Specialist equity fund manager Cooper Investors, which has managed money for institutional investors since 2001, has entered the retail end of the market with two global equity funds.

Products disclosure statements for the Cooper Investors Global Equities Fund (Unhedged) and the Cooper Investors Global Equities Fund (Hedged) were launched in July.

Andrew Hall, Cooper’s senior retail sales manager, says he is working with a number of platform providers to list the fund on the services. The funds are currently included on HUB24 and Powerwrap, with other listings in the pipeline.

Investors can go direct to Cooper Investors, as well, with a minimum investment of $20,000.

Zenith has rated the funds ‘recommended’ and Lonsec has rated them ‘investment grade’.

The funds currently have around $1.5 billion of institutional funds under management.

Cooper’s latest performance report shows that the unhedged fund (which Hall says is the more popular option) produced a net return of 15.99 per cent over the 12 months to the end of September, compared with the 15.71 per cent return of the MSCI World Index.

Over the past three years the fund has produced an average return of 13.31 per cent a year, compared with the index return of 11.41 per cent a year.

Hall says Cooper Investors’ hallmark is intensive company research. “There are no macro calls on markets or sectors. It is about picking good businesses,” he says.

The company’s analysts travel extensively, making repeat visits to companies, their competitors and their suppliers.

The fund usually holds about 40 stocks and Hall says the “sweet spot” is companies with market capitalization between $20 billion and $70 billion.

“These are not the Wall Street giants. We can get good access to them,” he says.