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Jonathan Stanford worked there for over 15 years as Senior Fund Manager and was responsible for the Convertible Alpha Fund. His other positions include BCI (Suisse) and UBS, where he was Executive Director responsible for the sale of convertible bonds. Roberto Bottoli managed the liquid Merger Arbitrage Fund as Fund Manager at GAM for over 8 years. Before that, he spent 17 years at Allianz Global Investors, first in Milan and then in Frankfurt.

As co-managers, Jonathan Stanford and Roberto Bottoli are responsible for the management of the newly launched "Serafin Diversified Arbitrage Fund". Jonathan Stanford and Roberto Bottoli are based in Lugano, where a branch office has been established as part of the business expansion. Serafin Asset Management now also offers fund investors and business partners a local contact point in Ticino.

Silvio Halsig, Executive Board and CIO at Serafin Asset Management: "The launch of this market- neutral strategy that requires extensive expertise in equities and convertible bonds, marks a significant milestone. This step is crucial to best meet client needs and fulfill our ambition to offer our investors products for all market conditions. With the team's track record as a foundation, we are looking to the future."

Investment managers Jonathan Stanford and Roberto Bottoli each have 25 years of experience in the industry with a special focus on convertible bonds, mergers & acquisitions, event-driven and total return investment strategies. After many years of investment banking experience on the buy side and sell side as well as in asset management, they are now pooling their talents to launch a new diversified arbitrage fund. "I am very pleased about my new role at Serafin Asset Management, a distinguished player with a proven track record in long-only equities. Alongside my colleague, Roberto Bottoli, we are excited to combine our expertise in this new product. Our collective goal is to expand Serafin's offerings into the liquid alternatives space, bridging our experience in long-only equities and convertible bonds with innovative solutions to deliver market-neutral returns to our clients," says Jonathan Stanford.

Roberto Bottoli adds: "As a young and growing company with specialized funds, Serafin Asset Management was the perfect home for Jonathan Stanford and me to launch our new pooled ambitions in the market-neutral space. The combination of merger arbitrage and convertible bond arbitrage in a single fund represents, in our view, a superior investment solution across the market cycles and that was immediately clear to Serafin's management. I look forward to building a strong presence in the liquid alternatives sector."

The Serafin Diversified Arbitrage Fund is a global risk arbitrage fund with daily liquidity.

The investment approach consists of combining various arbitrage strategies, particularly in the areas of merger arbitrage, convertible bond arbitrage, and event-driven soft catalysts. The core of the portfolio is invested in low-risk merger arbitrage transactions and aims to exploit arbitrage spreads in a global universe. Another part of the portfolio is invested in an arbitrage strategy for convertible bonds that aims to exploit price inefficiencies in this asset class and achieve carry. These two investment components are complemented by tactical investments in other risk arbitrage strategies, including spin-offs and holding structures, which provide additional uncorrelated sources of alpha and have the potential to enhance returns and diversify the portfolio.