Venulum sees strong interest in wine investment despite fall in
Liv-ex 100 Index
Released
on: November 5, 2008, 4:34 am
Press
Release Author: Venulum
Industry:
Financial
Press
Release Summary: Venulum is seeing strong interest in its wine
investment portfolio from those looking to weather the financial
storm.
Press
Release Body: Venulum, the private wealth management
firm based in the British Virgin Islands, is seeing increasing
interest in wine investment from those looking to avoid the pitfalls
of the current economic climate.
Venulum
recognised that investors commonly turn to hard assets in market
downturns, with the idea that by investing in something real,
it won't disappear although its value may decline modestly, hence
the increased interest in the company's wine
investment portfolio.
The
Liv-ex 100 Fine Wine Index was flat in August
and fell 3.7% in September but compared with the battering the
world stocks and bonds markets are experiencing, this drop could
be termed relatively insignificant, since it still shows a year
to date increase of 5.5% compared to the loss of 24.1% for the
FTSE 100 for example.
Much
of the downturn in the Liv-ex
100 in September was down to profit
taking on top wines of the recently landed 2005 Bordeaux vintage,
many of which have fallen from their peak prices of late spring
this year by as much as 25%.
Dennis
Winson, a periodontist from Maryland has been a Venulum
client since 2003 and has invested in Forward Purchase
Agreements.
"My
annual returns to date have consistently been between 15-20%,
but I expect they will be affected by the current market turmoil,"
Mr Winson said. "I take a long term approach however,
and as long as I don’t need to redeem early I expect the
market to see an improvement in the next year or two."
Stephen
Kern, a general dentist from Washington State, has been
investing with Venulum since 2004 and has a large investment portfolio
in wine. "I began investing in wine because I am interested
in it and enjoy drinking it," he says. "My
returns of 15-20% per annum didn't look that exceptional in a
bull market but compared to some of my other investments, they
are now looking great."
Mr
Kern invested in Forward Purchase Agreements at a modest leverage
ratio of approximately three to one and feels comfortable with
the level of risk.
He
said; "A leverage ratio of three to one compared to property
investment at up to ten to one is relatively safe but margin calls
could be worrying for me so my strategy going forward is to physicalise
my portfolio through Venulum's new Wine Portfolio Strategy."
Fears
of a sustained major correction continue to appear to be relatively
unfounded, with strong demand coming from the Far East in particular.
Giles
Cadman chairman of Venulum, noted:
"The market remains firm, with demand for the top wines from
sought after back vintages especially strong. The emerging markets
continue on as if the summer crunch hardly happened and we are
quietly confident that fine wine will continue to outperform the
majority of other asset classes through these turbulent times."
About
Venulum:
The Venulum Group is a multinational private wealth management
firm headquartered in the British Virgin Islands. The Group manages
the wealth of high net worth individuals, and specialises in alternative
investments often not available to the general public. Venulum
helps high net worth individuals balance their portfolios.
The
Venulum Group was formed in 2002 and has expanded to include offices
in five countries with service offices in a further two. Since
2002 Venulum's client base has expanded rapidly, and they now
have a substantial number of United States based clients.
Web
Site: http://www.venulum.com
Contact
Details: PR Contact Details:
Chris Pattison
CJP Intelligent Marketing
53 54 Brooks Mews
London
W1K 4EG
UK
+44 (0) 20 74914443
www.letscreate.it
2009
