Fortress Fund Managers has been forced to diversify and expand its portfolios over the past year given a growing number of local economic challenges.
Giving an overview of the company’s performance at a recent fourth annual investment forum at the Frank Collymore Hall, investment director at the investment company Roger Cave said the economic situation in the region was “not good” given the restructuring of a number of government bonds, resulting in less interest and or an extension in maturity date.
Cave said the challenges in Barbados were significant.
“We have extreme controls, we have limited listings [on the stock exchange], we have our government debt been downgraded to junk status, our economy is struggling and there is very little growth projected over the next two years,” Cave noted.
He said: “In that environment it is not easy to be producing returns on a mutual fund. So we have tried over the last year to deepen and broaden the range of products and services that we offer. We have made some changes to our low value fund. We have converted that into a feeder fund for the overseas asset management.”
Cave also pointed out that in the local market there was a lot more regulation which provided for “greater investor protection” but a lot more paperwork for the company.
In addition, Cave said although there have been more investment risks over the past year the Barbados-based company has been able to double its range of investment portfolios to 12 within that period, a number of them in the international market. He
said the company had started a number of new funds within the last year ranging from global funds to pension funds.
“We have the capability to manage regional and global portfolios from right here in Barbados and we have a broad range including equities, bonds, real estate and global markets,” he said.
Cave said his organization also made changes to their communication methods, saying annual reports were no longer being mailed but were being posted on the company’s website.
During the forum members of the company fielded a number of questions from the audience. (MM)
