Fortress upbeat after ‘weak’ 2018

Despite recording an “unusually weak” 2018, Fortress Fund Managers is still positive about  growth for its mutual funds’ investments this year, Chief Investment Officer of Fortress Advisory and Investment Services Peter Arender has told investors.

Speaking last night during the 9th Annual Fortress Investment Forum at the Frank Collymore Hall, which focused on regional and global investment updates, as well as the performance and outlook of Fortress’ range of funds, Arender said he was optimistic about the future after a disappointing 2018.

Peter Arender

Arender told the forum: “The year 2018 was an unusually weak one in which the Fortress funds held their value reasonably well, but still saw declines.

“The lower prices go, however, the greater the potential for future gains. The end of the year gave us a ’20 per cent off’ sale in many areas and we responded in the Caribbean Growth Fund by steadily investing cash which had been saved for just such an event.”

While a director at Fortress, Roger Cave, gave a similar positive summary of the investment climate, he revealed that the company’s assets remained steady at $650 million across 11 different funds with regional and global investments.

Roger Cave

Cave said that with excellent value across its global equity investments, Fortress was more constructive on future returns now that it had been in some time, borne out by strength in the first weeks of 2019.

He said Fortress would be focusing on pensions and global funds which “continued to grow very nicely”.

Cave said Government’s move to implement the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme was a positive step in the right direction.

“I think there is positive in it. We got an IMF [International Monetary Fund] programme done in the shortest possible time and I think it is a better alternative than what could have been,” Cave said.

The director also noted that the completion of government’s bond restructuring, the corporate tax reductions and work on economic reforms gave Fortress hope that there would be better opportunities in “its own backyard”.