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Richard Horlick, Tau: Tau is an obvious investment for investors seeking diversified exposure to a rapidly expanding economy |
THE INITIAL PUBLIC offering in May for Tau Capital, a closed-ended fund established jointly by UK financier Lord Jacob Rothschild’s investment group Spencer House Capital Management (SHCM) and Compass Asset Management (CAM), a leading fund management business in Almaty, is a clear indication of investor appetite for equity exposure to Kazakhstan and its region. Initially targeted to raise $200 million on the Alternative Investment Market segment of the London Stock Exchange, the flotation lead managed by Numis Securities actually raised $250 million.
The fund will be run by Richard Horlick, former head of investment banking at Schroders, and will invest in listed and unlisted mid-market companies in Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Russia, as well as Kazakhstan.
Although some firms lay claim to a long track record of operating in central Asia, it’s usually measured in terms of a few years rather than tens of decades. But Jacob Rothschild’s family owned oilfields in Azerbaijan at the turn of the 20th century and famously employed Josef Stalin as an oil worker before sacking him when he threatened to foment unrest.