Building on its indexing and liquid alternative asset management business in the United States, New York-based ABR Dynamic Funds, LLC has launched its first Irish-domiciled UCITS V fund.
The fund, which seeks US equities participation in a bull market and significant, positive absolute returns in a crisis, is being distributed by OpenFunds, which is also acting as Swiss legal representative for the fund. The fully-systematic fund will seek returns similar to ABR's first index, the ABR Dynamic Blend Equity and Volatility Index (ABRVXX).
ABR's founder and CEO, Taylor Lukof, plans to grow Assets Under Management (AUM) in an expanding segment of the European markets in the UCITS fund wrapper.
"We see tremendous growth in index-tracking UCITS in Europe. What was less than 2 per cent of AUM in European UCITS in 2013 became over 10 per cent by 2015. European assets in UCITS continue to shift from traditional actively-managed funds to passively-managed funds, and ABR is pleased to be a part of this changing dynamic."
ABR's index is the first under the "Powered by Wilshire" custom index suite, launched by Wilshire Associates in 2015. Wilshire, which provides services to clients with assets totaling over USD7 trillion, independently calculates and publishes the index values for ABR.
Lukof's plans do not stop with this launch. "We have a wonderful relationship with our independent index calculation agent, Wilshire Associates. We just launched our 5(th) Powered by Wilshire index last week, and we plan to roll-out a family of liquid alternative UCITS funds to track these indexes over the next few years. Investor appetite for the tightly-regulated, highly-liquid UCITS V structure increases every day. With stocks and bonds perhaps nearing the end of an historic cycle, we believe we are well-positioned for the future."
OpenFunds' CEO, Siro Zanovello, thinks that the simple structure of a UCITS V fund could be key for clients looking for a liquid alternative fund that performs well in a crisis. "Most of the products we distribute at OpenFunds are a little bit different than what an investor would typically see. We are a pioneer in what today people call private debt, but given the limited allocation to this space, we were always on the look-out for truly scalable liquid alternative solutions. With ABR's suite of funds, we believe we are providing what clients have been asking for the last few years."
