Gottex Fund Management had assets under management of USD7.46bn at 31 March 2010, a fall of 4.3 per cent from USD7.80bn at 31 December 2009.
The decrease was primarily caused by client redemptions and technical factors, but was to a certain extent offset by subscriptions.
Total subscriptions for the quarter amounted to USD290m, of which Gottex Solutions Services subscriptions were USD120m and USD130m related to Constellar, while outflows from run-off share classes equalled USD100m and client redemptions accounted for USD290m.
Foreign exchange reduced AUM by USD80m and rebalancing had a positive impact of USD10m in Q1 2010.
A positive net performance contribution of USD65m in market neutral and portable alpha strategies was offset by a reduction in asset based strategies resulting in an overall decrease of USD40m.
Gottex’s total fee-earning assets were USD7.92bn at 31 March 2010, compared to USD8.13bn at 31 December 2009, representing a fall of 2.6 per cent. This total consisted of USD7.5bn in AUM and Gottex Solutions Services assets of USD0.45bon.
Total assets have remained relatively stable since the end of June 2009 when they stood at USD8.16bn.
Gottex has continued to return capital to redeeming investors in Gottex run-off share classes and these investors have on average received over 80 per cent of their original holdings in cash as at 31 March 2010, at which point in time the AUM contained in the run-off share classes amounted to USD400m.
Gottex Solutions Services further increased assets on the managed account platform with subscriptions of USD120m during Q1 2010 raising assets to USD450m.
Joachim Gottschalk, chairman and chief executive, says: “Gottex’s positive performance in 2009 continued in the first quarter of this year and our core market neutral products have now generated 12 consecutive months of positive returns, despite pronounced volatility in global capital markets during this period. This brings us back to the core business premise of absolute return funds: generating positive performance with low correlation for their investors, regardless of up or down movements in bonds and equities.
“I am pleased with the progress made against the key initiatives we set out for 2010. Our managed account platform has increased fee earning assets by 37 per cent since the end of 2009 and our multi-asset endowment style strategies receive growing interest from smaller institutions who want to outsource their investment function across part or all of the major asset classes. We are on track with our new Ucits products, which are due to be launched this summer. We believe regulated products with shorter liquidity profiles will attract the majority of European private investors’ flows when high net worth individuals return to the hedge fund industry.”
