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Alternative Market Briefing

Zurich hedge fund manager launches event driven fund to seize opportunity set in UK micro cap

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

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Christian Benz
Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque Geneva:

ISPartners, a hedge fund manager based in Zurich, launched the Helium Rising Stars Fund on Monday. It is follow-on venture of the Helium Special Situations Fund, an £80m ($131m) single manager hedge fund focusing on UK long-bias small and micro caps, launched on 30th July 2006. The fund returned 33% last year (and 380% since inception).

The Helium Rising Stars Fund, a Cayman-domiciled fund, will invest in quoted small companies and up to 30% of NAV in private equity type of investments, predominantly pre-IPO situation (with less that 24 months to listing), public-to-private transactions and private placements. Its focus will be on UK companies with a market cap of less that £50m across all sectors excluding mining and natural resources.

This event driven fund "with an identifiable soft or hard catalyst" will be a concentrated portfolio of around 15 holdings, with long-only bets and the ability to hedge systematic risks. According to data provider Hedge Fund Research, event driven funds returned 12.48% in 2013 and 10.62% in the last five years.

The fund will be co-managed by David Newton and Christian Benz. They also run the special sits fund.

"The opportunity set in the UK ......................

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