Some great questions from some great clients… 

We’ve compiled them together, to help you understand what our recently launched wine fund is really all about!

1. Does 10 years maturity mean that the fund will close after 10 years and will investors need to re-apply again?

Answer: Yes the fund needs to close and funds would be liquidated, clients could take their investment back after this period. Or alternatively switch into another fund.

2. Client’s minimum investment is 100,000 GBP and they have no maximum level of investment, however, their investment should not control more than 5% of the fund’s total value. So, each client has limits to investing in the wine fund?

Answer: Yes the minimum entry level for each investor is 100,000 GBP.
5% of one single investor is monitored internally to ensure one investor does not hold too large a share in the fund. This 5% is a guide and our fund managers will use their analysis to ensure the fund is not prone to risks of few investors holding the majority. The maximum per investor is 10 million pounds.

3. Why is it specific only for Bordeaux portfolios?

Answer: These wines are generally quicker to sell back to the market. This allows the wine fund to run smoothly and enables buying and selling of wines quickly, to maximise on the return for clients.  Sometimes, different regions of wines may take longer to sell due to their demand being not as strong as Bordeaux wines.  Bordeaux wines have recognised classifications which follow laws, so these restrictions on how they make the wine make it more exclusive and in demand.

4. Why are Bordeaux wines valued in GBP?

Answer: Wines stored in UK are valued in GBP and wines stored in France valued in Euros. The GBP fund is bigger because we tend to buy more wines in GBP than Euro.  Investors can invest money or wine into either of these funds.

Clients owning wines in Bordeaux, we will convert them into the Euro fund and  wines in the UK will be added to the GBP fund.

5. What does “wine funds liquidity” mean?

Answer: Wine funds liquidity refers to cash held in the wine fund bank account in GBP or Euros.  The USD account is to separate any fees, hence they are held separate from the wine fund’s cash.  Using the liquidity in the fund, we will buy new wines for the fund, if there is no liquidity then we would not buy any new wines until some wines are sold for cash to re purchase wines again. The fund manager will maintain an adequate amount of cash in the fund for any investors who wish to liquidate in the short term.

6. What is the rationale behind a minimum investment of 100,000 GBP per investor?

Answer: Minimum investment is set by the authorities who issued our license – Labuan Financial Services Authority (LFSA).

The rationale is an investor, investing into individual cases of wine can build up his investment portfolio, then switch it into the wine fund when he meets the minimum level of investment – 100,000 GBP.

7. When dividends are to be reinvested, are there charges?

Answer: There is no charge when dividends are reinvested, however there is a 10% fee from the fund’s profit. The management fee is deducted from the total value of the client’s units that he owns.

8. Would their investment remain in the respective currency?

Answer: Yes the GBP or Euro fund will always stay in the investor’s respective currency.

9. How does “wait for 4 weeks liquidation” work?

Answer: When an investor requests to sell below 10k of their units, it will take 4 weeks to receive the cash. This gives the fund time to sell wines if there’s not enough liquidity at the time in the fund. It also prevents the fund from selling off wines lower than market price, to liquidate urgently.

10. Does storage in Bond mean that the trading of wines are all exempted from custom duties/taxes?

Answer: Yes correct, exempt in the UK and France.

11. Under Clause # 34-37 (Annual Investment Plan, Income Plan, Wedding Plan, and Pension Plans), are these investment options available to the investor aside from wine trading? Are the charges to client the same?

Answer: Yes these are excellent ways for an investor to plan their investment into the fund and make investments at different periods to fit around their lifestyle and investing plans.

12. Minimum Investment is GBP 100,000 required by LFSA.  This can be in the form of cash or the transfer of my current portfolio to the Fund?  In the case of the latter what ‘value’ figure will you use?   In your current Portfolio Format you use “Market Price”.  If the Portfolio is valued at, say, GBP 100,000 the Investor will receive 97,000 units being GBP 100,000 less the 3% Entry Fee (GBP 1.00 = 1 unit)?

Answer: The minimum investment is GBP100,0000 required by LFSA. The value of the wine will be determined at the time, based on the bid price of our website investintowine.com.  Ask price is an indicative price to re purchase that wine and bid price is to sell it.

13. Performance Fee – This 10% will be calculated annually and on the difference in the Fund value between inception and 12 months annually?  If the market turns down and the Fund value reduces, then no performance Fee is payable?  How often will the Fund value be available to Investors?

Answer: The financial year is January to December so every January we will produce a performance report. Performance fee will be deducted from the gross yearly return. Correct – No performance fee is deducted if the fund does not make any return. Performance fee is taken from the gains of the fund ONLY.

14. Storage Fees – These fees will be deducted before calculating the Performance Fee?  Will the Storage Fees be charged to the Fund each 6 months or annually at the anniversary date? And what about the management fee?

Answer: Yes every six months, same billing period as a Sure Holdings individual portfolio because Sure Holdings is the administrative manager of the wine storage facilities.  The management fee will also be deducted every six months.

15. Withdrawals – I assume that this is done by selling ‘units’ rather than specific wines?  (Takes 4 weeks if amount less than GBP 10,000 is withdrawn?)

Answer: Yes correct, sell units to liquidate your position. The amount is 4 weeks if less than 10,000 GBP or Euro.

16. Investment into the fund – This will be done by buying additional ‘units’, at the current unit value in GBP or Euro for cash.  (Ownership of ‘units’ is immediate once funds are received by Sure Wine Fund Ltd).   Once in the Fund, presumably additions do not need to be increments of GBP 100,000 but much smaller amounts?  Are additional Investments subject to 3% Entry Fee?

Answer: Correct, increments need not be 100,000 GBP. They can be any amount that you are comfortable with. Yes the entry fee is paid whenever an investment is made into the fund.

17. Units – How will the price of a ‘unit’ be calculated ?  I envisage people adding to their Investment from time to time thus increasing the number of ‘units’ in the fund which in turn will reduce its value as a percentage of the Fund.

Answer: If the fund increases 2% then the value of the Units will increase from 1 pound to 1.02 pounds. If additional units are bought, then the investor would pay the new value of 1.02 per unit.

The fund is valued every month and we will take the latest valuation of the fund for any new investor adding to the fund so that they would pay the correct price per unit.