Vladimir Rakhmanin
Deputy Online Editor
Recently, an introductory evening by the Student Management Fund took place at the JM Synge theatre in the Arts Block. Hosted by two members, those attending received a talk going over the key facts of the society and information on how they could get involved.
The SMF fund, founded in 2010, is the only student managed fund in Europe, with its main purpose being to create an educational resource for Trinity students, with a secondary objective of helping the community. The funds which allow this organisation to thrive mostly come from corporate sources and TCD alumni – some examples of these sources are Davy Stockbrokers, University of Dublin Fund and Pioneer Investments.
Trinity SMF currently holds €35,000 of assets. The management of the fund is carried out by Trinity students, in collaboration with an Advisory Board that meets four times a year. Trinity SMF also run a series of career-related events to help members gain practical experience in areas such as PR, event management, IT management and accounting – for instance, classes with corporations such as Morgan Stanley, Bloomberg and Deloitte are on the organisation’s calendar.
Trinity SMF uses a standard portfolio structure for their investment procedures. The ‘Investments’ side of the Fund is split into ten sector teams – Basic Materials, Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Energy, Utilities, Financials, Healthcare, Industrials, IT and Telecoms; there is also a macroeconomic team. The ten teams all feature a group of analysts and a sector manager – it is their job to present reports on the performance of the sector and a macroeconomic outlook to the rest of the fund. The SMF invests in companies such as Abbott Laboratories, Vodafone and Ryanair.
The fund also features an investment committee, which is responsible for the investment portfolio – it also guides the sector teams in terms of decision-making. The sector managers and portfolio team meet every week to discuss developments in the market and to propose pitches on potential investment opportunities.
At the end of the evening, attendees were given instructions on how to get further involved in the organisation by choosing which particular sector they preferred.
Speaking after the event, Plunkett McCullagh, COO, said ‘we are very pleased with the large turnout, and we hope that our new analysts will help take the fund to the next level’.
