A sexy alternative

A sexy alternative

Would you sink your life savings into classic cars, fine wines, or expensive art? Kipp would, if we had any life savings.

February 9, 2011 2:43 by Samuel Potter

There are two types of people in this world: Those who are interesting at parties, and those who aren’t. Kipp is one of the interesting ones, or at least we are after a couple of ‘refreshments’. One time, we challenged the host to an arm wrestle during the appetizers, pretended our main course was alive and shouting for help, and sang our national anthem during dessert. In short, we were a riot. Although, oddly, we were never invited back.

Being such an interesting website, we like interesting things. So the latest way to invest money has caught our eye. A new investment fund, named IGA Automobile, is offering investors the chance to put their money in cars. Not literally in cars (like in the trunk), but in the fund that will then buy a range of rare classic cars and wait for their value to go up.

The fund aims to launch in April with a target of $150 million, and has already drawn up a list of 25 cars which it hopes to acquire. They include the Ferrari 250 GTO and the Aston Martin DB4 Zagato, according to reports. It’s a seven year fund with a minimum investment of $500,000, but what sort of return can you expect? Well, according to Ray Bellm, a co-founder of the fund and former chairman of the British Racing Drivers’ Club, if you’d bought a classic car for $8 million in 1991, it would now be worth $82 million.

“As people get fed up with paper assets they have gone back to physical assets,” says Bellm. “With emerging nations gaining more wealth there is increasing demand for cars. They are pieces of art.”

Speaking of art, if classic cars don’t float your boat, how about a pretty picture or two? According to the National, it’s the next ‘investment craze’ set to sweep the UAE (as if we’re a bunch of teenagers looking for the next Justin Beaver, or whatever he’s called). Emirate’s NBD’s private banking division has now launched an art investment fund that aims to grab some profits from the Middle East’s $10 billion art market.

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Tags: alternative assets, alternative investments, art fund, classic car fund, emirates nbd art, fine wine fund, iga automobile, investing in art, investing in cars, investing in wine