We believe liquidity should be a primary concern for every investor and investment manager, especially in times of churning market volatility. Liquidity is both a constraining factor as well as a source of enhanced returns.
For most investors, the liquidity trade-off is straightforward. Investors like liquid investments. But they don’t need all of their investments to be immediately liquid, and they can often earn higher returns if they accept some amount of illiquidity. That higher yield is known as the liquidity premium.
Liquidity in the Alternatives Space
Although private markets are less liquid than traded public markets, the returns of these alternative investments can potentially more than make up for the inconvenience of lower liquidity. These investments typically have three different fund structures:
Traditional Closed-End Funds
• Typically features a 2–5 year investment period, followed by a repayment phase that can extend the fund’s life to 7– 10 years or more.
• Liquidity is very limited: investor capital is returned as assets are liquidated. Investors can sell in secondary markets, but usually at a discount to net asset value (NAV).
Traditional Open-Ended Funds
• Investors can purchase at will, typically at the fund’s NAV, and don’t have a set termination date.
• Liquidity options vary: from daily to annual redemptions, often following a lock-up period. Redemption limits are designed to mirror the liquidity of underlying fund assets.
Interval Funds
• Closed-end funds that offer periodic redemptions, typically up to 5% of NAV quarterly. Fund assets are invested to meet the redemptions without distressed sales.
• Liquidity depends on aggregate redemption demand. The redemption limit applies to the entire fund, rather than to individual investors, with excess requests prorated. Ironically, redemptions spike when investors want cash to manage market turmoil and their other investments show a loss.
Balancing Returns and Liquidity
At Arixa Capital, funds are structured as open-ended vehicles that leverage the liquidity of their underlying assets. We invest in hundreds of small loans secured by residential and multifamily real estate. Over time, we’ve originated over $6 billion of loans that steadily turnover and generate a natural liquidity stream. There’s also an active secondary loan market that further enhances liquidity.
Ultimately, we think what Arixa offers is something fairly unique: a short lock-up period (1 year), followed by a high liquidity allowance (25% quarterly). This setup strikes a balance between accessing the illiquidity premium of private markets and offering investors a practical level of personal liquidity.
