Wave Financial Group (Wave) has announced that it has received its first round of investment from clients and has brought 1,000 barrels of Kentucky bourbon whiskey from the Wilderness Trail distillery.
The latest development will offer investors exposure to a real asset that would be exceptionally difficult. Investors will also benefit from the potential uplift in value throughout the premium whiskey’s ageing process.
Earlier this year Coin Rivet reported on Wave’s initial announcement, with estimations reaching 25,000 barrels of 2020-vintage bourbon, equating to a year’s worth of production.
A unique and innovative characteristic will be the tokenisation of the holding in year two. It is envisaged that investors will hold for the full 5 to 6 year ageing period before bottling, but for those that wish to sell earlier, Wave will be tokenising the holdings in order to facilitate a potential exit should any investors wish to do so.
Benjamin Tsai, President at Wave and manager of the fund said: “For investors to gain exposure to real assets that have impressive investment fundamentals such as whiskey is very difficult, but now it is possible via our fund. Following the launch in March we are delighted to have completed our first tranche time sensitive capital raise and purchased 1,000 barrels of physical premium Kentucky bourbon whiskey on behalf of our investors.
“Our extensive research has shown that the returns from ageing Kentucky bourbon are very stable and strong over the circa five year period it spends in barrels before being bottled, so we are delighted to be able to provide investors with exposure to this price appreciation.”
After considerable research into many typically hard-to-access real assets, Wave found that the historical returns from premium Kentucky bourbon whiskey ageing in barrels were more stable and provided more potential upside than other real assets such as fine wine, rare art and pedigree race horses.
David Seimer, CEO at Wave added: “As a US based regulated investment management group we are committed to offering exposure to the best assets that offer the strongest potential returns.
“With our unique access to Wilderness Trail’s whiskey production capacity for this year remaining open, we are in a great position to continue the capital raise for the fund.”
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