Killik offers commission-free access to 'breath of fresh air' trust

Killik & Co are supporting Bacit by giving free access to new and existing clients, shares in the initial fund raise later this month will be available commission free 

With the financial sector being berated for excess, high fees and self-interest the private client firm, founded by Paul Killik (pictured), described the charity supporting trust as ‘a breath of fresh air’ and that they 'very much liked the thinking behind this iniaitive'.

All of the underlying portfolio managers on the trust have agreed to waive management and performance fees, and the management team are working without remuneration. The lack of performance fees on the underlying portfolios would help compound any returns, Killik pointed out.

Former Moore Capital and Cazenove fund manager, Tom Henderson, who is behind the trust, is meeting the running costs of up to £210,000 per annum and is investing £15 million of his own money.

The trust is likely to have 22% invested in long/short equities with 17% in developed market equities, 14 % in commodities and 8% in fixed income and emerging market equity respectively. Over half of the portfolio is likely to be dollar denominated so a weak dollar could pose risks to investors.

Funds expected to appear in the portfolio include BlackRock UK Special Situations , Baker Steel Alpha Gold , Permira V, Polar Japan Alpha and M&G’s Infracapital Partners II among others.

Bacit will donate 0.5% of net asset value every year to the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and 0.5% to a foundation which will distribute money to pre-selected charities decided on by shareholders. 

ICR aims to make discoveries that beat cancer and is one of the UK's leading research centres, attached to the University of London. Major discoveries made by the ICR include identifying the link between smoking and lung cancer and identifying over 50 genes which put individuals at high risk of cancer.

Up to 1% of the trust will also be invested in drug development and medical projects run by the ICR which have commercial potential. Recently advanced prostate cancer drug Abiraterone was discovered and developed by the ICR and is being given to men who previously had no further options.  

Big industry figures are backing the trust with Jupiter manager John Chatfield-Roberts and Moore Capital manager Greg Coffey appearing on the strategic advisory team as revealed by Wealth Manager last month.

The initial fund raise is expected to be £250m to £500m in size.