Greater China Ucits fund added to Merchant Capital platform

Hong Kong management company Galaxy Asset Management is launching a multi-strategy Ucits-compliant fund on the Merchant Capital platform.

The fund will be based on Galaxy's existing Cayman-domiciled China Opportunities Fund. Since inception in 2005 the fund has delivered annualised returns of around 20%.

The Galaxy Ucits fund will be co-managed by Joe Chan and Johnson Cheung. Cheung said the strategy focused on markets in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The offshore version of the fund takes long and short positions in Greater China stocks using event-driven, long/short equity and tactical trading strategies. It typically holds around 50 mid and large-cap stocks at a time.

Cheung said he hoped the fund would be able to replicate most of the offshore fund's investment process. The Ucits product will have weekly or better liquidity compared to monthly liquidity for the Cayman fund.

He said the decision to launch a Ucits product had been taken following requests from existing investors, including some in Europe. Galaxy also hoped to access new investors through the Ucits product. Initially it will be aimed at institutional and high net-worth investors in Europe and Asia.

Cheung added that Galaxy was talking to potential partners for seed capital but he hoped the fund would launch with approximately $20 million in assets under management with a capacity target of $500 million.

Minimum investment for the Dublin-domiciled fund will be $100,000. The fund administrator is PNC Global Investment Servicing.

The Merchant Capital platform went live earlier this year with the launch of the Merchant European Equity Fund, distributed by Spanish company Tressis.