FRM Capital Advisors and Varna Capital have formed a strategic relationship which involves FCA making a significant investment in Varna’s first fund.

Varna is a newly formed hedge fund manager based in New York and headed by Svetlana Lee. Lee, together with the Varna team, previously managed an equity long-short fund at Citadel’s PioneerPath new manager platform. Prior to that she gained extensive investment experience at hedge funds Greenlight Capital, The Baupost Group and Perry Capital. Varna will implement a value-focused, equity long-short strategy that seeks to exploit event-driven situations, structural market dislocations and identify hidden fundamental business value.

Clive Peggram, CEO of FCA, stated, “The long-term performance characteristics of fundamental equity long-short strategies are very attractive, and we look forward to bringing this opportunity to our investors. We believe that the current market is an attractive environment for this strategy and the prospects will remain strong for the foreseeable future. Svetlana is one of the most talented new equity long-short managers in the industry and we are very pleased to form a strategic relationship with her new firm and to support its development.”

Svetlana Lee, Managing Principal and Portfolio Manager of Varna, stated, “A firm’s anchor investors are a critical element to a successful launch. FCA is a well respected institutional firm and its significant day one investment will provide us with a strong foundation to launch and grow.”

Following the signing of the strategic relationship, Varna is expected to launch its first fund during the fourth quarter of 2010.