Astin Capital Management Limited, a UK hedge fund management start-up, has selected Reech Capital to provide a independent risk monitoring service to investors. The initiative is supported by Fimat International Banque SA (UK Branch), one of Astin’s appointed Prime Brokers.
“The relationship between the companies is founded on Reech’s ability and willingness to develop and tailor its RiskHedge reporting tools to the needs of Astin’s business,” explains Reech Capital. “This will extend to the dissemination of daily VaR numbers and `greeks’ to Astin’s investors as well as daily commentary on the portfolio’s adherence to its risk limits.”
Astin specialises in what Reech is good at understanding and monitoring: trading volatility in global equity and equity derivative markets. Astin will provide asset management services to the Astin VEGA Fund, one of a new breed of hedge funds which treats volatility as a tradable asset. The selection of Reech as a risk monitor comes as Astin prepares for launch on December 1, with capital of USD 50 million.
“A recurrent theme of our discussions with investors has been the importance of independence and transparency in reporting”, comments Jeff Mehmet, Risk Officer of Astin. “The support of Reech further strengthens Astin’s ability to respond to this need. Particularly impressive features of Reech’s service are its emphasis on controls to ensure the integrity of data being reported and the ease of access offered by its web-based solution, RiskHedge.”
Philippe Teilhard de Chardin, Managing Director of Fimat Global Fund Services group, adds: “We strongly believe in facilitating enhanced transparency for the investor base. The Reech solution directly linked to Fimat’s systems will give a clean, full picture of Astin’s positions.”
Christophe Reech (CEO of Reech Capital PLC), comments: “In our view volatility arbitrage is a fast growth strategy and with our expertise in derivatives and risk, Reech is ideally placed to develop risk capabilities for this strategy. We are delighted to be working with Astin in this exciting area”.