ML Capital Asset Management, the investment manager and promoter of the MontLake Ucits Platform, has published the ninth edition of the quarterly ML Capital Alternative Ucits Barometer.

The Barometer is designed to help identify and anticipate key trends in the demand for the major strategies within the alternative Ucits sector.

John Lowry, chairman of ML Capital, says: “The barometer this quarter has recorded some very significant shifts in the demand levels across many of the main strategies. Probably the biggest two winners this quarter have been European and global emerging long/short funds, both of whom received strong levels of support, of between 43 per cent and 52 per cent respectively. We are aware of several European managers planning to launch a Ucits fund that have until now been held back due to the on-going problems within the EU and the global backdrop.

“While demand for global macro still remains relatively strong, with 45 per cent planning an increase – this is however quite a big fall from the 60 per cent seeking an increase to the strategy only two quarters ago. Far more dramatically, demand for systematically managed products has fallen off sharply this quarter, now down to 20 per cent from a high of 60 per cent at the end of 2011.“

ML Capital surveyed a diverse range of 45 investors who collectively manage over USD90bn and today invest upwards of USD20bn into alternative Ucits reflecting the widening of the investor base for regulated alternative products in Europe. Respondents range from insurance and pension funds to private banking organisations, with a significant constituent of financial advisers that deal with the primary source of alternative Ucits inflows, the mid-net-worth investor.