worked well for LGT. The closed-end fund structure of Castle Alternative, the backing of the princely family and the long-term contracts that come with segregated mandates from institutions mean that its assets are relatively stable and that it can afford to think strategically.
Throughout the 1998 hedge fund crisis, for example, LGT added to its positions with hedge funds that were suffering redemptions from other investors. For hedge fund managers this sets LGT apart.
“It is a generalization, but many funds of funds have a bit of a reputation for jumping from one hot fund to another. That is certainly not LGT's style," says Colin McLean, a founder of SVM Asset Management, which manages the Highlander Fund, a $1 billion long-short European equity fund that has been one of LGT's top ten holdings. "It is good at building relationships. It is more methodical, disciplined and analytical than other fund-of-funds managers we have dealt with. It has an aura of maturity and experience."
The firm's character, he says, reflects that of hedge fund chief Weber. "I regard him as one of the most astute hedge fund investors in Europe," says McLean.
Weber表示，典型的LGT对冲基金投资组合每年超过约20％。它是LGT的寿命和稳定性，它可以获得猛禽全球资金，由Tudor Investment Corp.和Kensington Global Srations经营的资金，由Citadel Investment Group经营，这些战略在很多年内都在很短暂关闭。
LGT Capital有两个主要的对冲基金车辆，城堡替代方案和王子的投资组合，该组合在内部被称为全球可投资市场基金，并作为LGT替代投资外部销售。城堡拥有约4亿美元的资产，而Gim则拥有17亿美元，其中包括一些私募股权投资。
Both are managed with the same conservatism, described as typically Swiss by ABN Amro fund analyst Mark James. Neither fund's performance has been harmed by that approach.
Despite its dalliance with LTCM, Castle Alternative boasts an 8.91 percent compound annual return since its inception, with 4.94 percent volatility (the MSCI world index has an annualized return of 5.22 percent, with 14.74 percent volatility for the same period). Since 1998 the worst losing months for Castle Alternative were 0.76 percent in November 2001 and 0.97 percent in March 2003. With these exceptions, the graph of its returns has been the smooth, upward-sloping curve that fund-of-funds managers like to boast they can deliver. Although the performance of Castle Alternative is bested by the 10.17 percent return of Hedge Fund Research's fund-of-funds index, Castle has lower volatility than HFR's 5.83 percent. It has also demonstrated better performance than other Swiss closed-end funds, such as Julius Baer Group's CreInvest, RMF's Swiss Life Absolute Return Strategies and Bank Leu's Leu Prima Global Fund.
“从风险返回的角度来看，它是最好的资金之一，”ABN AMRO的詹姆斯说。“它很少交易折扣，因为它是一种高质量的投资组合。对于许多投资者来说，它是获得Raptor，Highbridge Capital Corp.和Kensington等资金的唯一途径。”
GIM投资组合的表现令人印象深刻。它自成立以来已恢复9.9％，而MSCI世界指数的下降则为2％。
一些突出的机构已经注意到了这次轨道记录。LGT的外部客户包括Axa私募股权，Benelux保险公司Fortis和AP3和AP7，部分瑞典国家养老金系统。今天，LGT资本的75％的LGT资本的管理层管理层来自外部机构投资者，王国家庭和公司合作伙伴的余额。亚博赞助欧冠
韦伯将其投资过程描述为自下而上，这是通过进入世界上最有才华的经理的必要性驱动。“在传统的长期世界中，财务理论告诉您，超过90％的回报方差来自资产分配，较少的股票选择少于5％，”韦伯说。“在我的观点和经验中，在对冲基金世界中，超过50％的回报差异来自经理选择。”
Weber领导一个16人强大的对冲基金投资团队。他的首席助手包括布鲁诺隐藏，他领导了一个经理选择委员会，举办一次每月一次，斯特凡·穆罕默尼曼，指导季度举行的战略分配委员会。Weber认为战略分配是重要的，但仍然是次要的资金选择。
“资金基金投资不仅仅坐在并挑选一些伟大的管理人员，”韦伯说。“有时候有时是合并的套利和较小分配的时间。但现实是，大多数资金流动性有限，因此很难发生攻击性划分。还有资金即使战略不是最佳的，你也许希望投入投资，因为一旦你卖出，可能很难回来。“
Weber describes his approach to manager selection as a variation on the core-satellite asset allocation model. Ten managers typically make up 50 percent of the overall portfolio, although at the end of July, it was closer to 60 percent. These are generally well-known names such as Caxton Global Investments (the world's largest hedge fund), Raptor and Highbridge Capital. The remaining 50 percent satellite portfolio might be made up of as many as 20 other managers.
Weber says that buying into smaller, lesser-known funds allows LGT to grow familiar with the managers and their strategies and more flexibly manage its own growth. Satellite positions can become core if the manager does well. For example, McLean's Highlander Fund, which is only three years old and relatively low-profile, was a top-five holding for LGT until this spring.
私募股权投资组合遵循广泛的核心卫星哲学。最大的买断基金划分，例如欧洲和克莱顿，Dubilier＆Rice的Permira，但其中一半的投资组合致力于较小的风险资金基金。
还强调二次投资。“有许多金融机构剥夺了私募股权，往往是因为它们陷入困境，我们认为这是一个很好的机会，廉价地获得一些好的资产，”首席执行官Paganoni说。去年LGT聘请Marco Bizzozero是瑞银资本的杠杆金融专家，引领二级投资团队。
根据汤姆森风险经济学的说法，自1997年以来，城堡私募股权投资组合的年度内部返回率为6.4％，欧洲私募股权基金的绩效高2.8％。
在大多数的生活e something of an exclusive (and secretive) Swiss club, LGT Capital Partners is now telling its story to Europe's broader investment community. For years it scarcely bothered to market itself, but in 2001 it hired Sneyers, a Goldman, Sachs & Co. veteran who had most recently run AltGate, a London-based hedge fund research business, to head a business development effort. However, Sneyers is under no pressure to add billions in assets. "We can grow, of course we can, but growth is driven by investment capacity."
像PFÄFFIKON邻居RMF这样的公司是由人群收购的2002年的8.33亿美元，远远超过LGT的增长。这不会打扰paganoni。该公司拥有伙伴关系结构，高级员工均拥有股权和利润分享。
“我们觉得舒适地将资产基础达到20％至25％，”Paganoni说。“我们希望生成最佳风险调整的性能，而不是从事资产抢占。”
顺便说一句，这是一个非常皇室。
