Occam to launch second Absolute Return mandate

Occam Asset Management, jointly founded by former Thames River Capital founder Jonathan Hughes Morgan, is to launch a Ucits III Asian Absolute Return fund next month.

To be managed by Mark Williams and Fabiana Fedelli, the vehicle will complement the group's long only Asia Focus fund.

Asia Absolute Return will be Dublin authorised and will have euro, sterling and dollar hedged share classes as part of Occam's Umbrella fund.

The Occam Umbrella fund, which was launched in Sept 2008, currently has in excess of $330m through the Asia Focus, Europe Focus and Global Emerging Markets sub-funds.

The two long-only funds, Occam Asia Focus, managed by Williams and Fedelli, and Occam Europe Focus, run by ex-Threadneedle manager Phil Cliff, both comfortably outperformed respective benchmarks over the first 12 months.

Global Emerging Markets, managed by Eoghan Flanagan and James Mellersh, ex-Nevsky Capital, is run on an absolute return basis and has returned in excess of 27% since launch at the end of April this year.

"Our Ucits III funds have performed very well over the first year and we feel that this is an opportune time to expand our range with a second absolute return fund," Hughes- Morgan says.

Occam Asset Management was set up in 2007 by Hughes-Morgan and David Sheppard.