Fund Manager Interviews

Dr Jan Auspurg (pictured), a fund manager within the quant team at Hamburg-based Aquila Capital, says the AC Spectrum Fund, a Luxembourg-domiciled Ucits that generated a return of 9.98 per cent last August amid massive equity market losses, takes into account not only the strengths of trend-following strategies but their weaknesses, such as a tendency to perform less well in sideways-trading markets or in times of sudden trend reversals. »

Amit Shabi (pictured), chief executive of Paris-based event-driven and merger arbitrage specialist Bernheim, Dreyfus & Co, says the firm’s Diva Synergy fund and its recently-launched Ucits version is poised to capitalise on an expected pick-up in European M&A volumes, which should create more lucrative investment opportunities and better performance. »

Mayfair Capital founder and executive director Guy Brogden (pictured) says the property fund manager has been able to take advantage of the difficult economic climate by reducing overall portfolio gearing through making unleveraged property acquisitions with freshly-raised capital, which continues to flow in from investors including charities, institutions, pension funds, companies, high net worth private clients and family offices. »

HFT Capital founder chief investment officer and head trader Romy Jardine and head of business development Bob Torkelund (pictured) say that in a difficult market environment where investors are extremely cautious and nervous, highly-performing niche strategies that “dare to be different” are still capable of attracting money from investors seeking non-correlated returns. »

Thomas Graff (pictured), a partner and member of the fixed-income team at USD25bn investment manager Brown Advisory and portfolio manager for the Tactical Bond Fund launched in September, says the fund stands out from the competition through the way the firm uses quantitative models and the holistic way it approaches its portfolios. »

Chin Pu Ma and Chien Wang (pictured), partners and chief investment officer and chief operating officer respectively of Amsterdam-based Asian Century Capital, are looking to attract investors with an eight-year track record of successful investment in Asia on behalf of Dutch banks and an investment style that combines macro themes, a disciplined value-orientated approach, in-house research and the flexibility to go either long or short. »

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.   »