The UCITS Alternative Index Global ended April down 0.37 per cent to leave it slightly down for the year at -0.03 per cent, according to Alix Capital who manage the index family. Indeed, April proved a challenging month for most alternative UCITS strategies with only three able to generate positive returns. These included the UAI CTA, up 0.58 per cent, the UAI Commodities, up 0.38 per cent, and the UAI Fixed Income, up 0.25 per cent.
Equity strategies were hit hard.
The UAI Long//Short Equity recorded losses of -0.98 per cent whilst the UAI Equity Market Neutral returned -0.89 per cent. In terms of consistency, fixed income strategies have done remarkably well. April was the eighth consecutive month of positive returns for the UAI Fixed Income and is unsurprisingly the best performing strategy since the start of the year, albeit with only modest gains of 1.05 per cent. The worst performing strategy YTD is the UAI Emerging Markets, down 1.77 per cent.
Alceda Fund Management S.A. this week announced that Lingohr & Partner Asset Management GmbH (‘LPAM’), a German independent asset manager running approximately USD7.2bn of assets, has migrated two equity funds to the Alceda UCITS Platform (AUP).
Lingohr focuses specifically on international equity markets with a strong emphasis on active return with a long-term top quartile performance history. The firm’s investment philosophy is drawn from the works of Benjamin Graham and Phil Fischer and can be described as value oriented and fundamentally driven. The aim of LPAM is to identify fundamentally sound companies that offer a relative valuation discount.
Michael Broszeit, Managing Director of Lingohr & Partner Asset Management said that the firm already served clients from Australia to Canada through its offices in Frankfurt, Dubai and its North American subsidiary, Lingohr & Partner North America, Inc. “We aim to further expand our investor base with Alceda’s international network to Australia and Asia,” commented Broszeit.
Michael Sanders, Chairman of the Board of Alceda Fund Management S.A. added: “We are delighted that LPAM has joined the Alceda UCITS Platform. We look forward to working together in leveraging our distribution capabilities and global footprint to support LPAM in its international growth. We are increasingly seeing European investment firms turn to Alceda for our structuring and distribution capabilities, particularly as they look to extend their investor base into Europe, the Middle East, the US and Australasia.”
Iridian Asset Management has appointed SEI to provide a number of services to its Ireland-domiciled UCITS fund. These services will include fund administration, accounting, investor services and custody services. Colin Morris, Director of Marketing and Client Service at Iridian, said: “When we decided to launch our U.S. Equity Fund in multiple non US markets we wanted to find a single, strategic outsourcing partner with the experience and solutions necessary to meet our diverse needs.
“The UCITS structure was a critical part of the decision, but it ultimately came down to SEI’s proven platform and expertise across fund strategies and structures. SEI gave us a single platform that will quickly bring our funds to market in Europe without having to build out our own back-office processes. We look forward to partnering with SEI on this and future initiatives.”
“Iridian is a good example of a successful manager casting a wider net by focusing on a strategy and then distributing it in multiple channels. By turning to UCITS, Iridian is extending its strategies throughout Europe,” added John Alshefski, Senior Vice President of SEI’s Investment Manager Services division.
Ex Gartmore star Guillaume Rambourg has launched a second UCITS-compliant fund reported Citywire Global this week. The Verrazzano European Long-Short fund launched at the end of March. This follows the launch of a long-only UCITS fund, the Verrazzano Advantage European fund, at the end of last year. The latest fund will primarily target large-cap stocks in Europe and has apparently already attracted USD50mn in assets according to Lipper IM.
