World’s first publicly listed whisky investment fund opens

A Swedish entrepreneur has launched what is thought to be the world’s first publicly traded whisky investment fund, called The Single Malt Fund.

The Single Malt Fund is thought to be world’s first publicly traded whisky investment fund

Founded by whisky enthusiast Christian Svantesson, The Single Malt Fund gives collectors and investors the chance to invest in rare and limited-edition whisky.

While a number of private equity whisky investment firms have launched in recent years, The Single Malt Fund is thought to be the first that is regulated and publicly listed.

The fund will be supervised by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority and has received approval to launch on the Nordic Growth Market (NGM) exchange in Stockholm, Sweden. It aims to raise €25 million in early 2018.

According to Svantesson, the fund will have an “active investment strategy”. Sales will be managed through its own website, where rare whisky will be made available to investors before going up for sale on the open market.

The fund is taking a minimum of €1,000 (US$1,245) investments before it’s listed on NGM on 12 March.

“The Single Malt Fund is created for whisky enthusiasts and others who want to invest in rare whisky,” said Svantesson. “When selling, the fund will first offer its limited rare whisky to its investors, giving them access to selected rare whisky which is hard to come by. Hopefully, this will make the rare whisky market more inclusive and accessible for everyone.

“After having experienced how my own limited rare whiskies had appreciated in value, I realised that this is an investor’s market, which needs to be taken seriously and professionally. As an entrepreneur, I couldn’t resist the temptation to combine my passion for whisky with my entrepreneurial drive.

“I wanted to create kind of a ‘commodity fund’ for whisky – regulated, transparent, open and listed on a public exchange, preferably here in Sweden.”

According to analysts at Rare Whisky 101 (RW101), collectors bought 21,617 bottles of Scotch malt whisky at UK auctions in April, May and June last year, compared to 12,638 in the same period in 2016 – an increase of 71%.

The Single Malt Fund follows the launch of Whisky Invest Direst Ltd, the world’s first online trading platform for maturing Scotch stocks, in 2015.

In 2014, a private £3 million investment fund was unveiled by members of the China Single Malt Club, while the world’s first private equity whisky fund launched in Hong Kong in 2014.