Axiom Alternative Investments, an independent asset manager specialising in European financial stocks has expanded its fund offering with the launch of a new long-short equity strategy – Axiom Long Short Equity – which will be managed by Antonio Roman.

According to a press statement, the fund complements the firm's existing Axiom European Banks Equity strategy, a long-only fund specialising in European banking equities, which was launched 10 years ago and is also managed by Roman.

Since launch in 2014, that fund has outperformed the European Banks Stocks index (SX7R) by 52.08%, and by 150.23% since 31 December 2018.

Axiom says the new fund is designed as an investment solution with an absolute return objective, aiming to replicate the outperformance of Axiom European Banks Equity above the Stoxx 600 Banks index (SX7R) with lower volatility and downside risk than long-only management.