03/11/2010 Author: Elana Margulies

Van Biema Value Partners to launch LatAm strategy

Van Biema Value Partners, a New York-based $700m deep value-focused fund of hedge funds (FoHF) manager, is expecting to set up a dedicated Latin America-focused strategy, HFMWeek has learned.

The offering, which is slated to launch mid-2011, will either be a pure FoHF or a vehicle where the portfolio is driven by external managers. It will target seeders and hopes to launch with more than $100m.

The fund will allocate ‘investment minimums’ to underlying managers before growing investments to $50m per manager. It is expecting to invest in between 15 and 20 funds. There will be a bias towards Brazil but the fund will also deploy capital to managers investing in Chile, Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Ecuador and Colombia.

Michael van Biema, founder, said he is in the process of vetting managers for a dedicated Latin America offering, arguing it’s a region of high-growth with high-quality franchised businesses.

“What we are trying to do for our investors is find niche investment areas that may be difficult or impossible for them to access,” he said.

Prior to founding his investment advisor in 2004, van Biema was a professor of finance at Columbia Business School. He is also co-author of the book Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond. Previously, he was a founding partner of the Hummingbird Value Fund, a micro-cap value hedge fund.

The new Latin America offering will have a $1m investment minimum for individuals and $5m for institutions. There will be a 1% management fee and the performance fee will be contingent upon the fund’s returns. It will have a one-year lock-up and annual withdrawals with 120 days’ notice thereafter.

The Van Biema Value Fund, the firm’s flagship offering which launched in October 2004, is up 7.6% YTD through September.