BUSINESS MONDAY: Positive outlook

FOR Fortress Fund Managers, 2019 has been a positive year and with the way things are going, 2020 promises to be just as fruitful.

During their press conference, Peter Arender, Chief Investment Officer, gave a quick update of Fortress’ progress for 2019, as well as an update on what they expect for 2020.

“This continues to be a very strong year for our main equity fund, the Caribbean Growth Fund, which is up just under 11 per cent to date. It has added another 3 or 4 per cent in the fourth quarter so far. A lot of that return is being powered by the international global investments littered within that Fund, some of the investments that we make and other funds managed by Fortress, such as the International Equity Fund which is up by 24 per cent here to date,” he said.

“We are also seeing some positive returns out of Jamaica. It has been a bold market for the last three or four years and we are starting to see some nice performances coming out of our holdings in the Trinidad market.

“So really across the board it was a positive year, and in terms of outlook for remainder of year and 2020, within the Caribbean Growth Fund, we are fully invested.”

Arender noted that while opportunity for investment was not everywhere, there were significant pockets of opportunities around the world in the UK, Japan, a few areas in the US, Jamaica and Trinidad, with well valued securities, good companies where they would be able to buy their shares at a reasonable price.

“We are seeing a good year so far and we are quite optimistic about the prospect for the coming years,” he said.

He went on to note that 2018 was a fairly hard and negative year, as the US Federal Reserves were in the process of tightening and raising interest rates during that time. However, earlier this year, that policy was reversed, and that reversal combined with the cheaper prices on the global market helped to play a role in their global investments performing significantly better for 2019.