Swiss banking group SYZ & Co this week announced the launch of OYSTER US Selection, a new sub-fund of its OYSTER Luxembourg UCITS SICAV. The new fund is managed by Kansas City-based Scout Investments. It uses a combined top-down, bottom-up analysis to anticipate changes in economic cycles. Scout’s US strategy has ranked in the first percentile over 3-year and 5-year periods and since its inception in 2006 it has generated returns of 69.5 per cent, compared to 7.4 per cent for the Lipper Global Equity North America index. Patrick Dunkerley is lead portfolio manager for OYSTER US Selection. The strategy analyses over 100 economic and sentiment indicators to identify market cycles and investment themes as well as risk levels that may impact sector and industry allocation in the portfolio. The main selection criteria for a company are: ability to generate consistent free cash flows, a 10-year record of strong or improving operating margin, long-term earnings power, strong management and absence of litigation risk. The news UCITS-compliant fund will hold between 60 and 80 positions within its portfolio. “We currently see a strong demand for US equities and our new fund, OYSTER US Selection, is well positioned to address investors’ needs. Its investment process has worked consistently in both bull and bear markets,” commented Xavier Guillon (pictured), CEO OYSTER Funds.