15/02/2012 Author: Elana Margulies

Duet launches aggressive version of flagship fund

Duet Group, a $2.8bn London-based asset manager and wealth manager, has launched a more aggressive version of its flagship global market neutral hedge fund to outside investors on the back of client demand, HFMWeek has learned.

The Duet Global Plus Fund, which currently has $70m of internal capital along with one institutional commitment, quietly rolled out in August 2010 and is geared to global funds of hedge funds, and family offices that are targeting a higher return profile.

Jason McNab, chief investment officer, said Duet had opted to launch it owing to growing investor appetite.

“We had many investors who wanted the pure alpha generation, consistent returns and downside protection of the flagship but with higher performance,” he said.

“We had a huge opportunity set of slightly higher volatility trades with excellent risk/reward that we were not taking advantage of so it was logical to create a new fund,” he added.

The fund, which has a $2bn capacity, invests in equity catalyst event trades and is targeting annual returns of 15-20% with low correlation to markets and peers. It has a global mandate with the majority of trades focused on liquid European equity markets.

McNab, who is portfolio manager for the fund, has also run the flagship Duet Global Opportunities Fund since its inception in 2003. The flagship offering has outperformed the Eurostoxx50 by 77% since its debut.

Last year, the new Global Plus Fund returned 8.1%. Since inception in August 2010, it has returned 15.2%.