Vocus Communications founder and former CEO James Spenceley has joined forces with highly regarded and experienced fund manager Gary Rollo to officially launch MHOR Asset Management.
MHOR’s first fund provides investors with straight-forward exposure to a diverse portfolio of high-growth smaller companies listed, or soon to list, on the ASX.
Spenceley and Rollo have targeted the small cap area of the equity market for the fund. It will see them leverage their unique combination of an experienced fund manager and an entrepreneur with first-hand experience establishing, growing and running a highly successful ASX-listed business.
“Small caps are often overlooked by investors because it takes significant work to assess growth potential. The market is inefficient for them as very few brokers cover stocks in early stages, and this creates huge opportunities. We will work together to assess not just the financials but the management capabilities of businesses so we can build up a portfolio of high quality businesses” said Spenceley.
MHOR is Spenceley’s first business venture since founding Vocus Communications ten years ago having turned it from a $25m small cap business at listing into the multi billion dollar ASX100 listed business it is today. It was during this time that Spenceley and Rollo met and developed the professional relationship that led them to launch MHOR.
Gary discovered Vocus as a fund manger at Renaissance Asset Management and was one of Vocus’ earliest institutional investors. “Over the years at Vocus I would present our results to Gary three to four times a year. Gary always worked the hardest to understand my business and asked the toughest questions. It was those traits that led me to embark on this journey with him” Spenceley said.
“What most impressed me about James as CEO at Vocus was his strong vision for where his business was headed, his drive and clarity around his organic business and the multitude of successful acquisitions he made. James has made more than a dozen acquisitions for a combined value of greater than $1bn. Those acquisitions delivered significant returns for Vocus’ shareholders.
Whether it’s buying a business or investing in a business, the principles are the same and I’m excited to be partnering with James to leverage his unique perspectives and skills in investing in stocks to deliver results for MHOR’s investors” Rollo said.
Since the soft launch of MHOR’s fund in August there has been approx. $10m of inflow into the fund and as at 28th August the fund had already delivered an impressive positive performance of +3.1% against the benchmark index which was marginally down.
The founders hope this is the start of a long and successful journey. Having built a billion dollar business before, Spenceley’s expectations for MHOR are huge.
“Of course we have to walk before we can run but we are putting the infrastructure and process into the business now to be able to scale. Having built a billion-dollar business before, we don’t plan to be considered a boutique fund for long. If I had to give a target vision for what success will mean for MHOR, it would be to create a second billion-dollar business in my career” Spenceley added.
Spenceley and Rollo are incredibly excited about MHOR’S future and success. They have both invested a significant portion of their own wealth in the fund as testament to their commitment.
The MHOR fund is open to individuals, families, companies and trustees as well as advisers, and self- managed super funds, with a minimum initial investment of $20,000. Spenceley and Rollo believe that investing in MHOR’s fund should be as straight forward as possible and have utilised a simple online sign up form on their website for interested investors.
