Global hedge fund heavyweight Och-Ziff, with approximately USD29billion in AUM (as of 1 April, 2011), has teamed up with Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) to launPARA_BREAK_SENTINEL_9f8e7d6c

Global hedge fund heavyweight Och-Ziff, with approximately USD29billion in AUM (as of 1 April, 2011), has teamed up with Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) to launch a UCITS III-compliant fund: Och-Ziff European Multi-Strategy UCITS Fund. The bank’s dedicated UCITS platform, Merrill Lynch Investment Solutions (MLIS), is an industry leader and hosts some of the biggest names including York Capital and Graham Capital. This latest addition gives investors exposure to another heavyweight player and its European investment expertise. The multi-strategy newcits will use a team-driven investment process with Michael L Cohen (pictured), Och-Ziff’s Head of European Investments, at the helm. Investment opportunities across equity l/s, special situations, merger-arb, credit strategies and convertible/derivative arbitrage will be explored to generate steady absolute returns with a low volatility benchmark. As the latest fund to join MLIS, it will be Lux-domiciled with Merrill Lynch acting as sponsor. It will be available to institutional and retail investors in the UK, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Sweden, Ireland, Denmark, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. Daniel S. Och, founder, Chairman and CEO of Och-Ziff said that the firm was pleased to extend its investment capabilities in Europe to investors through a UCITS III-compliant fund. BAML’s co-head of Global Equities, Mike Stewart, said that they were looking forward to partnering with Och-Ziff on MLIS. “Och-Ziff has a strong thirteen-year history of investing in Europe and will further offer our investors investing opportunities with a multi-strategy approach,” added Stewart. Minimum retail investment into the fund is USD1,000.