Morgan Stanley onboards US financial services-focused equity l/s UCITS

FundLogic Alternatives Plc, Morgan Stanley’s Dublin-domiciled UCITS umbrella, announced this week that it had teamed up with Sandler O’Neill Asset Management to launch a new UCITS fund: MS SOAM US Financial Services UCITS Fund. The fund is to be managed by New York-based SOAM and will target the US financial services industry by employing an equity l/s strategy. The fund will provide investors with weekly liquidity. David Armstrong, Managing Director and Global Head of Fund-Linked business at Morgan Stanley said that this latest addition to the FundLogic Alternatives platform was “another step towards an increasingly diversified offering”. The platform recently onboarded Indus Capital Partners in January this year to give investors exposure to an Asia Pacific-focused equity l/s strategy. “We continue to see strong appetite from investors for absolute return strategies in a Ucits format and find many exciting opportunities with U.S. based asset managers willing to strengthen their European footing,” said Armstrong. “Our partnership with SOAM goes a long way to meet this healthy demand.” Terry Maltese, President and CEO of SOAM, will manage the Ucits fund. He said it would give investors the opportunity to participate in the firm’s “conservative, research-intensive” l/s equity strategy. “We are excited to partner with Morgan Stanley because of their robust operational framework, risk management expertise and the ability to capitalize on their extensive distribution network,” said Maltese.