Wednesday, April 14, 2010
GAM launches GAM Star Emerging Market Rates
GAM has launched its sixth UCITS III alternative fund in the last six months and now has one of the industry’s widest ranges of strategies in this area. GAM has expanded its range to include an onshore version of its successful emerging market interest rate and currency strategy managed by Paul McNamara and Caroline Gorman.
GAM Star Emerging Market Rates provides daily liquidity and is tax efficient for UK onshore clients. The fund aims to generate returns of 10% per annum above LIBOR. The managers employ a top-down, thematic, approach to invest in emerging market sovereign debt, currencies and related instruments. Their offshore fund has generated significant returns through the active selection of country, currency, credit quality, interest rate and duration positioning since launch in 2004.
Commenting on the fund Paul McNamara said: “We believe that common indicators exist for systematically identifying imminent inflection points in the economies of emerging markets. Through our proprietary ‘crisis cycle’ filter, we can use these indicators to gain a clear view on which countries are about to experience significant recoveries or violent currency devaluations or economic defaults.”
The managers’ extensive experience of navigating often turbulent economic cycles of crisis and recovery, and the in-depth understanding they have developed through participating in the evolution of these markets, form the foundation of their investment approach. The resulting investment process distils key economic factors and market signals to enable the managers to anticipate future behaviour in a structured and repeatable way.
Craig Wallis, Group Head of Institutional and Fund Distribution at GAM, said: “Paul and Caroline have a combined experience of 25+ years’ managing emerging market debt and FX strategies and run over USD 3 billion in assets. Their investment approach has resulted in a track record of extracting significant returns irrespective of the market backdrop. The launch of GAM Star Emerging Market Rates provides investors with access to these impressive returns combined with the reassurance and liquidity of a UCITS III structure.”