Gartmore has decided to close its macro hedge fund after incurring heavy losses during July's bond market turmoil.

The Global Macro fund was managed by Jeremy Hale, who has left Gartmore. At its peak the fund had assets of about USD 20 million. The fund had not performed well since its inception in February 2002, losing 9.5 per cent on a cumulative basis and dropping to USD 12 million in assets under management.

Despite the closure assets under management in its hedge fund range are growing strongly and Gartmore intends to increase hedge fund assets from the current level of USD 3 billion to USD 5 billion over the next two years.

Gartmore' s recently launched credit hedge fund attracted USD 50m on its opening day and will re-open to new investment for a single day next month.

Copyright Hedgeweek 2003