First retail hedge funds for Credit Suisse
Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM) has launched its first two hedge funds for Australia's platform market, including versions which take advantage of the recent exemption from Foreign Investment Funds tax granted to superannaution entities.
CSAM's Global Long/ Short Equity Fund will bring together between 15 and 25 managers, and aim for a return equal to the MSCI World after fees, but with half the volatility of that index.
The Global Diversified Strategies Fund will marshal around 50 underlying managers, employing everything from an equity market neutral approach to event driven, convertible arbitrage, managed futures and global macro strategies.
The fund aims for 5 to 7 per cent above the cash return, but with annual volatility of only 3 to 4 per cent.
Both funds will have an annual management expense ratio of 1.3 per cent, and are currently being taken to researchers and platform providers, with an adviser education roadshow to follow in May.
The funds will be managed in New York by Credit Suisse First Boston Alternative Capital's Hedge Fund Investment Group, and that division's Asia-Pacific investment specialist, Tim Schuler, has recently transferred to Australia to assist the adviser education effort.
Schuler said the long/short fund could act as a low volatility proxy for an investor's international equities portfolio, while the Diversified Strategies product could "anchor" an entire portfolio.
The funds are being launched just after CSAM's entire New York-based high yield team decamped to HSBC, but CSAM head of distribution Brian Thomas said the Hedge Fund Investment Group was a separate team in a separate building, and its head Jim Vos had been with the firm 19 years.
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