Verrazzano Capital, the European equity specialist investment boutique founded by Guillaume Rambourg, has launched the Verrazzano Advantage European Fund.
The fund, a UCITS-compliant Luxembourg SICAV structure, aims to achieve long-term capital growth by investing at least 80 per cent of its assets in the shares of companies listed in Continental Europe.
The fund is Verrazzano’s first long-only product offered to external investors, following the 2012 launch of two European equity long-short strategies to qualifying investors.
Rambourg says: “We’re delighted to launch our first long-only fund and make it available to a broad investment audience. It is an important milestone for Verrazzano Capital, which has evolved quickly since 2011 thanks to investor appetite for our tried and tested investment approach and the meticulous path we took to building out the institutional platform. Through the firm’s two senior investment officers Tomás Pintó and Karim Moussalem, the team combines long-standing continuity and an injection of new talent, enhancing an investment process that has generated significant alpha through several market cycles.”
Verrazzano Capital, run by a team of 16 professionals, has a strong legacy with its genesis in the European Large Cap team at Gartmore. Rambourg was co-portfolio manager of Gartmore European Selected Opportunities (OEIC) and Gartmore Continental European (SICAV) funds between 1997 and 2010 and of various AlphaGen hedge funds including Capella, Tucana and Acamar (1999 to 2010).
To date, Verrazzano funds have benefitted from strong endorsement by investors and firm assets stand in excess of USD500m.
Kepler Partners, the research-led distribution business, has partnered with Verrazzano to distribute the Advantage European Fund to UK Institutions.
Laurie Robathan, partner at Kepler Partners, says: “We have seen significant interest in this fund launch from investors looking to allocate to European equities. Guillaume has a large following in the UK and we are very excited about the prospects for this fund.”
