Laxey Partners (UK) is planning to launch the Laxey Albion Absolute Return Fund, a Ucits III compliant fund.
The fund will be the first sub-fund of the Laxey Albion Fund, an Irish umbrella investment company.
The launch date, subject to regulatory approval, is expected to be March 2010.
Laxey, an activist investor in the closed end fund space, is launching this new fund in response to investor demand for onshore absolute return vehicles. With cash yielding virtually zero and considerable downside risk in the equity and fixed income markets there are few attractive alternatives currently on offer.
The Laxey Albion Absolute Return Fund will be market neutral and aims to capture the volatility of the discount/premium to NAV of closed end funds. Target returns will be ten to 12 per cent with volatility of around five per cent. The fund will also offers weekly dealing.
The fund will be managed by Sean Hurst from Laxey’s newly opened office in Paris. Hurst has over 11 years’ experience as a market neutral closed end fund arbitrageur both at BNP Paribas Arbitrage and The Albion Fund, an offshore fund set up by Hurst in 2005.
The fund will have significant input from the existing closed end fund specialists at Laxey including co-founders Andrew Pegge and Colin Kingsnorth, and Chris Agar.
GBP and EUR share classes will be offered with minimum investment levels set at GBP50,000 and EUR50,000.
The fund will be regulated by the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority.
