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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)- Florida based hedge fund manager INTL Consilium LLC and First City Monument Bank Plc have jointly launched the Legacy Africa Alpha Fund, a $100 million hedge fund investing in Africa and the Middle East.

"The new Legacy Africa Alpha Fund is a natural extension to our global products as we have been investing aggressively in the region for three years now." Jonathan Binder, co-portfolio manager, said.

Structured as an absolute return fund, the strategy focuses on capital appreciation and income via investments in debt and equity securities in sovereign or corporate entities  located in Africa and the Middle East. The goal of the strategy is to produce consistent absolute returns while maintaining attractive risk-adjusted return profiles, irrespective of the conditions of the global markets.

The Legacy Africa Alpha Fund will place a 30% cap on its Middle Eastern weighting to ensure significant exposure to Africa’s fastest growing economies,

"INTL already has over $450 million invested in the region in both debt and equity securities in over 16 different countries as they were quick to identify value and growth opportunities at a time when many investors shied away." co-portfolio manager Charles Cassel added, "The Legacy Africa Alpha Fund is an exciting venture for our team, as it will allow us to leverage our existing knowledge and contacts within the region."

In addition to the Legacy Africa Alpha Fund, CSL is simultaneously launching two additional funds under the flagship “Legacy” brand. The Legacy 50 Fund, an index tracker of Nigeria’s top 50 companies by market capitalization and the Legacy Banking 10, driven semi active fund investing in Nigerian Banking shares will each be launched with N3 billion under management. This will bring total assets under management to N24 billion ($ 205 million), making it arguably the largest asset manager in Nigeria.

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

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West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net)- Soon after the scheduled departure of several senior traders and executives was announced, hedge fund GLG Partners has begun hiring new experts to fill in the gap.

Experts such as as Galia Velimukhametova, Fabrice Bay, and most recently Driss Ben-Brahim, a star Goldman Sachs emerging markets trader. He is to manage and hopefuly expand GLG’s $1.2 billion special situations portfolio.

Galia Velimukhametova is to join the hedge fund’s London office as a Portfolio Manager. With extensive background in the area, Galia will focus on distressed situations. Galia joins GLG from King Street Capital, where she was a Managing Director and Member of the European Investment Committee.

Fabrice Bay was previously a Managing Director at DWS/Deutsche Asset Management in Frankfurt, his significant experience in managing global long-only and 130/30 portfolios will play an important role in driving forward GLG’s offerings in these areas, according to GLG.

As of March 31, 2008, GLG has managed a net AUM (assets under management) of over $24.0 billion. GLG’s capital appreciation strategies target long-term capital appreciation through diversified portfolios of global equities and bonds.

Since its inception in 1995, GLG has built on the roots of its founders in the private wealth management industry to develop into one of the world’s largest and most recognized alternative investment managers, while maintaining its tradition of client-focused product development and customer service.

Alex Akesson

alex@hedgeco.net

HedgeCo.Net is a premier hedge fund database and community for qualified and accredited investors only. Membership on www.hedgeco.net is FREE and EASY. We also offer FREE LISTINGS for Hedge Funds!
Be sure to check out our sister sites. www.hedgefundlounge.com, www.hedgefundtools.com, and www.hedgefundemployment.com

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