Gartmore launches new healthcare hedge fund

Tue, 28/10/2003 - 08:10

Fund Links

all funds all hedge all etf all open ended all closed ended all ucits all traditional/long all property all private equity by structure by strategy by country by city by domicile by administrator by custodian closures launches

Gartmore has launched its first healthcare hedge fund, with the long/short equity strategy opening to investors at the start of November.

The AlphaGen Arneb Fund, managed by Paul Cluskey from the Group's San Diego, California office, is the eleventh fund in Gartmore's AlphaGen range of hedge funds.

Martin Phipps, Head of Hedge Funds at Gartmore, said: "This shows our ongoing commitment to building our hedge fund business. In just four years, Gartmore has established itself as a world-class provider of hedge fund products and our hedge fund assets now stand at USD 3.5bn. Moreover, we will continue to build on this momentum and add to our range with funds that are in line with investor needs."

The strategy was seeded in December 2001, and since inception, the fund has recorded a net return of 18% with a Sharpe Ratio of 1.9. Net assets currently stand at USD 20 million and the fund has a capacity of approximately USD 350 million. The fund focuses on broad-based US healthcare, including biotech, HMOs, medical devices and hospitals.

AlphaGen Arneb will be available to both US and European institutional investors, and its launch comes a few months after the start of the company's global credit hedge fund, AlphaGen Credit, which brought in over USD 50 million on its opening day.

Paul Cluskey is the Head Portfolio Manager of the AlphaGen Arneb Funds, LLC & LDC. Prior to joining Gartmore Group in December 2000, Cluskey was a Portfolio Manager for Nicholas Applegate, and was the Co-Lead Manager of the Nicholas Applegate Global Healthcare Fund. Additionally, Cluskey was Co-Manager of the Nicholas Applegate Small Cap Growth and Mini Cap Growth Funds where he focused exclusively on healthcare companies. Prior to Nicholas Applegate, he held positions with SEI Investments and Piper Jaffray.

Background Note: Gartmore Investment Management plc is the London-based international asset management arm of Gartmore Group, a global investment management organisation that is part of Nationwide, the US insurance group. Offering a wide range of investment products and services tailored to meet the varying needs of both institutional and retail investors, the Gartmore Group has GBP 44.6 billion assets under management as at 30 June 2003 and has offices in the UK, Germany, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Spain, Sweden and the US, with approximately 1,000 staff including 174 investment professionals.