NewSmith has launched the NewSmith European Fund, a UCITS long-short equity fund for UK and European investors.

The fund will be managed by Jean Maigrot, European Equity Investment Leader at NewSmith.  Jean has 28 years’ experience of trading European equities, and was previously head of trading teams at Salomon Brothers (1992-1996), HVB (1998-2001) and ABN Amro (2002-2007). He joined NewSmith in 2007.

 
The fund’s investment strategy is equity long/short focusing on large cap European stocks.  It will follow the same strategy as NewSmith’s offshore long/short equity fund which has a strong seven year track record, posting 29% net returns since inception on [date] (vs. the Eurostoxx 50 return of -29.1%).  This included a +9.9% return in 2008 (vs. market fall of 45.2%) demonstrating excellent risk-adjusted and alpha returns in rising and falling markets, from both long and short positions.
 
Cornerstone investors have already committed $35 million in seed capital to the UCITS fund. It will be domiciled in Dublin and have daily dealing in four share classes, Euro, USD, GBP and Yen.
 
Chairman Paul Roy says: “We have seen strong demand from investors for access to our long/short European investment strategy, and this, together with the growing popularity of UCITS structure, drove our decision to launch the fund.”
 
NewSmith’s European Equity Investment Leader Jean Maigrot, says: “Many European stocks are trading at a wide discount to US equities. At the same time we are concerned about the outlook for European economic growth, so we see opportunities in long and short positions.”