Colchester Global Investors Limited– Firm Inception and Ownership Structure
Colchester is an independent, value-oriented global fixed income manager offering a broad range of
quality global and international bond investment management services. Colchester was founded by
Ian Sims, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer, in 1999 and commenced managing client portfolios
in February 2000. Colchester is 51% owned by its employees with Silchester Partners Limited holding
a minority interest. While many of Colchester’s employees have ownership interests in Colchester, Ian
Sims, Colchester’s Chairman, Founder and Chief Investment Officer and Keith Lloyd, the Colchester
Group’s Chief Executive Officer and Deputy Chief Investment Officer, are the only employees who
each own, or are beneficial owners of, more than 10% of Colchester. In addition, the CEO for
Colchester London, Trevor Denton, is also a shareholder in Colchester.
Types of Investments Offered
Colchester is a value-oriented manager. At the heart of Colchester’s philosophy is the belief that
investments should be valued in terms of the income they will generate in real terms. The investment
approach is therefore based on the analysis of inflation, real interest rates and real exchange rates,
supplemented by an assessment of sovereign financial balances - fiscal, external and monetary.
Portfolios are constructed to benefit from those opportunities with the greatest relative investment
potential for a given level of risk. Most of the portfolios Colchester manages comprise sovereign bonds
and currencies in the form of foreign exchange forward contracts. Colchester eschews corporate credit,
believing instead that sovereign bonds provide attractive diversity and return potential. The investment
opportunity set for Colchester’s global bond program currently includes the domestic sovereign debt
of the “Classic” markets
1 as well as that of the smaller, developed, generally investment grade “Non-
classic” countries such as Poland, Malaysia and Mexico (among others). As well as the global bond
program, Colchester also offers an inflation-linked bond program, an emerging markets local currency
bond program and other variations of sovereign bond investment program, including an Alpha program
where Colchester seeks to establish long and short positions through the purchase and sale of bond
futures and the use of interest rate swaps. Colchester’s use of Non-classic sovereign bond markets in
its portfolios and the value-based investment approach differentiates it from most other fixed income
managers. Furthermore, Colchester’s use of sovereign bond-only portfolios maintains the
diversification benefit that investors look for in allocating to fixed income. Clients and prospects should
note that Colchester focuses its investment
management services on global fixed income and currency
management.
Full Investment Discretion
Colchester’s privately offered funds are managed on a fully discretionary basis. Separate account clients
may specify guidelines but, subject to those guidelines, Colchester has authority to determine, without
obtaining specific consent, the amount and identity of specific securities to be bought and sold for each
client account.
1 For investment purposes, the “Classic” markets include those countries that were members of the OECD before 1974 excluding
Turkey. The 23 countries included in this set were Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,
United Kingdom and the United States.
Assets Under Management
As of 30 April 2023, Colchester managed approximately $ USD 30.7 billion in client assets on a fully
discretionary basis across both funds and separate accounts.
Regulatory Status
Colchester is 1) authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) in the United
Kingdom, 2) registered as an investment adviser with the SEC in the United States and 3) registered as
a foreign financial services provider with the Financial Sector Conduct Authority in South Africa.
Colchester is also registered as a foreign company with the Australian Securities and Investments
Commission (ASIC) in connection with services provided to Australian domiciled institutional investors
and meets the requirements for exemption from direct regulation by ASIC by virtue of its FCA
regulation. Colchester is also registered with the Securities Commission of The Bahamas, as the
investment manager for an investment fund, in accordance with the provisions of the Investment Funds
Act, 2019.
Colchester provides discretionary investment management services to certain clients on a separate
account basis (“Separate Account Clients”). Colchester also provides such services to 11 private funds
(the “Funds”) open to investment by qualified U.S. investors. Separate Account Clients and the Funds
are collectively referred to as “Clients”. This brochure focuses on the investment advisory services
Colchester provides to U.S. resident clients, including pooled investment vehicles that are marketed to
U.S. investors.
Colchester was registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a Commodity Pool
Operator (CPO) and a Commodity Trading Adviser (CTA) from 2013. Following consultation with the
CFTC, Colchester determined that the firm is able to take advantage of exemptions from registration as
a CPO and CTA and determined to de-register so as not to be maintaining registrations that were not
required. Colchester’s de-registration was effective from 1 May 2022.