NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com)–One of the earliest hedge fund vehicles to trade on a public exchange, London- and Zurich-listed Altin AG, had a return of better than 9% in dollar terms and 10.75% in sterling in 2005.
By comparison, both the Credit Suisse/Tremont multi-strategy index and the HFR fund of funds index increased about 7.5% for the year.
This year Altin has gained over 6% to date. The fund’s manager, the alternatives arm of Swiss bank Syz & Co., attributes the strong performance to an investment approach of combining a large group of well-established hedge funds with small niche managers.
Long-time funds that are closed to new investors account for over 80% of the portfolio, the firm said in a release. The remainder of the portfolio consists of a diversified pool of managers in new strategies and geographical regions that are expected to provide high returns.
One contributor to performance was Altin’s move away from convertible arbitrage and multi-strategy arbitrage in 2005 while it increased allocations to long/short equity funds active in Europe, Japan and emerging markets. The convertible arbitrage strategy in general has gone downhill, apparently due to over-crowding in that market.
After a rough first half, the fund benefited from high returns in long/short equity and macro funds in the second half of the year, the firm said.
Since its inception in December 1996, Altin has returned 9.72% annually on average as of Jan. 31 this year. It was listed on the Zurich exchange at inception and on the London exchange in December 2001.