Mutual Funds / Managed Investing: New U.S. Fund Lures Japanese Money
American investors may be shunning U.S. stock funds these days, but not the Japanese; a record $700 million of Japanese money this week poured into a new U.S. mutual fund.</br></br>The new fund, Nomura Rosenberg Alpha Fund Mark II, is managed by Rosenberg Institutional Equity Management of Orinda, Calif. The firm is run by onetime university professor Barr Rosenberg, known for his highly mathematical approach to stock market investing. Proceeds were raised by Japan's Nomura Securities Co.</br></br>Richard Bartels, a partner at Rosenberg Institutional Equity, said all $700 million was invested Monday through Wednesday, with orders scattered among 35 brokers. Much of that money went into stock-index futures, he said, with the goal of later switching it into individual stocks.</br></br>The Japanese fundholders aren't outright bullish about the U.S., though. Although the fund will be fully invested in U.S. equities, its dollar currency exposure can be hedged by Nomura against the yen. Perhaps influenced by the dollar's more than 50% plunge against the yen over the past three years, the fund is starting out with 60% of its holdings protected against a drop in the dollar.</br></br>Japanese investors have invested plenty of money in U.S. equities in the past few years. But most of that has been done by Japanese insurance companies or trust banks, rather than by U.S. advisers of any kind, particularly mutual-fund managers.