The comforts of a UCITS platform

The Dublin-regulated MontLake UCITS Platform was launched by ML Capital, a European fund distribution firm, in October 2010. It currently contains seven funds:

• Pegasus UCITS Fund (UK L/S Equity); which returned 4.25% YTD (est., to end-March)
• Skyline UCITS Fund (Global EM L/S Equity) ; 10.59% YTD (est.)
• Dunn WMA UCITS Fund (CTA/Managed Futures); -12.70% YTD (est.)
• Goldwinds Global Macro UCITS Fund (Discretionary Global Macro)
• RP Systematic Emerging Markets UCITS Fund (Systematic EM Macro); 0.34% YTD (est.)
• Wanger US Smaller Companies UCITS Fund (US Small Cap, Long Only)
• MontLake Wanger European Smaller Companies UCITS Fund (European Small Cap, Long Only)

This is a platform, like many like it, that lets the fund managers focus on the running of their fund, while it gets busy with the multitude of tasks that must be met for a fund to be sustainable. Like a supermarket does with the products that it sells.

So while managers stay busy doing what they do best; investors can sift through them (with ease, as there is good transparency) and chose what fund (UCITS fund, a safer structure) would be most suitable for their own portfolio. What is there not to like about being on or investing through a platform.

Opalesque asked Cyril Delamare, one of ML Capital's managing partners, to explain how it really works.

Opalesque: why did ML Capital decide to start a platform? Why UCITS rather than other fund structures?

Cyril Delamare: We set up ML to bring hedg......................

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This article was published in Opalesque's New Managers a top-down monthly analysis, news and research publication on the global emerging manager space.