Liberty Ermitage Group, the $2.3 billion hedge fund company owned by the Liberty-Standard Bank group of South Africa, today announced the launch of a new Swedish Krona (SEK) currency class of its $300m Asset Selection fund of hedge funds, to meet the requirements of institutional investors in Sweden.
Liberty Ermitage introduced its alternative investment funds to the Swedish market during the autumn of 2001 in partnership with Intervalor, a distributor of international asset management products and services to the Nordic region. Liberty Ermitage offer a range of fund of hedge fund products and services to institutional investors. Asset Selection is a low risk multi-strategy fund, which has grown from an initial $35 million in 1999 to over $300 million today, becoming the Group’s flagship fund of hedge fund product.
“We have experienced substantial interest for our fund of hedge fund products in Sweden and the new SEK share class will make it easier for institutional investors to participate in Asset Selection,” says Ron Mitchell, Group Chief Executive Officer. “A key determinant of the institutional demand for this particular fund has been the robust nature of its return profile, with a compound annualized rate of return over the last 3.5 years of 7.7% per annum and a standard deviation of 2.1%. “It is not surprising therefore that institutions wishing to enter the hedge fund arena should choose a low risk, well diversified product such as this.”
“Liberty Ermitage’s products have been well received in the Nordic region. There is a clear demand among local government, churches, foundations, insurance and pension funds for secure investments with low volatility and absolute return. To date we have been able to offer products in , € and $. We are now very pleased that Liberty Ermitage has launched the new SEK class for its Asset Selection Fund to meet our client requirements,” adds Anders Bladh CEO for Intervalor AB.