Alternative Market Briefing

Audley Capital’s Natural Resources up 30% in first month of trading

Friday, January 14, 2011

Beverly Chandler, Opalesque London

Julian Treger, founding partner of Audley Capital in London revealed to Opalesque that his long/short equity hedge fund investing in the global natural resources sector which launched on 1st December is already experiencing the high levels of performance that investors with his firm have previously enjoyed.

With only 30% of the fund invested, Treger, and his colleague Lucio Genovese, are hunting for opportunities. Talking to Opalesque, Treger said: “Most of the portfolio is still in cash because we are gradually populating markets, looking for undervalued new opportunities.”

Audley’s previous fund, the European Opportunities Fund, was less hedged and enjoyed returns of 140% in 2009 and 100% in 2010. One investment of 23% in Canada’s Western Coal saw a net return of C$ 650m (US$655m) on a deal that saw Walter Energy’s bid for the company take Audley’s stake from C$ 80m (US$ 80m) to C$ 730m (US$ 736m) over five years. The European Opportunities Fund returned an annual compounded return of 27% to investors over five years.

“This vehicle is more hedged at all times” said Treger. He is managing the portfolio with Genovese, who has spent more than 23 years in the mining and metals sector and is based in Zug, in Switzerland. “We have a complementary flow of ideas and intelligence which I think will serve this fund well” said Treger. The fund employs more hedging because of the naturally high levels of volatility in the mini......................

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