New 'Alternative Alternatives' Index Launched

by Phillip Morton, Investors Offshore.com

21 November 2008

Wood Creek Index Company has announced the launch of its 'Alternative Alternatives(R) Investment Index,' which is designed to capture the performance of investment managers active in the 'alt-alt' space, comprising investments outside of traditional securities and debt markets.

The index has been created to help guide institutional investors on the performance and risk characteristics of investment managers who actively intermediate the purchase and sale of non-securitized or otherwise illiquid or complex assets. Examples of such assets include weather derivatives, carbon credits, intellectual property and selected niche hard assets such as forward freight agreements. In the future, the index will include sub-indices such as hard- and soft-asset acquisition and finance and alternative asset trading.

"The Alternative Alternatives(R) Investment Index is the first tool of its kind specifically designed to address the broad range of investments that are uncorrelated to typical debt and securities markets but that are based on direct investments in real assets generating real returns," said Brett Hellerman, CEO of Wood Creek.

"We're in the early innings of the 'alt alt' marketplace and expect to see expanding opportunities in this innovative asset class, particularly at a time of uncertainty in global financial markets and disappointing performance of hedge fund and private equity managers," he added.

George Martin, a senior advisor to Wood Creek, who collaborated with the company on the creation of the index said: "Wood Creek's Alternative Alternatives(R) Investment Index provides investors with a competitive edge by enabling them to track and understand performance in this space in a robust and meaningful way. This index will help drive the institutionalization of the 'alternative alternative' asset class as a whole."

Hellerman added: "Wood Creek has unrivalled expertise in the alternative alternatives arena, and we're excited to see the launch of this benchmark for an asset class that has achieved parity with private equity, real estate and hedge funds."

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