London-based Trafalgar Capital Management, an alternative asset manager established in 2001, announced this week it was m
London-based Trafalgar Capital Management, an alternative asset manager established in 2001, announced this week it was making its first foray into the UCITS universe. Named the Trafalgar Quadrant Fund plc, it follows the ever-popular equity l/s investment strategy in pursuit of alpha, with industry veteran Chris Poil taking the reigns as Investment Director. Poil has over 22 years’ experience since his career first began at Mercury Asset Management. This UCITS III-compliant fund joins Trafalgar’s stable of three hedge fund strategies at a time when investors are clambering to move assets into more regulated and non-benchmark linked absolute return funds. Quadrant uses the FTSE 350 from which to pick stocks, and, as alluded to in its title, splits companies into four segments based on growth and value characteristics. Those in recovery will be targeted, with Poil commenting in the official press release: “Strong performance can be created by identifying the ‘torpedoes’ on the reverse side of the trade [that] have poor capital structures. Now is also the perfect time in the investment cycle to exploit recovery situations.” Senior portfolio manager, Josh Jacobson, is supporting Poil in stock selection. Trafalgar Chief Executive, Chris Aarons, said of the fund’s launch: “This new UCITS vehicle enables us to meet the needs of UK professional investors. Given the interest we are seeing from institutional and private client wealth managers right now, we believe this avenue gives Trafalgar a significant edge in the UK market.”
