Broader channels to sell ABN Amro hedge fund
Kassin: sees potential in Venezuela
Single-manager product to build on success of institutional forerunner.
ABN Amro Asset Management, currently in the throes of a wide-ranging business review, has launched its first single manager hedge fund product.
The ABN Amro Emerging Markets Debt fund will focus on event-driven trading in liquid, hard currency, sovereign debt in the emerging markets. “We have enjoyed a great deal of success to date in trading around important events,” said Raphael Kassin, the fund’s manager. “We are never neutral on any one country. We are paid to make decisions and we therefore either like a country, or we don’t.”
Mr Kassin, described by colleagues as an “ex-proprietary trader who runs money in his own particular style; not a benchmark hugger,” sees potential in Venezuela. He said markets like Russia and Brazil, where governments are getting to grips with their economies, are becoming “a little too expensive”.
Mr Kassin’s team already manages a successful E700m emerging markets bond fund, aimed at institutions. The new product, with a target annual return of 15 per cent, has been adapted as a long-short version of the existing fund. In line with the expected results of the internal review, it will be aimed at third-party distributors, as well as the powerful internal channel.
Kassin: sees potential in Venezuela
