The Cayman-domiciled fund will be managed by RWC’s ‘European Focus’ team who joined RWC from Hermes in October 2012 and replicates an existing strategy the team has managed in a UK limited partnership since 2009.
RWC said the fund has been launched with $145m under management, invested by existing supporters of the strategy. The company plans to raise approximately $750m of additional assets, taking the strategy to $1bn which RWC said offers the optimum size to generate returns.
Dan Mannix, chief executive of RWC, said: “Highly concentrated portfolios that take active management to its fullest extent are a particularly appealing way to add alpha to a broad market strategy.
“Constructive activism provides genuine alpha creation as we work with a firm’s stakeholders to improve long-term shareholder returns. Institutional investors are increasingly seeing the benefit of active ownership, both in terms of straightforward alpha creation and the greater accountability it infers on the management and boards of companies.”
The RWC European Focus Fund is co-managed by Maarten Wildschut and Petteri Soininen. The strategy invests in a concentrated portfolio of 10 to 20 investments combining elements of value-based, private equity and event-driven investing. It takes a long-term active ownership approach to the companies that it invests in, with a focus on fundamentally sound companies where constructive activism can help improve shareholder returns.
