Morgan Stanley has announced the launch of a new fund under its UCITS Irish Umbrella, FundLogic Alternatives. San Francisco based Ascend Capital, which runs approximately $3.2 billion, has been appointed investment manager to the MS Ascend UCITS Fund with Morgan Stanley acting as promoter.

The new fund, an opportunistic US focused long/short equity strategy will seek to maximize gains and minimize volatility over an extended period of time, while generating alpha on both the long and short side of the portfolio.

Commenting on the new launch, David Armstrong, Managing Director and Global Head of Fund-Linked business at Morgan Stanley said, “Our collaboration with Ascend Capital provides investors with an excellent opportunity to participate in a renowned strategy, benefiting from an impressive track-record of over eleven years. This new fund will be managed in a similar way to the 2010 Morningstar 5 star Ascend Partners Fund II, Ltd.”

Armstrong added, “This new addition to our FundLogic Alternatives Platform is further proof of our commitment to provide investors with a wide range of UCITS funds gathering talented investment managers. Ascend Capital is an accomplished long/short equity manager, rewarded for its ability to generate superior andm consistent risk adjusted returns.”

“We are pleased to join forces with Morgan Stanley to offer a new path to our investment strategy” said Malcolm Fairbairn, Chief Investment Officer and Founder of Ascend Capital. “We believe our rigorous bottom-up investment process, combined with the extensive proprietary fundamental processes developed over the past 16 years, allows us to identify the best risk/reward ideas.”