CA-AIPG: A pioneer in the fund of hedge fund industry

Crédit Agricole – Alternative Investment Products Group, CA-AIPG, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Credit Agricole Asset Management and fully dedicated to alternative fund of fund business.

A pioneer in the field of funds of hedge funds, CA-AIPG started in 1992 to manage a dedicated fund of hedge fund portfolio for Crédit Agricole Bank with an investment of $120m (298m). In 1996, Crédit Agricole decided to open its funds to external clients through the development of a distinctive range of investment products marketed under the Green Way range. Today, our largely institutional clients number over 300 and assets exceed $11.3bn and are growing steadily.

With a dedicated staff of 59 people based in Chicago, London and Paris, CA-AIPG focuses exclusively on the analysis, selection and construction of funds of hedge funds.

Investment Process

Our primary investment style is to build alternative investment products which seek to achieve, over time, rates of return above those which can generally be expected from “traditional” markets, while at the same time maintaining a lower level of risk (as measured by the volatility of returns) and correlation.

If successful in reaching these objectives, an investment in one of our products could serve as an effective “alternative” to “traditional” markets and thus provide an efficient means of diversifying an investor’s portfolio.

We believe we can achieve superior risk-adjusted returns through diversification across all or specialised alternative strategies. We see risk management and control over our investments as a cornerstone activity of our investment approach. We believe that quantitative as well as qualitative analyses are key to the selection of individual hedge funds specialising in alternative investments.

Through our process, we seek to achieve superior risk-adjusted returns. We favour low volatility and constant return over explosive return with high volatility.

In November 2004, Hedge Funds Review nominated us “Best European institutional hedge fund of funds product provider” and our flagship fund for the “best long-term achievement fund of funds over 10 years.”

Products and Services

CA-AIPG offers access to a wide range of alternative strategies and to premier hedge fund managers. It has a wide range of products, excellent transparency and unparalleled client servicing to meet the needs of our institutional clientele.

The core product range is based on two fund of hedge funds lines:

• Diversified funds invested across the entire range of alternative strategies and styles

• Specialised funds invested in a single strategy or a small group of strategies, such as arbitrage; long/short equity, distressed securities and high yield bonds, macro global and Systematic Futures Trading.

CA-AIPG manages 17 open-ended mutual funds as well as ‘white label’ funds and segregated mandates.

To meet specific client risk/return profiles or to accommodate certain legal/domicile requirements, CA-AIPG has the expertise necessary to customise dedicated funds of hedge funds and create structured products with various guarantees and liquidity features.

Unique features found only at CA-AIPG

One of the top 15 funds of funds managers worldwide (HedgeFund Intelligence, September 2004), CA-AIPG distinguishes itself in an increasingly crowded field by combining the advantages of an independent and dynamic management structure, the flexibility to respond to special client needs, and the stability and backing of the Crédit Agricole Group.

Half of the investment team is based in the US and half in Europe. Unlike the majority of FoHF managers, we have thorough coverage of both non-US (Europe and Asia) and US managers. This allows local access to hedge funds and subsequently a genuine geographical diversification of our portfolios. Furthermore, we have developed many strong long-term relationships with other key players in the industry. Our extensive network allows us to be very competitive in selecting managers, and in offering clients access to the most talented and experienced managers as well as emerging managers. As we consider our investments as long-term investments and our selection process as efficient, we give the managers we invest with sufficient time to demonstrate their capabilities Our investor stability enables us to access capacity of the best hedge funds worldwide and thus give access to the most talented and experienced managers to our clients.

Our process is risk orientated: thus, we have succeeded in avoiding major hedge fund pitfalls over the past 12 years. We attribute the avoidance of fraud to the quality of our due-diligence process and the follow-up of the investments developed by our risk team.

Carl Dunning-Gribble, head of marketing and sales, CA-AIPG in Paris

Carl Dunning-Gribble, CA-AIPG