VAR Capital

Our investment team manage liquid portfolios with a primary focus on wealth preservation, and invest in single line securities as opposed to structured products and third party funds, saving clients multiple layers of fees and maximising portfolio liquidity. Our investment strategy has many unique features. In an increasingly complex world where unprecedented technological innovations are disrupting value, our thematic approach provides an alternative to traditional strategies by seeking to capture sources for growth through long-lasting and sustainable trends. Our event driven strategies exploit temporary stock mispricing which can occur before or after corporate moves, such as financial restructurings or mergers and acquisitions.

The debt solutions team assists clients considering illiquid opportunities, mainly property development projects, with lending and asset financing from both our own funding line and institutional lenders. The relationships we have harvested with over 100 banks and private lenders enable us to accommodate the most complex borrowing requirements and negotiate the best terms on behalf of our clients.

VAR Capital has grown into a thriving business with over £1bn AUM, c. £300m growth since 2020, and from three staff in 2014 to twenty five today. Due to projected growth we plan to further grow our headcount during 2022 and also expand into international locations in the near future. A very exciting time for us. VAR Capital is extremely proud to have been awarded the STEP MPI Investment Team of the YEAR 2020/21 for consistent peer group outperformance and diligent risk controls.

We are rightly proud of our enviable client retention rates. Despite market volatility, not one client has chosen to leave during the past twelve months. On the contrary we have selectively added a number of new clients recently to take our total to just over 40 clients since establishing VAR Capital in 2014. Whilst not a huge increase this is purely by choice as we are loath to risk reducing service levels to our existing client base purely for growth’s sake. We grow mainly by client referrals and existing client portfolio top-ups and therefore service, tight cost controls and performance excellence are paramount to us.

VAR Capital manages assets for global structures, companies, and foundations. We are a nimble and dynamic firm and are passionate about client experience. Each onboarding is handled directly by our COO, who is supported by an experienced team. We pre-prepare all the client forms, and coordinate across the clients’ professional advisers.
Experience and Knowledge:

VAR Capital has a wealth of experience in onboarding complex structures. Furthermore, the CEO, Vikash Gupta, advises several families on wealth structuring, working closely with top city law and accounting firms. Previously a senior executive with Barclays he used to regularly train other bankers on complex structures and trusts.

The team has access to Datamonitor, Creditsafe, Lexis Nexis and other such anti-money laundering tools which assists in providing initial source of wealth and ongoing client monitoring. The onboarding team is supported by a set of external advisers:
March Compliance, Mishcon De Reya, enhanced due diligence firms such as Diligence.com
Due to the boutique approach adopted by VAR Capital, every client relationship is extremely important to us and therefore reporting and engagement with VAR is completely bespoke in order to suit individual client needs. In addition, there is a quarterly investment report covering the market update, key decisions made in the portfolio, the portfolio performance and fees.
Frequency of communication:
In the initial stages, we favour frequent interaction (e.g. weekly meetings/ calls) with our clients to share ideas, implementation approach, and execution. Going forward, communication can be as frequent as needed. Clients are able to input into setting the strategy and may change course anytime they wish, e.g. asset allocation, currency bias or risk profile

Client Reference:
The reason I backed the guys from day one is I honestly believe when it comes to stock selection, market timing and arranging banking they are a formidable team. They have run my liquid funds for many years, and their risk-adjusted returns have always substantially exceeded the market herd. So when they came to me to discuss setting up VAR Capital, it was a no-brainer for me, to become both an investor in the business, and to move my funds to VAR. It continues to be a very exciting time, and I thoroughly enjoy helping them build the business.

SUKHPAL SINGH AHLUWALIA, Founding client and VAR Capital’s Chairman of advisory board