Gartmore is adding a new European financial sector equity long/short strategy to its range of AlphaGen single strategy funds.

Gartmore has USD 4.4 billion under management (as at 30 April 2004) in its rapidly growing single strategy hedge funds unit, headed by Martin Phipps. The new AlphaGen RhoCas Fund, scheduled to launch on 1 July, will be managed by Simon Peters, Tom Hedges and Dae Levy.

Peters and Hedge have been part of the Gartmore Financials team for over five years. Levy joined Gartmore recently from the Government Investment Corporation of Singapore, where he managed substantial assets in various European equity and financial funds, as well as a global financials fund.

The universe of potential opportunities for the new fund will encompass banks, brokers, insurance, diversified financials and real estate companies. These will be primarily through companies in European markets, but with the scope to take advantage of global opportunities, of up to 25% of assets.

The fund will be non-directional in nature and will typically trade within a net exposure range of +/-20%. Significant leverage will not be employed with the gross exposure limited to 300% of net assets and typically ranging from 150% to 250%.

Gartmore stated: "We have a strong financials long/short track record, which has been achieved within our European sector neutral strategy, This has been running since 13 August 2001 and through 30 April 2004 had produced an annualised net return of 13% (source: internal calculations). This has been achieved with a market neutral constraint. The greater flexibility of the AlphaGen RhoCas will provide the opportunity to generate an increased level of Alpha."

Minimum investment in the new Cayman-domiciled, Irish listed fund is USD 100,000 or EUR 100,000.