RWC Partners’ Ajay Gambhir is set to launch the RWC Europe Absolute Alpha Fund, a Ucits III pan-European long/short equity fund.
The new fund will launch at the end of July following the launch of Mike Corcell’s RWC US Absolute Alpha fund, which has raised over USD400m since its launch in October 2009.
RWC Europe Absolute Alpha Fund will be managed using Gambhir’s long-running European long/short investment strategy, while the Ucits III structure brings the additional benefit of daily liquidity and share classes that will have local registrations in a number of European countries.
Gambhir, who started managing European long/short funds in 2003, joined RWC Partners from JP Morgan Asset Management in 2007 and launched his Cayman-domiciled Europe hedge fund in September. Since launch in 2003 Gambhir’s investment strategy has produced annualised returns of more than 13.1 per cent against the MSCI Europe equity index having annualised returns of just 3.7 per cent over the same period. The strategy has achieved this with volatility of only 7.9 per cent, less than half that of the index (16.0 per cent).
Peter Harrison (pictured), chief executive of RWC Partners, says: “Ucits III absolute return funds are generating a huge amount of investor interest but most of them don’t yet have long track records. Ajay has been managing long/short equity funds for seven years, and through protracted bull and bear phases his approach has shone out. He is one of the few fund managers in the European long/short space that has a proven track record, so investors will know what they can expect from our new fund.”
The firm currently manages substantial assets in Ucits III funds and recently announced that Nick Purves and Ian Lance will join the company in August 2010 from Schroders to launch a range of income funds.
The RWC Europe Absolute Alpha will sit alongside the other RWC Ucits III funds: RWC US Absolute Alpha; RWC Advance Absolute Alpha Fund; and RWC Global Convertibles Fund.
