Keeley Asset Management Corp (Keeley), an investment boutique specialising in equity value strategies, has launched the Keeley International Small Cap Value Fund.
The fund is a newly created series of the Keeley Funds, Inc. and offers the flexibility of two distinct share classes, Class A (KISVX) and Class I (KISIX).
The Fund will be managed by Keeley's new international value equity portfolio manager, Egor N Rybakov, CFA. Rybakov joined the firm in August 2014 with over 15 years of international investment experience. His career has included the founding and management of an international value equity strategy at EDGE Asset Management/Principal Financial Group, and serving in various senior research and portfolio management roles at affiliates of Nuveen Investments (Tradewinds/NWQ) and Thornburg Investment Management.
"Our investment process is designed to identify what we believe to be strong companies that possess one or more of the following five key characteristics: quality and durable business operations, financial strength, skilled management, absolute undervaluation and the existence of clearly identifiable catalysts," says Rybakov.
The Fund employs a rigorous, "bottom-up" investment process that focuses on international small and mid-cap companies. The Fund's primary investment universe includes both developed and emerging foreign countries that possess stable political systems and established rules of law designed to support legitimate and reasonable business practices. Relative performance will be measured against the MSCI World ex-USA Small Cap Index.
"We are pleased to have Egor join us," says John L Keeley, Jr, President and Chief Investment Officer of Keeley. "His entrepreneurial approach and investment philosophy make him an ideal fit within our boutique culture, and the addition of this strategy represents a natural extension of our value-oriented fund family."
The Fund is the eighth within the Keeley fund family, complementing the firm's domestic funds, which employ two investment philosophies. One philosophy, which contains five strategies, focuses on complex change and restructuring. The second philosophy, which contains two strategies, employs a dividend-oriented approach
