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Alternative Market Briefing

The Corona Fighters Report 45: Asset managers who delivered in the downturn

Monday, June 15, 2020

amb
B. G., Opalesque Geneva:


This is our regular report on hedge funds and alternative asset managers who are successfully protecting assets and outperforming the markets during the first months of 2020.


News from Janus

The Janus Henderson Global Equity Market Neutral Fund was up +3.6% YTD after returning +2.1% in April. This Luxembourg SICAV was launched in February 2017 and has annualised +2.4% since then.

It is managed by Steve Johnstone at Janus Henderson Investors, a global active asset manager with about $294bn in total AuM.

The Fund will typically hold pairs of long and short positions (typically 200% long and 200% short of the Fund's total net asset value) in equities or equity related instruments of companies throughout the world, with the aim to minimise the effects of market exposure and benefit from future price divergence between long/short pairs identified through fundamental analysis.

Meanwhile, Janus Henderson has just launched a UCITS, the Janus Henderson Global Multi-Strategy fund, which invests in a diversified portfolio of alternative assets.

The firm also recently participated in the creation of the 2020 Trends in Investing Survey, which found that financial advisers are feeling bearish about the market and economic outlook for the next six months.

"It's not surprising to see more advisers re-evaluating their asset allocation strategy," said Adam Hetts, Global Head of Portfolio Construction and Strategy at Janus Henderson. "The survey results rhyme with the unusually large volume of client inquires we've received since the COVID-19 sell-off began. An unprecedented market environment seems to have translated into an unprecedented amount of rebalancing and reallocation. What's really different to me about this year is the humbling effect this sell-off has had on investors-portfolio losses once thought unique to the Global Financial Crisis have come back again. When once-in-a-lifetime losses become once-in-a-decade, everything changes."


And from JPM

The JPM Global Macro Opportunities fund was launched in October 1998 and the A EUR share class, launched on the same date, is up +4.66% YTD as of 31st May, 2020. It has annualised almost 5% since inception.

The fund is managed by Shrenick Shah at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, a global asset manager with about $1.9tn in total AuM.

It aims to achieve capital appreciation in excess of its cash benchmark by investing primarily in securities, globally, using financial derivative instruments where appropriate.

"We continue to monitor the lifting of lockdown measures and potential for a second wave of infections to understand the potential path of reopening the economy," says a manager commentary. "We also continue to monitor medical developments, which have the potential to significantly shape the outlook.

"While we have sought to add some cyclicality to the portfolio and introduce more relative value strategies in favour of taking a large directional position, we remain flexible to more sizeably adjust overall risk as the macro shifts."


Meanwhile, the JPM US Opportunistic Long/Short Equity Fund's A USD share class is up +3.56% YTD as of 31st May. The fund was incepted in October 2015, as was the share class which has annualised +3.12 % since.

The fund aims to achieve a total return through the active management of long and short equity positions, with exposure primarily to US companies and through the use of derivatives. It is managed by Rick Singh and Steven Lee at J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

The firm has recently launched two actively-managed transparent equity ETFs and liquidated six ETFS. It has also appointed four analysts to its global sustainable investing team.


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Last issue of The Corona Fighters Report: Report 44.

Opalesque's Corona Fighters reports are open articles. To see all past reports, type Corona Fighters in our search engine: www.opalesque.com/index.php


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Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. Opalesque has not verified this information and gives no warranty of accuracy or completeness. Past performance is not indicative of future results. See our Terms & Conditions for more information.

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WEBINARS:

Meet 10 fund managers and learn how and why their strategies delivered positive returns and/or protected capital during the Corona led market meltdown! Each webinar lasts an hour and features five managers.

"A well-chosen topic of discussion and a great set of speakers to hear and learn from."
"I enjoyed the webinar and found the introduction to the strategies to be diverse and insightful.
"Very resourceful and insightful."


VIDEO REPLAY of CORONA FIGHTERS - Episode 1 webinar: www.opalesque.com/webinar/#pw4

VIDEO REPLAY of CORONA FIGHTERS - Episode 2 webinar: www.opalesque.com/webinar/#pw5


Video replays of Opalesque's past webinars can be found here: www.opalesque.com/webinar/#pastwebinar


Don't miss our new webinars!


- How quants achieve material improvements in ESG investment performance

Time: Thursday, June 18th, 10 am EST
Details and registration: www.opalesque.com/webinar/ESG/


- Corona Fighters Episode 3

Meet five more asset managers who delivered during the meltdown.

Time: Tuesday, June 23rd, 10 am EST
Details and registration: www.opalesque.com/webinar/



Opalesque's upcoming webinars: www.opalesque.com/webinar/


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