Strong performance by RF Bank & Trust funds

At their 2022 Investor Forum on 25 January, RF Bank & Trust’s David Slatter, VP of Investment Management, confirmed that two out of four of the investment bank’s mutual funds significantly outperformed benchmarks in one-year returns ending in December 2021. Mr Slatter reported that the top performing fund was the RF Global Balanced Fund which had a 19.48% one-year return, 12% above benchmark.

Mr Slatter explained why he believed the funds had done so well:

“Currently the objective is not to buy indices but to use active asset manager who have a strong track record of stock picking. We think we’ve done a good job of selecting those managers and we think our funds will outperform the market as a whole,” he said.

Positive GDP growth ahead for Cayman

Mr Slatter also spoke about the economic outlooks for the year and gave an analysis of the global market’s performance over the past two years. According to his report, strong GDP performance was projected for Cayman between 2022 and 2023 supported by good fiscal policy and a robust construction sector. Similarly, the global markets are expected to have strong but slower GDP growth in 2022 with US interest rates forecasted to rise and anticipated challenges from headline inflation.

Guest speaker Steven Brod, CEO of Crystal Capital Partners, also presented during the virtual Forum, introducing upcoming private equity trends and opportunities. RF Bank & Trust, in partnership with Crystal Capital Partners, will be providing access for institutional investors to international Private Equity funds that include some well-known and established brands such as SpaceX, DoorDash and Instacart.

“Companies today are increasingly reaching $10Bn in value pre-IPO,” Mr Brod stated. “This creates an amazing opportunity for investors to gain access to these companies as private equity. A strategy many Ivy League schools such as Harvard are already taking advantage of by investing up to 30% of their portfolios.”

RF Investor Forum was hosted by Jackie Cleare, RF Assistant VP of Operations and will be available on demand via the RF website: www.rfgroup.com. For more information, email marketing@rfgroup.com.