The Guitar Fund Featured on CNBC's Squawk Box -Alternative Investing

Dec. 12, 2010 - PRLog -- Mr. Byrne, an accomplished collector and semi-pro Luthier was invited onto CNBC’s Squawk Box (Europe) to discuss the advantages of including vintage guitars as a new asset class to help round off investors’ portfolios.  Collectibles have recently become popular as a non-correlated investment strategy since they are both an asset backed investment as well as one which tends to hedge against inflation.  ACIM’s Guitar Fund is the first investment strategy to take advantage of the low risk / high returns of the vintage guitar market.

When asked to explain why vintage guitars were a good asset class to diversify into, Mr. Byrne said “Like all wooden stringed instruments, including violins, cellos and even pianos, every time you strum, pluck or bow the strings, you are sending vibrations through the wood and actually changing its molecular structure.   Over time, this creates a warmer, crisper and more individualistic tone for each instrument, making it very personal to each musician”.  He went on to say “Even when compared to other collectibles like art, wine, coins, stamps, watches, cars, etc. this is an investment which improves every time you use it.  You can’t say that about things like art, even though you may enjoy that investment on your wall, it doesn’t improve every time you look at it”.

In 1991, Vintage Guitar Magazine developed an Index of 42 mid-market guitars as a guide to see how well they appreciated over the years.  The developers of the Index purposely did not include blue chip collectibles as components of the Index so that it would be considered a conservative price guide to the market as a whole.   Over the past 20 years the index has reported an average annual return of approximately 22% with only one declining period (the two years surrounding the global credit crisis 2008/09).  In fact, Vintage guitars have outperformed all of the traditional investment strategies such as stocks, bonds, real estate and commodities by a wide margin over the past 40 years.  When compared to the Dow Jones since 1970, the components of the 42 Index have appreciated 140% per year whereas the Dow Jones has demonstrated an average annual return of approximately 38% over the same period along with a much more volatile journey.  The Managers of the Fund will also be looking at the blue chips which are not part of the Index, since these have greatly out-paced all other collectible guitars.

Mr. Byrne described the Fund as a 10-Year close-end vehicle to be listed on the Channel Island Stock Exchange (“CISX”).  There will be a three-year lock-up period followed by annual redemption allowances to allow for some liquidity.  

The Fund is benefitted by a management team with expertise in both vintage guitars and asset management as well as an Advisory Board of qualified vintage guitar experts including some celebrity vintage guitar collectors such as Robbin Thompson who in his early career was the lead singer for Bruce Springsteen’s band Steel Mill before going onto a successful solo career and Elliot Randall who is best known for some of his solo guitar work with Steely Dan including “Reelin’ in the Years” and “Green Earrings”.

To watch the CNBC interview online - go to this link-     http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1687072767&play=1

Website  -    www.anchorage-cim.com

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ACIM was originally established in 2009 as a one-stop-shop advisory firm for companies in the fast paced music industry who wanted to stay ahead of the curve which was shaping their industry. As we developed interest from a wider range of industries and deal types, we brought together an in-house team of consultants, corporate finance advisers and cross-border legal counsel, allowing us to offer advice on three fronts. Having in-house legal advice with specific expertise in mergers & acquisitions, securitization of intellectual property and corporate finance deal structuring, we are able to distinguish ourselves from other boutique firms, allowing us to be extremely competitive.

We have also established a proprietary arm which allows us to develop, structure and co-invest in deals as principal. We look for take-overs, M&A deals, roll-ups and buy-outs within the music industry, including musical instrument manufacturing, media, aviation and associated technologies.