Financial Risk Management, a global manager and adviser of funds of hedge funds, has raised GBP46m for FRM Credit Alpha, a Guernsey-domiciled closed-ended investment company, following its

Financial Risk Management, a global manager and adviser of funds of hedge funds, has raised GBP46m for FRM Credit Alpha, a Guernsey-domiciled closed-ended investment company, following its listing on the Irish Stock Exchange.

FRM Credit Alpha is to invest in a focused portfolio of hedge funds that seeks to deliver attractive returns throughout credit cycles. The company has been admitted to trading on the International Bulletin Board of the London Stock Exchange.

The Credit Alpha fund will seek to deliver better risk-adjusted returns than those achieved by making passive investments in corporate debt securities, when measured over a complete market cycle, by investing in a portfolio of hedge funds pursuing a variety of different credit and credit related investment strategies.

By investing in a combination of underlying funds managed by managers who adopt research-based value/event-driven or long-short approaches, FRM believes that volatility and peak-to-trough drawdowns will be lower than those typically delivered by long-only strategies.

The fund's UK-based investment adviser, Financial Risk Management, has been allocating to credit strategies since 1998 and currently advises on credit strategy allocations valued at around USD1.5bn.

Says chief executive Paul Dunning: 'Credit hedge funds with a research-driven approach can offer investors diversification from traditional investments in equities and bonds. Credit is a growing asset class, and there are a number of hedge funds that use sophisticated instruments, extensive research and activism to generate attractive returns in this market.

'Investing in these funds through FRM Credit Alpha brings investors the benefits of FRM's proven track record in credit and our rigorous research and portfolio construction capabilities.'

Founded in 1991, the FRM Group had around USD12bn in fund of hedge funds assets under management at the end of last year, and has more than 200 employees in offices in London, New York, Tokyo, Sydney and Guernsey.