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Managed by leading Japan equity managers Stephen Harker and Neil Edwards, the new Dublin-listed fund is a direct mirror of their unhedged GLG Japan CoreAlpha Fund, which was last month awarded ‘Elite’ status by Morningstar. It has delivered 9.95% since the two managers took over on 31 January 2006 (compared to a sector average of minus 25.47%) and 17.12% over the last 12 months (compared to a sector average of 4.35%).

Stephen Harker has over 30 years of investment industry experience, and concentrated on the Japanese equity market since April 1984. Neil Edwards worked as an investment analyst for a total of 15 years, covering the Japanese equity market.

The new fund will offer three share classes hedging yen exposure into the euro, dollar, or – from the end of the month – sterling. Charges will mirror those of the UK-domiciled fund, with an annual management charge of 1.5% and a minimum investment of £1,000.

“We recognise that some investors prefer to mitigate the currency risk when investing abroad so it makes sense to launch a new version of the fund for those keen to gain yen-hedged exposure to Stephen and Neil’s proven strategy,” said Richard Phillips, joint head of UK Retail at GLG.

Dollar and Yen open the week on strong positions, trading at multi-month highs against Euro and Pound, favored by risk aversion on the markets, reported FXStreet.com yesterday. EUR/JPY lost more than 600 pips in the last few days, dropping to 120.65 on Friday. GBP/JPY dropped from 145.00 to 138.20 low on Friday, the lowest price since April 30, 2009. Meanwhile, the USD/JPY continued to lose ground against the dollar and is trading at around 89.23, according to Nasdaq. The pair has been dropping steadily and may threaten November lows.

It was announced last month that GLG had launched a Ucits version of its flagship L/S UK Alternative fund. Also that one of its directors, Paul Harvey, had stepped down after nine years and handed control to a veteran of the FoHFs industry, Luke Ellis, former CEO at UK-based Financial Risk Management. And that the company was opening a research office in Hong Kong.

Also in January, GLG’s executives Noam Gottesman, Emmanuel Roman, and Pierre Lagrange restored their salaries to their former levels, after agreeing to a one-year cut that took their individual paydays down to $1 and halted any bonus payments during 2009 (see Opalesque Exclusive here).

GLG Partners, Inc. , a UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) authorised and regulated global asset management company, also listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 2007, and founded in 1995, offers traditional, alternative and hybrid investment strategies. It managed net AUM of $21.6bn as of September 30, 2009. The firm will report its 2009 fourth quarter results on February 18, 2010. - BG –