Merchant Ucits platform welcomes first fund

The Merchant European Equity Fund has become the first fund to be fully operational on the Merchant Capital, a Ucits III hedge fund platform.

Merchant Capital is the fund’s investment manager. Tressis, a Spanish independent distributor of investment funds, structured products, fixed income and other financial products, will distribute the fund.

The fund’s strategy is primarily a equity long/short strategy based on a universe of 600 stocks, with characteristics of an equity market-neutral strategy.

Initially the fund’s portfolio will have around 20 long and 20 short positions, re-balanced monthly. Typical gross exposure will not rise above 180% with a hard limit of 200% gross exposure, the maximum under Ucits. Net exposure will be kept within a range of +/- 20%.

The fund offers investors weekly net asset valuations (NAVs). The fund is initially targeting European high net worth individuals and institutional investors and has plans to market to European and North American family offices.

Before founding the Merchant European Equities Fund, fund manager Robert Maxwell was managing director at Liberty Square Asset Management since 2006. Prior to Liberty he was at Neutralis Asset Management and RAB Capital.

Before moving to the buy-side, Maxwell was a founding partner of Maxwell Espinosa and global head of European equity products for BNP Paribas.

PNC Global Investment Services (Dublin) has been named as fund administrator with PNC International Bank (Dublin) as the custodial and trustee services provider.

Carne Global Financial Services provided independent corporate governance to the fund. Merchant uses Kinetic Partners for risk management and valuation.

All funds using the platform are domiciled in Ireland.

For funds using the platform, Merchant appoints the client as adviser or sub-manager of a sub-fund or cell. The cell is managed according to the client’s instructions while Merchant manages the oversight, administrative, processing and regulatory functions.

Launching a Ucits III product can be expensive and labour-intensive. Merchant Capital believes its platform provides an efficient and cost-effective entry into Ucits fund structures.