HFR and Noble Investments have cemented their co-operation with the launch of a new series of structured investment products.

The launch of the Noble Multi-Strategy Notes follows the success of their initial collaboration earlier this year. The first series of Noble Multi-Strategy Notes was issued in April (2004) and raised USD 150 million within a six week subscription period.

The Series 2 Notes will be available in USD and, EUR. Barclays Capital is again acting as issuer and guarantor for the Notes and HFR Asset Management, a division of HFR Group in Chicago, will be the underlying investment manager.

The Notes will begin trading in November.
 
John Godden of HFR Europe said: "Although there has been a difficult period of performance over the last few months for hedge funds generally, most clients recognize the value of an efficient, liquid and transparent investment in a multi-manager hedge fund product."

He added: "Investing in a Hedge Fund Portfolio, within a well constructed Note such as that designed by Noble, following such a period of negative returns can be considered to be buying at a discount - historically the recovery from negative performance has been speedy partly aided by the lack of performance fees (usually up to 20% of net new highs) until the previous high is surpassed."