Investment Fund Services Limited (IFSL), the UK fund hosting business owned by BNP Paribas, has won the mandate for the new IFSL Blacksquare Multi-Manager Absolute Return Fund.
The Fund, run by Blacksquare Capital, the alternative asset management firm, aims to deliver positive absolute returns which are uncorrelated to equity and bond markets. The Fund provides daily dealing and the two week launch period begins on 4th January 2010.
BNP Paribas, through IFSL, will supply fund administration, product administration and investor servicing. IFSL fund hosting service was launched by BNP Paribas in October 2007. IFSL enables advisors, wealth managers and asset managers to launch their own UK-based funds by leveraging BNP Paribas’ existing services in fund administration, retail product administration and investor servicing.IFSL provides the infrastructure and staffing to ensure the regulatory, administrative and oversight functions required under the European directive (UCITS III) are covered.
The IFSL Blacksquare Multi-Manager Absolute Return Fund is one of the first regulated UCITS compliant multi-manager investment products to be launched in the UK, investing in a portfolio of regulated UCITS absolute return funds and money market instruments.
Managed by Richard Sherwin, portfolio manager, the Fund will launch with approximately 15 absolute return funds and will have exposure to multiple asset classes such as stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities.
According to Madilean Coen, Partner, Blacksquare Capital: The time is ripe to launch a UCITS compliant multi-manager absolute return fund, owing to a growing need to provide investors with diversification within the absolute return sector and perform due diligence on the wide range of new funds entering the market.”