Despite the FSA’s inability to uncover any evidence of trading irregularities by former Gartmore star trader Guillaume Rambourg there has been no attempt to build bridges with news that Rambourg’s new firm, Verrazzano Capital Partners, is preparing to launch a brace of hedge funds today, 1 March 2012, from Paris.
Both funds – Verrazzano European Opportunities and Verrazzano European Focus – will follow a European long/short equity strategy with Rambourg, as CIO, taking the portfolio management reigns of both.
Day one assets are expected to be several million dollars with up to USD500million targeted over the first couple of months and an expected soft close of USD1.5billion. It is believed that Rambourg’s former co-manager colleague at Gartmore, Roger Guy, will be one of 15 initial investors in the funds.
Understandably the French regulator, Authorities des Marches Financiers (AMF), is licking its lips at the prospect of being home to such a high profile start-up.
Both funds will use Ireland’s QIF (Qualifying Investor Fund) structure and will be Dublin-domiciled. The European Opportunities fund is believed to be targeting a portfolio of 40 to 80 stocks and a target annualised return of around 10 per cent, whilst the European Focus fund will target returns of 15 per cent or more using a portfolio of 20 to 30 stocks.
Joining Rambourg are four other partners. They include: Karim Moussalem, the head of Goldman Sachs’ Delta One trading division; Murielle Maman, founder of Lyxor Asset Management; Tim Williams, a senior investment officer at UBS’ hedge fund division; and Tomas Pinto, a former senior analyst at Gartmore.
The firm’s name derives from the Verrazzano bridge connecting Staten Island with Brooklyn, presumably chosen because it marks the starting point of the New York marathon which Rambourg has run on several occasions.
