Ichiro Takamatsu started his career as a Japanese equity analyst at a securities broker, but after four years, he applied for a position in sales and spent another four years marketing various investment products including mutual funds. He accomplished the top marketing results at a branch office he was working for, but he also felt at first hand how hard it was to source capital. The motto “it matters until the last penny” would eventually be the starting line of his investment career. At the same time, he came to question the quality and performance of products he was promoting. He decided to become a portfolio manager.
In 1997, Ichiro Takamatsu was hired as a portfolio manager at an asset management arm of a US insurance group. He was assigned to manage Japanese equity portfolio within the flagship funds group designed for US pension funds, and he achieved an outstanding track record, for which a third party rating agency issued the highest evaluation. Meantime, Ichiro Takamatsu also assumed the responsibility to manage Asian equities including Korean and Taiwanese stocks for four years, which helped him acquire international perspectives. When the asset management firm was sold, Ichiro Takamatsu decided to open his own company, and set up Alphex Investments in July 2004. He then launched a Japanese equity long short fund with the emphasis on mid/small-cap stocks as a source of excess return (alpha). He formed his proprietary investment process combining bottom-up corporate research and top-down market research. To him, present risks at hand are not something to avoid, but Ichiro Takamatsu would rather control exposure so he could transform those risks to return. His goal is to generate absolute returns without getting affected so much by market environment.
In July 2010, Ichiro Takamatsu brought his team and moved to Bayview Asset Management (BVAM) in the wake of the industry’s trend to weigh heavily on corporate governance and compliance within an asset management organization, particularly after the recent financial crisis. Ichiro Takamatsu and BVAM had a collegial relationship for the past six years, and during this time, he became well-acquainted with BVAM. Given the climate, Ichiro Takamatsu had decided that he must focus exclusively on portfolio management, without serving as a portfolio manager, CEO, and investor relations contact all at the same time.
New Alphex Long Short Fund, deploys the opportunistic Asian equities long strategy, along with the Japanese equity long short strategy, and invests in Asian countries such as Korea and Taiwan. These markets have come to be considered indispensable part of the investment universe particularly in the technology sector. Incorporating these strategies, the Fund, as the culmination of Ichiro Takamatsu’s achievements as a portfolio manager, aims at optimal balance of risks and returns.
