London-based Odey Asset Management, best known as a hedge fund manager, has launched a long-only European fund.
The Odey Pan European fund, a Dublin-registered UCITS, is aimed at international and offshore investors. It will be managed by Hugh Hendry, whose Odey Continental European fund has remained number one in the S & P Micropal fund universe with a five-year return of 74.1%.This compares well with the benchmark FTA Europe ex-UK index, which returned -17.2% in the same period. In fact, the Odey fund was the only Continental European product to show positive returns for 2002 (+3.6%) in a year when the FTA Europe ex-UK index was down -27.0%.
” The Odey philosophy for long-only fund management builds on our hedge fund heritage,” says David Helm, Marketing Director at Odey. “The Continental European Fund is number one in Europe, highest return with lowest risk. The Pan European fund follows the same approach.”
The newly launched Pan European Fund has a three-year track record through an established segregated account, Vitruvius European Equity, a SICAV distributed mainly in Italy, making the launch an important opportunity for International clients to gain access to the Odey Asset Management process.
“Over the past few years a number of international investors have asked us to create an offshore structure for them – hence Odey Pan European,” says David Fletcher, chairman of Odey Asset Management. “Hugh will be running this very much in parallel with our other European funds, for superior performance with low absolute risk.”
Hendry himself added: “Relative returns are all well and good, but what clients want are positive figures rather than excuses. We have a proven ability for fund management in Europe, be it long only retail funds or hedge. We have no excuses!”
Odey Asset Management has total funds under management of US$ 960 million. The funds include the flagship Odey European Inc hedge fund, which was is up 12.5% over the past year, with a Sharpe ratio of 1.68. It has produced compound annual returns of 16.5% since inception in June 1992. The Odey Japan & General Inc fund, a long / short equity fund, is invested primarily in quoted Japanese equities and related securities. It has outperformed the index by around 53% since launch in October 2000.