Fund Manager Interviews

Lucas Turton, chief investment strategist of Windham Capital Management, which offers a range of active strategies to institutional and wealth management investors through separately-managed accounts, says the firm’s rigorous risk management process has enabled it to flourish despite global economic challenges and sustained financial market volatility, quadrupling assets under management to some USD700m this year. »

Lan Cai (pictured), head portfolio manager at PineBridge Investments, the former AIG fund management business that is now majority-owned by the Pacific Century Group, says the firm’s nearly 10-year-old merger arbitrage strategy, which is now being offered through a Ucits fund, has a track record of positive returns every year and exhibits low correlation with the firm’s peers. »

Pierre Baudard, managing director of Oddo Alternative Investment, says the group’s new merger arbitrage fund benefits from the management team’s strong knowledge of the mid- and small-cap equity universe, which represents a significant part of the fund’s portfolio and makes possible a more diversified spectrum of between 60 and 120 positions. »

Jamie Sutton (pictured), a director of the Isle of Man-based Premier Group, says the New Earth Solutions Recycling Facilities Investment Sub-Fund, whose sterling version has returned some 40 per cent in the three years since launch in July 2008, is seeing a steady inflow of new investment and that assets could grow faster if the economic recovery gains traction.   »

Alex Orus, chief investment officer at Blue Diamond Asset Management, says the Blue Diamond Real Return Strategy is designed to address investors’ twin concerns of inflation and market bubbles and crashes by seeking to maximise real returns and outperform inflation by an average of 5 per cent over a full market cycle in the investor’s designated currency. »

Jacques Lucas, president of Paris-based manager Exqim, says the firm stands out from other hedge fund managers through its development of fully quantitative management focused on high-level internal research with minimal human intervention, characterised by systematic and fully automated processes for the strict management of risk limits and the exclusively electronic trading of liquid assets. »

Justin Ferrier, chief executive of Hong Kong-based Myo Capital Advisers, pictured (above) with fellow managing director Geoff Lee, believes the Myo Capital Special Situations Fund I will benefit from factors such as the repatriation of international capital from Asia, the unwinding of special situations teams in the region and the pullback of investment banks’ prop desks under regulatory pressure, resulting in less competition and better quality deals. »

Michael Azlen, founder and executive chairman of Frontier Investment Management, says the investment proposition behind the firm’s passive multi-asset funds, encompassing eight asset classes, is based in part on the diversification benefits of combining traditional and alternative asset classes, a philosophy similar to that of US university endowment funds. »

Pius Fritschi (pictured), head of hedge fund business development and client services at LGT Capital Partners, says the firm’s Crown Managed Futures fund of hedge funds programme, which generated annualised returns of nearly 9.6 per cent over its first decade, continues to attract investors with its lack of correlation with traditional asset classes and especially its impressive performance in returning 21.7 per cent between November 2007 and February 2009. »

Daniel Schweizer, chief executive and chairman of Horizon21 spin-off Active Alpha, says the firm is particularly nimble in executing its long/short equity trading strategy through very liquid large-cap equities and options, enabling the AA Equity Fund to end 2008 in positive territory and helping Active Alpha to differentiate itself from other managers by providing investors with genuinely uncorrelated performance during difficult times. »