15/02/2012 Author: Elana Margulies

Lumina launches flagship long/short equity offering

Lumina Fund Management, a New York-based SEC-registered investment adviser with over $550m in assets under management, has launched its flagship long/short offering this month in a hedge fund structure, after running the strategy in separately managed accounts for institutional investors since 2007, HFMWeek has learned.

According to a source familiar with the firm’s plans, Lumina Partners LP, which debuted with $25.3m, was funded by institutional, high-net-worth and internal capital.  

The fund, which has a $1bn capacity, seeks to capitalise on both micro and macro equity market opportunities by exploiting price dislocations in individual equities, as well as broad equity market trends. With fundamental, quantitative and behavioural finance underpinnings, it deploys liquid listed equities and equity derivatives to invest and dynamically hedge.

Diego Giurleo founded Lumina Fund Management in 2004. Prior to that, he worked as a managing director at Royal Bank of Canada’s Capital Markets Group. John Kruse, the senior portfolio manager at Lumina, has been working with Giurleo for over 15 years.

Lumina Partners LP has a $1m investment minimum, 2/20 fees, no lock-up and investors can redeem quarterly.
According to an investor letter seen by HFMWeek, the strategy returned net 5.3% last year after posting net returns of 35.6% and 11.4% in 2009 and 2010, respectively. The firm will continue to run in tandem its separately managed account programme.