SVM UK Absolute Alpha Fund, the new launch from Edinburgh-based independent fund management group SVM Asset Management, has been approved by the Financial Services Authority.
SVM UK Absolute Alpha Fund, the new launch from Edinburgh-based independent fund management group SVM Asset Management, has been approved by the Financial Services Authority.
The launch period will run from 11 March to April.
SVM Asset Management was founded in 1990 and is a privately owned boutique investment company based in Edinburgh. The firm’s principal specialisations are UK and European equities, and multi-asset fund of funds. It manages assets for both retail and institutional clients and products include investment trusts, pension funds, OEICS and hedge funds.
SVM believes 2009 could produce a very mixed bag of results and is launching SVM UK Absolute Alpha Fund to give investors the opportunity to profit from both rising and falling share prices.
The Ucits fund will give investors the advantage of a long/short investment approach in a structure which is transparent and easy to access. It will be managed by Colin Mclean (pictured).
The new fund will invest in UK equities, similar to the SVM Saltire fund which delivered positive returns of +19.7 per cent in 2008, compared to a fall of 29.9 per cent in the FTSE All Share Index.
SVM UK Absolute Alpha Fund will close to new investment when assets reach GBP200m.
McLean says: ‘We continue to witness unprecedented market events and fund managers need to adopt new tools and strategies to deal with these conditions. We believe that trying to time markets or call the bottom of the market is doomed to failure and the key is bottom up company analysis.
‘The crisis has proved that experts have no monopoly on wisdom or information and there is a lot of information available beyond that provided by companies and city analysts. At SVM we do not rely on these sources and avoid making investment decisions based on traditional measures such as earnings per share, which can be manipulated by company boards.
‘By concentrating on top line measures such as cash conversion and operating profit margin we can identify the companies with the fundamentals to do well despite the recession, and also those which might suffer as a result of deteriorating trading, balance sheet weakness or high valuation.’
