Joachim Gottschalk, chairman and chief executive of Gottex Fund Management, will tell shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting today that its core market neutral and portable alpha strategies outperformed their relevant indices and benchmarks by substantial margins in 2009.
Gottschalk will also say that 2009 was an unpredictable year, which included an extraordinary rally in global capital markets and outstanding performance for hedge funds in general.
“It is our view that the strong performance by hedge funds in 2009 will translate into institutional inflows for the industry as the year progresses, followed by inflows from private investors in the year thereafter. On the back of our strong investment performance during the past year, we believe Gottex is well positioned to participate in these flows. As an industry, we are seeing increased scrutiny from institutional investors and regulators with respect to the quality of staff, robustness of infrastructure, transparency, strength of investment process and advanced risk management before mandates are awarded,” Gottschalk will state.
The meeting includes the adoption of Gottex’s annual financial statements, the proposal of the final dividend of USD0.115 per share, the re-appointment of the company’s auditors and the re-election of certain directors.
JP Bailey, currently a director of the board of Gottex and member of Gottex’s executive management committee, has expressed his intent to step down from the company’s board and EMC to focus fully on Gottex’s asset based and direct investing business. He will continue to act as a portfolio manager and senior managing director of the company.
