Thames River has strengthened its property team with the appointment of Raymond Lahaut as manager of the Longstone long/short real estate equity fund.
Since its launch in November 2007, Longstone has grown by 23.65% (figures from 30.11.07 to 31.12.10, for euro share class), a period in which the Dow Jones Credit Suisse Long/Short Equity Hedge Fund Index rose by only 3.7% and EPRA, an index of European listed real estate securities, fell by 32.4%.
Lahaut has been managing portfolios of property securities since 1999, first with Insinger de Beaufort and later at Ohra Asset Management (part of the Aviva Group), Swiss Finance & Property and Portland Capital. He has run long/short portfolios since 2005, when he launched Europe’s first long/short real estate equity fund at Swiss Finance & Property (SFP). During his time with SFP, Lahaut achieved strong positive absolute numbers in volatile market conditions. Most recently he has worked on the sell side at Rabobank.
Lahaut’s philosophy and style of management is similar to the fund’s current strategy, investing on a fundamental bottom-up basis with an awareness of macro and sector drivers. He is an active manager and has historically generated alpha from both his long and short book. The investment objective of Longstone will remain the same under its new manager: to maximise absolute returns by utilising a strategy that does not, to any substantial degree, depend on favourable or unfavourable economic conditions. The fund predominantly invests in European real estate securities but will occasionally and on an opportunistic basis invest outside Europe.
Marcus Phayre-Mudge (pictured), Head of Property at Thames River, says of the appointment: “Raymond will be a valuable addition to our excellent property team, which has expertise in both property securities and direct property across the globe, with a range of strategies to suit different risk/reward profiles. His focus will be on managing the Longstone Fund, but the whole team will benefit from his global experience.”
Lahaut is a CFA charterholder and has a Bachelors degree from Limburg Business School and a Masters (Marketing and Marketing Research) from the University of Nijmegen, Amsterdam. He joined the team at Thames River with effect from 1 January 2011.
