Be A Shrewd Global Investment Citizen With Caleo Capital

Caleo Capital is a global boutique investment management firm, with a strong focus on the principles that one would associate with a family office. The business prides itself on being fiercely independent, which means they provide unique, tailor-made advice to their clients.

This approach allows them to put clients and their needs at the forefront of everything they do. The Caleo Team prides itself on out-of-the-box thinking, structuring and service that enables them to partner with their clients to navigate tricky and complex financial waters.

To navigate these waters, they rely on experts within the business, providing a large range of customised solutions. Caleo are considered leaders in the alternative equity space, with their solutions covering private equity, Swiss banking, protected equity, and more.

‘Protected equity solutions allow our investors to participate in equity markets. They offer varying degrees of downside protection, something we’ve found extremely important in volatile markets,’ says Garth Wellman, director of Caleo Capital.

These protected equity solutions cater for various degrees of risk, and with that, the ability to target competitive and predictive levels of return.

This is crucial when structuring portfolios designed to achieve risk-adjusted returns. By partnering with some of the biggest banks in the world, Caleo Capital can leverage off their balance sheets, allowing investors access to foreign capital by using their existing offshore portfolios as collateral for these assetbacked loans.

‘In an interest rate starved world, where investors are forced to take risk in equities to get an inflation-beating return, we have styled alternative strategies which, added to our market portfolios, can deliver equity-related returns at significantly lower risk. These are predominantly offshore, to mitigate the volatile rand and produce hard currency, real returns to preserve capital and maintain income,’ adds Wellman.

Private equity, as an asset class, offers investors exposure to both local and international deals, focusing on generating upside on the capital, as well as an embedded interest option to help with potential liquidity requirements. The uncorrelated nature of the asset class, when compared to traditional equity markets, is also key for a diversified portfolio and helps mitigate downside risks.

While Caleo offers many local solutions, they are strong advocates for offshore exposure and believe that their clients should have diversified portfolios in place that do not tie them down to one particular jurisdiction. The advantages of being a global citizen play out many times. Wellman adds that, ‘given that most of our clients already have exposure to local fixed property and businesses (producing future income in rands), their investment capital should be housed internationally.’

By taking the time to prudently assess various structures, their pros and cons, and their ability to achieve the desired results, it is possible to mitigate burdensome tax consequences, jurisdiction risk, estate planning risks as well as the risks associated with the transfer of wealth for generations to come.