Ratio Asset Management, a European equities alternative investment firm, has hired European small and mid-cap veteran Alice Squires to head its investor relations function.
Squires (née Pullin) was previously at Deutsche Bank where she was director and head of pan-European small/mid-cap equity sales from 2000 to 2005.
Squires began her career in investment banking at Natwest Securities in 1994 before moving to the Natwest UK small/mid cap sales desk in 1997.
Ratio Asset Management manages two European equities funds: the flagship Ratio European Fund and the Ratio European Opportunities Fund.
The Ratio European Fund is a small- and mid-cap European equity hedge fund managed by Ratio Asset Management founding partners Jonathan Sharpe and Ralph Jainz, with USD150m in assets under management.
The Ratio European Opportunities Fund invests on the same principles but in mid and large-cap European equities and was established in May this year. It is managed by Ton Tija, who was head of European research at Schroders before founding Olympus Capital Management. He sold Olympus in 2005 and then moved to Millennium Capital Partners.
Sharpe says: “We are excited about Ratio’s prospects after five years in existence, delivering consistently attractive returns. We quickly identified Alice as the ideal person to help tell our story to potential investors, considering her knowledge of the small and mid-cap asset class and the diverse investment opportunity it offers. With our collective experience and few direct competitors, Ratio is ideally positioned to take advantage of the continuing structural and valuation inefficiencies in our asset class and continue to deliver good performance.”
