The fund is a sub-fund of the existing Wells Fargo (Lux) Worldwide fund and will be available to both retail and institutional investors.
The Global Equity Absolute Return Fund is managed by Harindra de Silva, Dennis Bein, and David Krider with the aim of achieving long-term capital appreciation and a positive return regardless of market conditions. Together the managers have 70 years’ experience.
The fund is sub-advised by Analytic Investors and will seek to gain long and short exposure in equity securities of issuers in developed market countries included in the MSCI World index.
It can have long equity exposure of up to 100% of its net assets, and a short equity exposure, achieved through the use of swap agreements and other types of derivatives, of up to 80% of net assets.
Ludger Peters, managing director of international business development at Wells Fargo AM, said: “We continue to build out our international product line-up using the expertise and time-tested investment process of Analytic Investors.
“The team is widely recognised for a commitment to innovative investment research, disciplined quantitative methods and an ability to implement sophisticated trading and portfolio management strategies, which are increasingly important in a complex global market.”
In addition to the UK, the fund is available in Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden.
Wells Fargo AM is planning to launch the product in Hong Kong, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea and Switzerland.
The firm currently oversees $497bn (£370bn €422bn) in assets globally.
