Gestion alternative UCITS III

Lloyd George Management, a boutique London-based investment firm established by the eponymous Robert Lloyd George (pictured) in 1991 in the belief that India and China would play an increasingly important role in the global economy, has confirmed plans to roll out a UCITS version of its frontier markets equity fund. The firm, which became a subsidiary of BMO Global Asset Management in January this year, prides itself on its expertise in Asian and global Emerging Market equities.

C’est la conclusion du rapport intitulé « le nouveau rôle des Hedge Funds dans l'économie mondiale » du docteur Everett Ehrlich.

Il y a une semaine, le docteur Everett Ehrlich [1], président d’ESC Company, a rendu public un rapport qui risque de faire grand bruit. Consacré aux Hedge Funds et à leurs performances, le rapport évalue les bénéfices (en milliards de dollars) que pourraient rapporter l’industrie des hedge funds aux régimes de retraite et aux dotations universitaires aux États-Unis.

Ce rapport, intitulé « The Changing Role of Hedge Funds in the Global Economy » (Le nouveau rôle des Hedge Funds dans l’économie mondiale), utilise des outils statistiques et mathématiques afin d’estimer la contribution de Hedge Funds à des portefeuilles d’investissement. Le rapport examine aussi en détail la façon dont les Hedge Funds ont évolué pour devenir un outil prisé par les institutions dans l’intérêt général afin de diversifier leurs investissements, gérer leur risque et obtenir des performances fiables et régulières.

Le rapport constate qu’une allocation modérée à des Hedge Funds augmenterait les performances des régimes de pension publics américains de quelques 13 milliards de dollars chaque année !

Fitch Ratings said in a recent report that uncertain market liquidity or the inability to fully deploy leverage may make some credit hedge fund-like strategies less than compatible with a UCITS structure. The agency says many credit hedge fund strategies are now largely available in a UCITS format (commonly referred to as NewCits).

Fitch estimates that the total assets under management (AuM) of European credit UCITS funds, which have an absolute return objective and employ hedge fund strategies, is approximately EUR20bn.

Old Mutual Asset Managers is preparing to launch a new UCITS fund for manager Simon Murphy in the fourth quarter this year, subject to regulatory approval. The Old Mutual UK Opportunities Fund will be domiciled in Ireland and invest across the market capitalisation spectrum to deliver positive returns over a 3- to 5-year investment cycle. It will combine top-down macro views with bottom-up fundamental analysis to identify equity opportunities and be market directional.

The fourth fund on Matrix’s UCITS platform was launched this week: the Cantab Quantitative UCITS Fund, a systematic global macro fund. As with most onshore alternative UCITS, it will seek to replicate the performance of its offshore counterpart; namely the CCP Quantitative Fund. Matrix Money Management Limited will use the UCITS platform to support the fund’s operational, risk management and regulatory requirements with Cantab Capital Partners acting as investment manager to the sub-fund. Cantab is based in Cambridge.

SW Mitchell Capital, the USD2billion London-based European equities specialist is planning to soft close the UCITS fund it launched just four months after enjoying solid asset inflows reported HFMWeek this week. The Dublin-domiciled SWMC Small Cap European Fund, an onshore version of the firm’s offshore USD110million fund which employs an equity l/s approach, now has assets in excess of USD60million and is pushing the combined strategy close to its USD200million ceiling.

Fund information provider Morningstar has dropped its use of ‘Absolute Return’ to classify UCITS funds available in Europe and Asia and replaced it with 18 new classifications reported Fundweb recently. A decision that has been widely applauded by fund advisers. The new classification system will categorise funds based on their underlying investment portfolio and risk exposures, in addition to region, asset class and specific strategies. Categories include: Currency, Diversified Arbitrage, Systematic Futures, Volatility, Global Macro etc.

London-based LNG Capital is preparing to launch a UCITS-compliant version of its flagship LNG Europa Credit Fund reported HFMWeek this week. The offshore fund, which pursues a liquid credit long/short strategy using a top-down macro process, commenced trading 31 March and is apparently up 6 per cent YTD through September. The onshore UCITS – Europa Corporate Bond Fund – has a USD500million capacity and offers investors the choice of six share classes. Its fee structure is 1.25/20 and liquidity will be bi-monthly. It will initially roll out with USD30million from European family offices, FoHFs, and private banks.