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Alternative Market Briefing

The Corona Fighters Report 48: Asset managers who delivered in the downturn

Thursday, June 18, 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.


Good ESG equities

The GBI - Good Governance Fund is up +5.8% YTD after returning almost +5% in May. The S&P 500 TRI was down -4.9% YTD during that period. Launched in February 2019, the fund is a ESG US equity fund that invests in the 100 best governed companies of the S&P500. It was up +20% in 2019, when the S&P returned 18%.

The C8/Green Blue US Equity L/S Certificate 2027, launched on 21st January this year, is up +2.3% YTD after returning +2.1% in May. The Frankfurt-domiciled fund is a ESG long/short strategy using the above-mentioned long-only version's model, constructed together with C8 in London and listed as a certificate on the Frankfurt stock exchange.

"The annual rebalance of the Good Governance portfolio universe in May led to a higher than usual rotation of 47 companies (out of 100), with an increased number of healthcare names included," says a monthly commentary seen by Opalesque. "In the month, the Certificate benefitted from having light exposure to the financial and energy sectors against tech and healthcare sectors being well represented."

Green Blue Invest (GBI) SA, a new manager, is a Swiss-based investment advisory firm founded in 2018 and dedicated to ESG and impact investing. The founding partners are Isabelle Dijan and Pascal Botteron.


Multi-strategy at NB

The Neuberger Berman Uncorrelated Strategies fund's I USD share class is up +5.5% YTD as of 31s May. Launched in May 2017, it has returned 11.7% since - and annualised +3.75%.

The Irish-domiciled fund allocates its assets to fully discretionary investment advisers which employ a variety of investment strategies and invest globally without a focus on any particular industrial sector. The main portfolio managers Fred Ingham and Ian Haas at Neuberger Berman, a private global asset manager founded in 1939 with total AuM of $330bn.

"The Fund was down -0.3% in May as the extraordinarily powerful recovery in asset prices continued," says a manager commentary. "P&L overall was quite muted: Equity Market Neutral, Short Term Trading and Statistical Arbitrage were positive contributors, while Global Macro, Volatility Relative Value and Trend Following were negatives. Losses in currency trading outweighed gains in equities, with fixed income flattish over the month."

"For now, the firehose of liquidity has once again floated all boats and caused investors to turn away from the concerns of the first quarter and the adversity faced by the pandemic," it continues. "It is at best difficult and probably impossible to accurately weigh the trade-off between the vast economic damage we have seen versus the unprecedented amount of stimulus with which it is being treated. Both are of massive scale and small changes in assumptions can result in wildly opposing conclusions. For now, the market appears to be taking the view that asset price inflation driven by unlimited liquidity is the only game in town. But how effectively this liquidity feeds through to the real economy in terms of jobs, small business survival, consumer demand and credit remains to be seen. The process of discovery will likely be long and opaque and we expect the uncertainty to create continued volatility along the way."


A new multi-strategy fund

The AlphaArray Multi-Strategy Fund is up +4% YTD after returning -0.1% in April and +5.3% in March.

AlphaArray is a liquid multi-strategy Irish domiciled fund composed of a diverse array of strategies which show very low correlation under normal market conditions.

The fund is optimized using quantitative and machine learning techniques to protect the portfolio from adverse and extreme market events while producing steady gains. It is also structured for cost efficiency, with no layering of fees on top of fees. Underlying strategies typically include macro/CTA, quantitative strategies, event driven/special situation, long/short equities, volatility, index arbitrage, long/short credit and niche off-the-run strategies.

It is managed by new manager Alpha Innovations, domiciled in Bermuda and founded in 2018.


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Last issue of The Corona Fighters Report: Report 47.

Opalesque's Corona Fighters reports are open articles. To see all past reports, please type Corona Fighters in the Opalesque 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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