Pioneer Alternative Investments has announced plans to launch Pioneer Absolute Return Equity Asia, a Ucits III fund aimed at private investors that aims to make positive absolute returns w
Pioneer Alternative Investments has announced plans to launch Pioneer Absolute Return Equity Asia, a Ucits III fund aimed at private investors that aims to make positive absolute returns with low market correlation, in collaboration with Luxembourg-based firm Structured Invest.
The introduction of the new fund follows the launch on November 2 last year of the Pioneer Absolute Return Equity fund, which also offers a hedge fund strategy through a Ucits III product and had grown to more than EUR236m by April 25.
Pioneer Absolute Return Equity Asia captures the returns of an underlying hedge fund strategy managed by Pioneer Alternative Investments by entering into a total return swap transaction, since Ucits III funds are not allowed to directly short stock but can achieve the same economic result using derivatives.
The formal launch date for Pioneer Absolute Return Equity Asia, which is available in euro and US dollar unit classes, is June 3. The fund is currently available for public distribution in Luxembourg and will shortly be available in Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Austria.
The underlying hedge fund strategy takes a predominantly Asian equity long/short approach based on a thematic and fundamental bottom-up method rather than a quantitative strategy. Principle fund manager Manuele Moi and deputy fund manager Adrian Doyle are responsible for the underlying strategy at Pioneer Alternative Investments.
‘We believe this innovative approach of making a true absolute return strategy available within the well-regulated Ucits III framework is a move which will only grow in popularity with all types of investors as the demand for outcome-oriented solutions increases,’ says chief executive Alberto La Rocca.
‘I see further opportunities for us to offer the Pioneer Alternative Investments long/short capabilities in this type of vehicle as well as the more traditional hedge fund structure.’
The firm’s chief investment officer for single-manager funds, Luca Mengoni, adds: ‘Asia remains an impressive growth story but with some cyclicality and with diversity of returns across the various markets. Long/short is an optimal strategy to capture these different opportunities.’
Pioneer Alternative Investments was established in 1999 and offers a range of single-strategy, multistrategy and multimanager hedge funds from its investment centre in Dublin and its other main operations in London and Milan. It had total assets under management exceeding EUR6.34bn at the end of April.
Pioneer Alternative Investments is the alternative investment management arm of Pioneer Investments, the investment management subsidiary of Italy’s UniCredito group, which had EUR210.46bn in assets under management at the end of April.
The group, which has offices in 25 countries around the world and employs more than 2,300 staff, offers mutual funds, alternative investments and structured products to clients that include institutions, corporations, intermediaries and private investors, with institutional clients accounting for more than EUR54bn.
