BECON Investment Management, led by José Noguerol, Florencio Mas and Frederick Bates, has reached a partnership agreement with Cullen Funds. BECON is going to distribute all of Cullen’s strategies in the Latam region.
The main focus will be on the Cullen US Enhanced Equity Income, Cullen Emerging Markets High Dividend and Cullen North American High Dividend funds. All of these strategies have an income focus to their stock selection and Cullen feels the Latin American client and advisor will want to invest in other income producing options besides core fixed income. They believe that the US Enhanced Equity Income strategy is particularly interesting as it invests in value, dividend paying stocks and applies a selective covered call writing process to generate additional income. “The yield the fund generates should be attractive to investors given it has been historically around 7%.” BECON states.
This is not the first time that Cullen taps the Latam market. The firm has been distributing their funds to Latin American clients for over five years through their own distribution efforts to advisors based in Miami, Texas, New York and California who work with Latin American clients. Cullen have also marketed strategies in Uruguay and Chile over the past three years, traveling from the NY headquarters. According to BECON Investment Management, “advisors really like the investment process and style Cullen employs but wanted more local support.” The relationship with Becon, which manages more than $300 million in investments from Latin American clients today, will now allow Cullen to focus on local support and expertise in the region.
For BECON’s first partnership, the firm is planning on working with very few asset managers in order to provide a focused sales effort and be able to position multiple strategies through the distribution channels. They will also be hosting several events. The first multifirm event will take place on March 15th in Montevideo where 150 advisors will attend. the second event will take place on March 16th in Buenos Aires where 150 advisors will attend. Several more events will take place in Chile, Peru, Brazil and Colombia once more intermediary agreements are signed with the key brokers and banks in those countries.