Cheyne Capital Management is planning to roll out two Ucits III funds, covering its merger arbitrage and
long-short credit strategies.
The hedge fund giant hopes to launch an Ucits III global long-short credit fund over the next few months.
The fund will be managed by John Weiss and David Peacock – who both head up corporate credit – and
will target investment grade credit.
The strategy will be based loosely on the firm’s long-short credit hedge fund and target a 6% to 8% return
above Libor per annum.
Cheyne is also planning to launch a Ucits III global merger arbitrage fund in May in a bid to capitalise on
what they see as attractive opportunities in the merger and acquisition (M&A) cycle. Simon Davies, who is
CIO of the firm’s event-driven business, will manage the fund.
Commenting on the rationale behind the fund launch, Cheyne’s head of international sales and
distribution excluding the UK, Max Nardulli, said the firm expects there will be catalysts in the ailing M&A
market which the team will look to take advantage of. He also points to reduced competition in the space,
as there are now fewer specialist merger arbitrage managers and prop desks chasing the same
opportunities.
Davies will tend to focus on transactions in the global M&A market, including Europe, Australia and South
Africa.
In December the firm launched its first Ucits III fund, the Cheyne Select Convertibles fund, managed by
Akin Akinloye, which targets a return of 8% to 9% above Libor per annum.
Nardulli added: ‘Whatever we do when we are thinking about Ucits III, we don’t just clone our hedge
funds. We want to make sure that it is what investors want and can still generate alpha within Ucits III.’