The new team, headed by Muhammed Yesilhark, will be based in London and will run the Carmignac Grande Europe, Carmignac Euro-Patrimoine and Carmignac Euro-Entrepreneurs. The team had previously spent four years at SAC Global Investors.
Parent company SAC Capital Advisors shut its London office in the face of insider-trading allegations against its US office by US prosecutors.
Carmignac Gestion Group’s founder and chairman, Edouard Carmignac said that the group planned to raise its European funds to first quartile: "The (new team's) experience in long-short management will help us to perform in all market conditions and will complement our risk management. Muhammed Yesilhark and his team will also contribute to the firm by originating investment ideas for use across the Carmignac Gestion Group funds range.”
Yesilhark started as an analyst at Lazard in Frankfurt, before helping to build York Capital’s hedge fund business and then joining SAC in 2009. He will run the Carmignac Grande Europe fund and the long-short Carmignac Euro-Patrimoine fund and co-manage the small and mid-caps Carmignac Euro-Entrepreneurs fund with Malte Heininger. The team also includes analysts Huseyin Yasar and Saiyid Hamid.
The £260m Carmignac Grande Europe fund, managed by Samir Essafri and Laurent Ducoin is currently bottom of its sector over one and three years, having failed to participate in the rally in European stocks over the past two years. It is up just 5.4% over three years, compared to a sector average return of 29.6%.
