21 Jun 2010
BlueCrest Capital Management has breathed life into the closed-end listed hedge fund sector with a £349 million capital raising for its AllBlue fund that invests in multiple strategies. The fund, which invests in several BlueCrest single manager funds, now has £809 million in assets under management.
The fundraising is the largest in the listed hedge fund sector since May 2008 after the initial public offering of Brevan Howard’s BH Global which raised $1 billion. It is only the third fundraising in the listed hedge fund sector since the end of 2008 with one share issue being for AllBlue itself (which raised £101 million in December 2009) and the other being for BlackRock Hedge Selector (which raised £49 million in September 2009.)
The capital raising makes BlueCrest the third largest listed hedge fund strategy. BH Macro is the sector leader with AUM of £1.3 billion, while fund of funds operator Dexion Absolute is second with AUM of over £800 million.
AllBlue’s current split between discretionary and systematic strategies, headed by CEO Mike Platt and head of research Leda Braga respectively, is around 75%-25%. The imbalance in the allocations is the result of a better opportunity set for traded strategies in the global macro space, compared with a more difficult market environment for trend following systematic strategies.
Under the structure of the issue, all valid applications for C Shares were accepted in full. The breakdown of share classes is 309,536,109 sterling shares, 8,123,800 euro shares and 47,810,975 dollar shares.
RBS Hoare Govett Limited acted as sole sponsor and corporate broker to the Issue. RBS Hoare Govett Limited and Dexion Capital plc acted as joint bookrunners to the issue.
The fundraising is the largest in the listed hedge fund sector since May 2008 after the initial public offering of Brevan Howard’s BH Global which raised $1 billion. It is only the third fundraising in the listed hedge fund sector since the end of 2008 with one share issue being for AllBlue itself (which raised £101 million in December 2009) and the other being for BlackRock Hedge Selector (which raised £49 million in September 2009.)
“We believe the result of this fundraising proves that there is still considerable demand for listed hedge funds, despite the growth of the UCITS III structure,” said Mark James, Head of Sales & Research, Investment Funds Team at RBS. “The sector will however gravitate towards larger listed hedge funds that are able to deliver strong NAV performance and have the scale to attract an efficient secondary market and towards specialist, less liquid, strategies which cannot be effectively replicated in other fund structures.”
The capital raising makes BlueCrest the third largest listed hedge fund strategy. BH Macro is the sector leader with AUM of £1.3 billion, while fund of funds operator Dexion Absolute is second with AUM of over £800 million.
AllBlue’s current split between discretionary and systematic strategies, headed by CEO Mike Platt and head of research Leda Braga respectively, is around 75%-25%. The imbalance in the allocations is the result of a better opportunity set for traded strategies in the global macro space, compared with a more difficult market environment for trend following systematic strategies.
“This is the company's largest fundraising to date and its success is a testament to the company's track record of excellent performance,” said Richard Crowder, chairman of BlueCrest AllBlue. “We have been delighted with the demand from existing and new investors and BlueCrest remains confident that market conditions are propitious for the company's future success.”
Under the structure of the issue, all valid applications for C Shares were accepted in full. The breakdown of share classes is 309,536,109 sterling shares, 8,123,800 euro shares and 47,810,975 dollar shares.
RBS Hoare Govett Limited acted as sole sponsor and corporate broker to the Issue. RBS Hoare Govett Limited and Dexion Capital plc acted as joint bookrunners to the issue.
