Company Profile

Wessex Asset Management (WAM) is built on the expertise of its two principals, Peter Chesterfield and Tim Weir, with a combined 40+ years of investment management experience and 25+ years focused on Asia Pacific and Natural Resource equities. The Wessex Funds extend the investment opportunities arising from these sectors via the employment of hedge fund techniques.

We believe that to make money consistently in the Asia Pacific region, the timing of market allocation decisions is crucial, and that stock selection has to add value both in its own right and as an input into the market allocation process. The dynamic reconciliation of top-down and bottom-up methodology is at the core of our process.

Peter and Tim founded WAM in October 1999, after working together in long-only Asian equities at Abbey Life, and launched the Wessex Asia Pacific Fund (WAPF) in December 2000. The mission was to demonstrate, not only that they could run an investment management operation better than the people they’d been criticizing for many years, but also that it was possible to make money consistently even in as volatile an asset class as Asia Pacific equities. In May 2004 WAM launched our second fund, the Wessex Natural Resources Fund. This fund builds on the principals’ other key strength, in the resources space; Peter Chesterfield is a geologist and mining analyst by background, and Tim Weir, albeit from a very different background (a self-confessed economist) launched his first resource fund in the early 1980s and managed one of the world’s biggest gold equity funds, at Swiss Bank Corporation.

The resources sector was also a natural expansion for WAM because it had the same structural characteristics identified by Peter and Tim in Asian equities; an inefficient, poorly analysed asset class, normally used for directional investment but with plenty of stock-picking alpha potential, allowing a volatile return profile in the asset class to be transformed into a more stable fund return. Hedge funds colonization of the sector had been late and patchy for a very good reason – few of them had the necessary combination of skill-sets. But WAM did - resources had already contributed the single best sectoral return within WAPF. A dedicated resource fund with another dedicated fund manager contributes great synergistic benefits, given the work which WAM were already doing in this area. WAM’s specialist Asian knowledge is also of great benefit to the resource fund, given the crucial and growing importance of Asia and China in particular to resource markets.

As funds under management have grown WAM has steadily added resources in the front and back offices and improved I.T systems. We brought with us from Abbey Life Sarah Martin, now Associate Director, Operations and in June 2003 hired Michelle Johnston, previously with Goldman Sachs to work with Sarah. Gabrielle Howatson joined Wessex from Nextam partners in February 2008. Gabrielle had worked with Tim at Swiss Bank Corporation, running an Asian equity fund, and has many years experience as an Asian broker. She is now working with Peter and Tim on the Wessex Asia Pacific Fund.

The Wessex Gold Fund Limited (WGF) was launched October 1st, 2007. The WGF investment strategy is global long /short focused on gold and precious metals related equities. The fund launched with more than USD50mm of committed capital. WGF has a neutral position 100% net long, so is more volatile than other Wessex funds, but the net is actively managed to take advantage of timing opportunities in this sector as well as valuation discrepancies. The fund is managed by Tim and Peter.

Anna Donald joined Wessex in March 2008 from DBS Vickers where she had an outstanding stock picking record. Wessex Asian Special Situations Fund was launched in July 2008 as a focused, stock-picking fund, effectively our 15-20 strongest long and short ideas in Asia.

Wessex Asset Management has 4 Fund Managers. 1 Oil and Gas Consultant, 2 Middle Office staff, and 1 executive in charge of marketing, business development and risk control. After regulatory authorization, WAM’s original home was in Charles St, Mayfair. In February 2002 we acquired additional premises in Bournemouth (in Southern England, two hours from London, ninety minutes from Heathrow airport) where the investment operations are now based.