Aurora hedges into retail funds
Boutique investment group, Aurora Funds Management (AFM) has launched it’s first offering to the domestic market one year on since it’s inception in the latter half of 2003.
Aurora, the brainchild of former Challenger International executives Alistair Davidson, Simon Lindsay, Hugh Latimer and Richard Matthews, has to date been in the public eye through a series of distribution deals struck with financial services groups and its subsidiary business - Aurora Distribution.
However the unveiling of the HFRX Global Capital $A Protected Fund, Series 1, signals its first foray into offering retail funds to the market.
The fund tracks the performance of the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index (HFRXI) - an investable hedge fund index developed by the Chicago-based HFR Asset Management group that tracks the performance of 60 absolute return hedge funds across eight specialised investment strategies.
AFM managing director Alistair Davidson says the fund also offers a capital protection mechanism managed by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
“This is a retail investment offer that will appeal to investors seeking access to the growing global hedge fund sector,” he says.
The unlisted unit trust offer opens for retail subscription on August 23, 2004, and will close later in the year on October 18.
To date, AFM has been successful in assisting van Eyk Research raise $47 million for the van Eyk Three Pillars listed investment company and $30 million into the recently listed Pengana Managers offer.
More recently it teamed up with UBS Investment Bank to offer the latter’s tax-effective Protected Geared Investment product (PGI) to brokers and financial planners.
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