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... a Wine Fund.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/17/business/17WINE.html
June 17, 2001
Vicarious Investing: Funds That Focus on Truly Liquid Assets
By CONRAD DE AENLLE
o matter how obscure an investment may be — even one like wine, which most
people do not even consider an investment — someone will start a mutual fund
devoted to it.
The AWM Fine Wine Fund Ltd. bills itself as the world's first mutual wine
fund that invests entirely in actual bottles of wine. It is run by Ascot
Wine Management S.A. and managed in Geneva by Tor Vollalokken, who started
it in late 1999 after running two closed-end funds that specialized in
Burgundies.
Those funds are being wound down, he said. "The success of the two previous
wine funds — they were up on average 25 percent per annum — and the
attraction they had among wine collectors and investors" gave him the idea
of opening the new fund, he said. "The structure of our business," he added,
"is not very different from what you generally see in the fund management
industry, especially for hedge funds."
As an offshore fund, AWM Fine Wine is not allowed to market itself to
American investors, but nothing restricts Americans from approaching Ascot
to buy it.
With a minimum investment of 25,000 euros, about $21,500, the AWM fund is
clearly out of bounds for investors of modest means. Such an exotic fund
would merit only a tiny fraction of a prudent investor's portfolio, so
anyone considering buying it would have to have a high net worth.
Because of restrictions on selling risky investments to the general public,
Mr. Vollalokken said Ascot is arranging to sell the fund through a network
of banks that cater to wealthy people.
"So far, none of the banks are in the United States," he said.
Mr. Vollalokken said the fund, based in the Cayman Islands, had assets of 15
million euros ($12.9 million), divided among three share classes. Unlike the
mundane Class A, B and C labels of typical funds, its three are Bordeaux
Crus, Burgundy Crus and World Crus, referring to where the wines were
produced. So far, their performances have not matched the two closed-end
funds — annualized gains have ranged from 10.9 percent to 13.0 percent — but
they have comfortably outpaced most stock markets.
>From: Daniel Goncharoff <thegonch@xxxxxxxxxx>
>Reply-To: realtraders@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>To: realtraders@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: Re: [RT] Other Weekend Thoughts: Warm Weather Helps Better
>Sauvignon Blanc
>Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 13:23:06 -0400
>
>Here is the latest news I have been able to find about wine futures:
>
>http://www.garp.com/newsfeed.asp?Category=16&MyFile=2001-01-18-2016.html
>
>Regards
>DanG
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