AXA IM
AXA IM will launch the AXA World Funds Framlington UK fund in March 2016, managed by Chris St John. The fund, which will take an unconstrained multi-cap approach, will provide the first offshore access to the AXA IM Framlington Equities UK investment team.
It will generally have a structural bias to mid-cap and small cap companies relative to the FTSE All Share, which is where the manager expects to generate alpha. The fund manager will seek to identify undervalued growth opportunities, using the bottom-up, high conviction stock selection process.
The Luxembourg-domiciled SICAV will, in addition to the UK, be registered for distribution in France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and Spain.
Wermuth Asset Management
Wermuth Asset Management (WAM) is launching another private equity fund, with a focus on European growth companies within the area of resource efficiency and renewable energy.
“Green Gateway Fund 2 is directed towards institutional investors who wish their investments to be not only climate friendly but also, at the same time, to generate attractive returns,” says Jochen Wermuth, chief investment officer of WAM.
The fund’s target size is EUR 250m, within individual investments of between EUR 5 and 30m into portfolio companies which demonstrate high growth potential and will make significant contributions to energy and resource efficiency.
These might include companies from the fields of renewable energy, electromobility, electric power storage and smart grid technology. The average holding period should be in the range of four to five years.
GCP
Gravis Capital Partners has announced the launch of the first UK-focused open-ended infrastructure fund. Managed by Stephen West and Stephen Ellis, the VT UK Infrastructure Income Fund will aim to deliver a distributed yield of 5% per annum by investing in the UK’s listed infrastructure sector.
According to Ellis, the decision to launch the fund was driven by client demand for an open-ended vehicle providing a similar cautious, uncorrelated type of return to the firm’s flagship closed-ended fund.
