West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Alternative investor Ansher Holding Limited, which is focused on investments in Central Asia and the Caucasus, has reported their equity long/short hedge fund is up 13% YTD.

“Central Asia and the Caucasus region have emerged as one of the world’s fastest growing regions and has shown notable development potential,” says Pascal Buschor, Executive Director and member of the investment committee, “The region is rich in oil, gas, cotton and gold with reasonable infrastructure and human capital and a strategic location between Asia and Europe. The diversified economies of most Central Asian countries show also very attractive valuations in the banking, insurance, food processing and telecommunication sectors.”

Anshers 2 hedge funds have a rather narrow regional focus to invest across Central Asian and the Caucasus’ equity and property markets, the Ansher Regional Property Fund (ARPF) and Ansher Regional Equity Fund (AREF). The funds have shown strong performance since launch, in 2006 showing a positive return of +34.2%, 2007: +33.1%, 2008: +13%, for the equity fund, and +8.6%, for the newly launched real estate fund.

With a low correlation to main markets and strong links in the area, including political, the investment objective of AREF is to take advantage of high yield and relatively undervalued assets in fast-growing industries such as oil & gas, mining, energy, financial institutions, and consumer goods sectors in order to achieve long term capital appreciation primarily through an actively managed portfolio of securities and assets in the Region.

Endowed with world class natural resources, the Region is experiencing strong economic growth and attracting billions of dollars in foreign investments, Ansher says in its monthly report, expecting also to benefit from great deal of spill over effect of oil & gas and mining industries on other sectors of the economy.

Ansher Fund Management is the asset management arm of Ansher Holding Limited. Founded 1998, the company has managed number of successful funds dedicated to emerging markets of the CIS as well as Turkey and Mongolia. Ansher FM has managed three different funds with consolidated AUM of $80 million with mandates of investing in the equity markets, property markets and private equity opportunities.

This exceptional performance is attributable to being the only regional focused family of funds with physical presence of the team in the region Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Almaty (Kazakhstan), Dubai (UAE), Zurich (Switzerland). The team of Ansher FM consists of 10 investment professionals as well as 4 back office employees to cover the region.

Domiciled in the Cayman Islands, Ansher has a 2% management fee, a 20% performance fee with a 8% hurdle rate and a minimum investment of $100.000.

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West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Hedge Fund manager Gartmore Investment Management Limited is launching the Gartmore European Absolute Return Fund, to be co-managed by Roger Guy and Guillaume Rambourg, subject to regulatory approval.

The new fund will be a UCITS III limited issue vehicle with capacity set at £200 million, the fund’s three week offer period starts on 6th October before its launch on 31st October 2008.

The Gartmore European Absolute Return Fund, the first in a series of absolute return offerings planned by Gartmore, will seek to deliver positive absolute returns over the long-term in all market conditions by taking long and short positions in equities and derivatives. It will be managed using a similar strategy to Gartmore’s flagship European equity long/short hedge fund – the Gartmore AlphaGen Capella Fund.

Commenting on the proposed launch, Richard Pursglove, Head of UK Retail at Gartmore, said: "Over the last decade we have transformed our business into a specialist provider of long-only and alternative products. This latest development is an important strategic addition to our retail fund range, and has been driven by substantial client interest from discretionary asset managers, wealth managers and IFAs seeking uncorrelated, positive returns."

He concluded: "Gartmore’s substantial experience in shorting, combined with it long established hedge fund infrastructure, will be attractive to investors looking for absolute returns."

Gartmore is a leading provider of long-only and alternative investment solutions and one of the pioneers of managing hedge funds on behalf of institutional investors. Since entering the hedge fund arena in 1999, Gartmore has built an $11billon** hedge fund business and is one of the largest hedge fund providers in Europe.

Alex Akesson

Editor for HedgeCo.Net
Email: alex@hedgeco.net

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Reuters- South Korean broker Woori Investment & Securities said on Tuesday it will start a $100 million Asia-focused hedge fund in Singapore as part of plans to expand its business in Southeast Asia. Woori plans to boost revenue contribution from its overseas business to 20 percent in three years from five percent now, Joonho Hwang, chief financial officer of the Korean brokerage firm, told a news conference in Singapore.

The long/short hedge fund "Woori Absolute Partners" would likely start operations in July after an injection of $100 million from the parent.

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