Zurich-based Systematic Absolute Return AG has announced that on September 1 it will launch the SAR Asset Finance Fund, a fund of funds focused on a diverse portfolio of asset-based lending and asset-backed securities funds.  The Fund targets an annual net return of 10% plus with volatility of less than 3% with a 1:1 leveraged version also available in all the major currencies. The offering will launch with some $64 million in initial equity, according to the firm. The firm anticipates that it will continue to focus on niche and focused players in the field and due to the limited capacity of the underlying managers the fund is targeting to raise between $300-500m in the next 24 months. Future growth will depend on the opportunities available as this space evolves. The fund managers are Arne Schmidt, Michael Ahrndt and Fabrizio Ladi.

Asset Finance Survey

As part of their initiative to spread awareness in the area of asset backed lending SAR commissioned a survey to understand the interest and motivation for exposure to asset finance. The firm say it had a significant response and interest to this initial survey which it believes is the first independently conducted one in this strategy by any asset manager. Results indicate that there is a lot of interest in this sector and the asset growth will continue. SAR intends to make the results of the survey available to all investors as well as the investment community in general. The significant expertise needed and the access to good managers and strategies will continue to be the significant factor that will potentially keep the SAR range of products ahead of its peers.

Contact: Stanley Marchon, Management Consultant (Stanley@sar-ag.ch).  Tel: + 44 14 14 16 4060

Background Information

 

In 2001 Michael and Arne incorporated Systematic Absolute Return LLC and launched its first product, the Systematic U.S. Equity fund in September 2001. The new fund was a fully systematic statistical arbitrage strategy specialized in trading U.S. listed and OTC securities. The principals also managed a FOF from October 2003 as the mandate became available on a clients request. SAR launched the Stable Absolute Return FoF and in March 2004 welcomed the first outside investors.  Fabrizio Ladi joined the team in 2005. The team has expanded ever since and is actively increasing its headcount in the operations and research area. The Asset Finance fund is the latest development in what will be a series of niche offerings.