The Launch of New Fine Wine Stock Exchange Encourages APW Asset Management and Lunzer Wine Investments

    LONDON, ENGLAND, May 03, 2013 /24-7PressRelease/ -- APW Asset Management are delighted to announce that they are now an approved member and user of Cavex, the recently launched independent fine wine trading platform.

Cavex, which has been almost 2 years in the making, is aiming to break new ground in the way fine wine is traded, providing competition to already existing exchanges.

Cavex co-founder, Stephen Maunder, a veteran of both the City and Bibendum's Fine Wine division (his business partner and co-founder Daniel Haig has been in the wine trade for seven years, having held posts at John Armitt, Bibendum and South Korean fund, Wine Networks) believes that the platform will be welcomed competition for Liv-ex and in particular Berry Bros & Rudd's BBX.

The Cavex exchange platform is said to be unlike any other UK-based exchange model. The London International Vintners Exchange (Liv-ex), the first and the most successful of its kind, is now arguably the world's most important and used fine wine-trading platform for merchants and traders. The new Cavex platform is distinctly different to Liv-ex because the platform is open to private individuals. It is also different to the BBX trading platform of Berry Bros & Rudd's for two reasons; one is that the trade (merchants, brokers, etc) can use the site and the other is its fee structure - Cavex takes 3% commission on both sides of the trade, in contrast, BBX's one-sided transaction, with the seller paying the full 10% broking commission.

Speaking to the drinks business earlier on this year, Maunder said: "We believe we are filling in a gap in the market. Are we competition to BBX and Liv-ex? Yes but their business models are very different, Liv-ex is for the trade, BBX is open for private consumers but you have to move your wine into the Berry system."

The exchange is primarily aimed at private collectors, although it is also open to the trade. It will hold data on approximately 50,000 wines, is open to global buyers and sellers, but wines can only be traded through recognised UK bonded warehouses. Cavex charge 3% transaction commission to both the buyer and the seller. Those involved in the trade must be members of Cavex and the wine must be stored in bond within the UK.

Damien Dawson, COO at Fine wine advisors, APW Asset Management said, "unlike like Liv-ex, Cavex is universal and primarily designed to provide a live trading platform for private collectors, as well as offering portfolio management. There is also no limit to the amount of wine involved in each transaction - from cases down to single bottles, this suits our needs perfectly. Most important of all for APW, is it will potentially generate much greater rates of return on investment for our clients."

Fine Wine investment fund manager Peter Lunzer of Lunzer Wine Investments said about the Cavex model, "he thought many collectors and investors would like the idea of cutting out merchants and brokers to buy and sell wines direct at an agreed price."

The significance of brokers such as APW Asset Management using the Cavex platform is that it gives the companies access to the best available prices globally for the wines the company offers and looks to trade on behalf of clients. It will also enable the likes of APW to provide the opportunity to sell wines back onto the secondary market at the retail/consumer price almost immediately should any client wish to capitalise.

Established in the UK in 2002, we have over 2000 UK-based customer portfolios and approximately GBP25m worth of wine under management.

Website: http://apwassetmanagement.com

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