The decision to award the mandate to Highbridge, a member of JP Morgan Asset Management since July 2009, comes after BlueCrest Capital Management announced in December its intention to return money to investors and instead focus solely on the management of the money of its partners and employees.
According to stock exchange announcement on the results of the BlueCrest EGM and the cash exit offer made to existing shareholders of the £800m BlueCrest AllBlue Fund, the fund will be renamed the Highbridge Multi-Strategy Fund and will have aggregate net assets of around £262m.
This represents the largest ever win of a closed end fund mandate for JPMAM’s investment trust business, the firm said, and pushes up the assets in its investment trust business to over £9bn across 23 trusts.
Simon Crinage, head of JPMAM’s Investment Trust business, said, the trust represents the firm’s first alternative offering and reflects the broad base of capabilities available within JP Morgan Asset Management.
“This absolute return oriented multi-strategy fund complements our existing book of business and further diversifies our stable of investment trust offerings. That is particularly important in the current market environment, where investors are seeking sources of return that are less correlated to traditional markets,” he added.
