“We already have out offshore version and we’ve seen clear demand for a UCITS version of the fund,” Steer said. “It’s a very interesting time for looking at companies in Europe as it recovers, we see a lot of opportunities” he added.
The two key elements of the strategy will be shorting overly expensive IPOs and placing long trades on European companies it expects to perform well as recovery across mainland Europe progresses.
Artemis is also planning to build up its European sales team in conjunction with the launch, Steer said.
Steer said that once launched in the third quarter the new fund will be have around 95% correlation with the offshore version with the small difference explained by the restrictions of working under UCITS.
“The main difference is we will be required to maintain more liquidity in the UCITS version so it will involve taking smaller positions and investing in smaller companies that the offshore version,” he explained.
Steer said the offshore version of the fund has been successfully operated with limited exposure to the market and expects that to be the case with the new fund as well.
Between the time of launch in December 2004 and 31 March this year, the offshore version of the fund has returned a total of 155%.
As of 31 March the offshore fund’s top long holdings were Supergroup at 5.5%, Kentz Corp at 4.4%, Ashtead Group at 4.3%, GKN at 3.3%, Elementis at 3.2%, EasyJet at3.2%, Sports Direct at 3.1 and Galliford Try at 3.1%.
Its most heavily shorted sectors were Support Services, General Retailers, Financial Services, Industrial Transportation Media -2.6% and Personal Goods. Its biggest net exposure was to banks, construction, media, travel, oil equipment and general retailers.
