The world’s first regulated and publicly listed single malt whisky fund has arrived in the UK.
The Single Malt Fund, supervised by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority and listed on the Nordic Growth Market (NGM) exchange in Stockholm, aims to raise up to 25million euros and has already started to collect capital from Sweden’s retail investors.
The fund has been operational for six months and the next phase of growth will see it targeting professional investors via UK wealth managers and family offices, with a minimum investment of €100,000 per investor.
As the only regulated and listed “passion pursuit” on the market, The Single Malt Fund is aiming to tap into a growing demand among those with a high net worth who have an interest in investing in alternative assets as part of a balanced portfolio approach.
Between December 2014 and June 2019, Rare Whisky 101’s leading index for rare whisky, which tracks the best performing 1000 bottles of rare whisky rose by 162.22%, outperforming the Liv-Ex Fine Wine 1000 (39.58%), FTSE 100 (13.09%), Brent Crude (11.09%) and Gold (19.16%).
Since launching earlier this year, The Single Malt Fund has established its headquarters in Dublin and recruited Ed Forrest a senior executive with more than 25 years’ experience at LVMH and Diageo to run operations for the Fund, including responsibility for buying and selling whisky.
CEO Christian Svantesson said: “The Single Malt Fund is unique in that we are not only creating a vehicle for whisky enthusiasts to invest in whisky. We are also allowing them to indulge in their passion by providing first access to bottles of rare and collectable whisky once the Fund decides to sell.
“By launching this fund, we are tapping into a growing demand among high net worth individuals for investing in alternative assets such as art, wine, cars and watches. However, unlike any other passion pursuit, The Single Malt Fund is regulated and listed on a public exchange, making our investment process fully transparent. We believe that this strong corporate governance, aligned to whisky’s strong performance in the secondary market, will appeal to the clients of wealth managers and family offices, offering a truly unique investment proposition.”
