Investec Bank (UK) and Blackfish Capital Management have joined forces to launch an event-driven special situations fund focused on the mining and resources sector, the Blackfish-Investec

Investec Bank (UK) and Blackfish Capital Management have joined forces to launch an event-driven special situations fund focused on the mining and resources sector, the Blackfish-Investec Resources Special Situations Fund.

The fund strategy will be to achieve absolute returns through strategic investments in the small- to mid-cap resources sector focused on value opportunities on the long and short side. The manager will trade the underlying commodities to provide a hedge to the market, actively managing commodity price risk.

The fund will target near-term mining production assets and identify special situations where managers can leverage and unlock potential in undervalued assets, or profit from the short sale of overvalued companies.

The experienced investment team at Blackfish-Investec Capital Management is led jointly by Martyn Konig, chief executive of Blackfish Capital Management and George Rogers, head of commodities and resource finance at Investec Bank.

According to the partners, the fund benefits from the expertise and experience of a niche investment house combined with the infrastructure and support of a multinational bank. An advisory panel comprising of senior industry figures will provide further experience.
 

Targeted primarily at institutional investors, the fund aims to raise USD300m over the next six to 12 months, although the final close may be USD500m. The prime broker is Goldman Sachs International, while the administrator is Butterfield Fund Services.

Established in 1974, Investec is a specialist international banking group that provides a diverse range of financial products and services to a niche client base in the UK and Australia as well as South Africa, its country of origin, and various other countries.

The group, which has around 5,000 employees, focuses on private client activities, treasury and specialised finance, investment banking, asset management and property investment banking. Investec, which is listed on the London and Johannesburg stock exchanges, had GBP48.8bn in third-party assets under management at the end of September last year.

Blackfish Capital Management was established at the beginning of 2003 by Simon Kerr, formerly an analyst at fund of funds manager Alpha Investment Management, and launched its first fund early that year.