The pair will bring their existing funds with them, which will be renamed the TB EEA UK Equity Market fund and the EEA Absolute Return fund. The group said the funds would extend its range of alternatives funds.
The two funds are styled as high-conviction, multi-cap UK funds. The TB EEA UK Equity Market fund aims to identify those UK companies seeing positive change. The managers source ideas from across the market capitalisation spectrum and are agnostic on sector or industry.
The EEA Absolute Return Fund is a Cayman-domiciled long/short directional equity fund, launched in 2009. It has a similar investment philosophy and process to the TB EEA UK Equity Market fund, but uses shorting to deliver lower correlation to equity markets. The fund is primarily aimed at institutional and sophisticated high net worth investors.
David Urch is lead manager on both funds. He was a founding partner at Oriel Asset Management in 2009. Prior to joining Oriel he re-launched the UK institutional offering for Fidelity International. He had joined Fidelity from SWIP where he ran the UK Opportunities fund. Previously with Martin Currie, he started his career on the UK specialist team at Mercury Asset Management/MLIM, London.
Although Urch had a period where he didn’t run funds, his long-term performance is strong. Trustnet statistics show that he has delivered 9% ahead of the peer group average over past seven years.