Aventicum Alternative Equities, an investment boutique focusing on European Long/Short strategies and part of Aventicum Capital Management has launched its maiden UCITS-compliant fund.
The Aventicum UCITS – Absolute Return European Equity Fund offers international investors the opportunity to access Aventicum Alternative Equities’ existing flagship equity strategy through a UCITS ICAV onshore structure. Focusing on being invested in – rather than exposed to – equities, the strategy will adopt a fundamental bottom up approach to seek non-consensus opportunities predominantly in large- and mid-cap European equities.
Domiciled in Ireland with daily liquidity, the Fund is targeting a 10-15 per cent annualised return with volatility of 8-10 per cent and will be managed by the same team as that of the offshore fund. Based in Geneva, the investment team is comprised of CIO Riccardo Cavo and Portfolio Managers Andrea Buda and Barry Kelly.
Luca Mengoni, Head of Aventicum Alternative Equities, says: “As equity markets move from a recovery to a distribution phase, we see the ‘new normal’ as characterised by higher volatility and dispersion in equity returns.
“We believe stock selection is playing an increasingly important role in driving returns, which makes our ‘diligent contrarian’ approach – looking for non-consensus changes in the key value drivers of a company – especially relevant for the current market environment.”
The UCITS variant has been launched in response to client demand from investors who are seeking to capitalise on a renewed opportunity to achieve absolute return through stock selection rather than market exposure.
Mengoni says: “As European equity specialists with over 10 years’ working together managing money and risk, the team has invested through several different market cycles and conditions. Our ability to demonstrate that we can protect investors’ capital and generate alpha, even in difficult market environments, has been a defining factor for investors looking for diversification and to avoid market gyrations.”
With the appetite for onshore UCITS-compliant products continuing to strengthen, we are pleased to enable a wider range of investors to access our strategy and investment processes.”
