Staude Capital resettles locally with AFSL, rejigged mgmt structure

The portfolio management team behind listed investment company Global Value Fund Limited (GVF) has shed some of its London roots and properly set up shop in Australia, having been granted an Australian financial services licence (AFSL) to take on its own investment management.

In an announcement made to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), Staude Capital Pty Ltd (SCP) founders and portfolio manager Miles Staude and Emma Davidson said with the establishment of the Australia-based business, management of GVF would change hands from previous investment manager and “regulatory host”, Mirabella Financial Services.

The new arrangement would see the portfolio management team made up of Staude and Davidson, supported by their London-based Staude Capital Limited (SCL) cohort, manage GVF directly as of 1 May.

The statement also confirmed that no other material changes were made besides the investment manager replacement.

“It has always been our intention to become directly regulated as an investment management firm,” Staude Capital chief executive, Emma Davidson, said in the statement.

“When we began, using the UK’s regulatory hosting model was an appropriate choice for the business and Mirabella were a great incubator partner during our formative years.

“10 years later though, with the success that’s been had, we believe it is now time to be directly regulated in both the UK and Australia. Staude Capital is now based in London and Sydney and is regulated by both the FCA and ASIC respectively.”

GVF Chairman, Jonathan Trollip, congratulated the team on further cementing their presence in the Australian market.

“For the Staude Capital team, gaining direct regulatory permission is a notable accomplishment and we are pleased to see them recognised accordingly,” he said.

“From GVF’s perspective, the only practical consequence is that the company’s communications will no longer need to reference Mirabella as the investment manager. This we consider a welcome simplification.”

The ASX also confirmed that, because the new arrangement was “substantially” similar to the previous between GVF and Mirabella, shareholder approval was not required to bring into effect the change in investment manager.