Alternative investments as an asset class. What is it?
ARTinvestment.RU   28 января 2020

Talk about alternative investments — everything at the same time must provide the owner money, fame, and adrenaline

Investment is always accompanied by risks, and a companion risk is the excitement. Passion player experiences collector, trading at auction for a work by a famous author with international participants, the excitement of the athlete wakes up in the owner of the football club in a crowded stadium, the excitement of the rider are inherent to the investor in the thoroughbred stallions at the races. It is easy to count on passion is an investor earns three times gives us the splash of his own passion (emotional investment), makes the excitement of the audience (a financial investment), and expands its networking and status, opening opportunities for new business-инициатив with people of his circle (social investment).

the Sector of alternative investments (Alternative Investments) is sometimes called the luxury market (Luxury Market) collectables (Collectibles). This is partly true, but let it be clear in this definition: the essence of collectibles does not reflect the number of subjects or frequency of purchases, and refined taste, and a private expert opinion of the owner. A successful collector will inevitably become a connoisseur of his subject: as for their own interest and development and for competent asset management. Working with securities, it reacts on courses, rates and indices. With alternative investments, the palette of his interests is becoming much more diverse: now he is obliged to notice all the — from the emergence of new cultural trends to the smallest fluctuations in society.

Conference Deloitte Art & 2019 Finance in Monaco, the Premier forum for professionals of the art market, has dedicated a whole unit to discuss alternative investments — hours, yachts and aircraft. None of the people gathered in the hall art-дилеров and functionaries of the market has not seen anything surprising. Professionals working with private capital have long understood that the interests of the people should be grouped according to two principles: the motives for the acquisition and management principles. And they are from a collector of art, wine and vintage cars are very similar.

Leaders in the field of analysis of private capital — Capgemini and Merrill Lynch —, there are the following segments of alternative investments:

• Art Collections / art;
• Jewelry, Gems & Watches / Jewelry, gems and watches;
• Luxury Collectibles / luxury goods (cars, boats and planes);
• Sports Investments / Sports (clubs, race horses, sport yachts);
• Other Collectibles / Other collectibles (numismatics, alcohol, Antiques, musical instruments, weapons, club card).

How these segments are distributed among the investors? Analysts from Capgemini made three attempts in 2006, 2008 and 2013, they produced World Wealth Report "exfoliate" collector's portfolio, analyzing the collection of wealthy owners:

the Main thing that draws attention in the table below: segment of the alternative investment slowly but surely, increasing the amount of capital invested in the sport. The mortgage crisis of 2008 forced people to reconsider the relation to the liquidity of the investment (in other words, the ability of the asset to be sold as soon as possible) — in this regard, the leader of investment are precious stones, and objects of art and luxury-сегмент stepped out of financial fashion. The increased interest in the period of turbulence in the sector "other items" is easily explained: here the leader is captured the collector's whiskey.

And holds it still! Report Knight Frank 2019 shows that over the last 10 years, the interest in whiskey as an object of investment has increased by 582 % in monetary terms. In 2018, the most expensive lot was a bottle of The Macallan 1926, sold at Christie's for $1.5 million. the bottle Itself was painted by Irish artist-муралист Michael Dillon — is another example of the close intertwining of interests in alternative investments.

Dynamics of investments into other assets over ten years as follows: cars ( 258 %), numismatics ( 193 %), philately ( 189 %), art ( 158 %), wine ( 147 %), precious stones ( 122 %), jewellery ( 112 %), watches ( 73 %). During the reporting period passed position only antique furniture (-32 %). Interestingly, several segments — philately, wine, whiskey, jewelry and cars — its top-лотами in 2018 has set sales records for all time of the auction.

From 2008 to 2018 financial condition HNWI (High Net Worth Individuals, people with a net worth of $1 million to $30 million) increased by 108 % — from $32.6 trillion to $68,1 trillion. In aggregate, according to Deloitte Art & Finance Report 2019, objects of art and collectibles in the possession of the HNWI are estimated at $1.74 trillion, representing 2.5% of their assets. Given market dynamics, it is assumed that by 2023 the volume of alternative investments will rise to $2.13 trillion. In addition, 30% of the HNWI in Russia and CIS countries to 2019 already made conscious gambling investment.

In the following, we will focus on each of the types of alternative investments separately — with pros and cons, market analysis, forecasting and control mechanisms.

Denys Belkevych, AI