Great time to launch a fund

The Global Navigator Fund launched at the end of August and received its approval for distribution to UK investors yesterday from the FSA. Tideway Investment Partners are both the advisers to the fund, responsible for day to day investment decisions and distributors for the fund.

It's been almost a year in the planning stages from early concept to making the first investments last week and we hope the planning will pay off. In a world already inundated with funds, launching another one into such a crowded space might seem like a futile effort, but in the words of that well known supermarket, this is not just a fund.....this is a Tideway designed fund, designed exactly for the investment markets of today.

So what's so special about the Global Navigator?

Firstly it's not looking to equity markets to drive returns. There are lots of equity funds out there and sometimes when you read the financial press you might think that the equity markets were the only markets, but they aren't and in case you hadn't noticed they are having a tough time and face some enormous challenges looking forwards. The Global Navigator will focus on lending money not owning equity, which will enable it to invest with much more certainty of the returns it will achieve. For example, with the initial investments made last week with a portion of the fund, unless the world pretty much comes to an end ,we know that in the worse case we will earn approximately 6% p.a. over the next 2-3 years and best case we might make 10-12% in the next 6-9 months. Compare this degree of certainty of outcome and risk to investing in any large cap equity or equity markets right now with all that is going on.

Then there is its very flexible but controlled investment mandate allowing it to invest across a range of asset classes, to be short as well as long and to use derivatives to hedge investments. So as and when things do settle down the fund can broaden out to participate in any recovery, it's not a one trick pony. This will be done within the constraints of the UCITs framework which controls leverage, counter party risk, liquidity, investment concentration and a range of other sensible issues that give it a level of compliance approval that enables us to market the fund to retail investors and offer a daily tradable unit investment. This is not a traditional hedge fund with 6 month lock-in, 3 month redemption and little transparency.

Finally there is Alceda and Tideway, the fund managers and advisers. As is Tideway's general business strategy we have outsourced the trading, safe custody, valuations and administration to large well equipped firms with big balance sheets who can execute efficiently and cost effectively. Alceda is one of Europe's largest UCITs fund platforms, the fund has Bank of America as its prime broker and MM Warburg are the fund administrators. This leaves Tideway to focus on the investment strategy and marketing of the fund. Tideway's investment strategy will be small incremental profits, a very conservative approach, looking to generate low volatility returns in all weathers. One day all funds might look like the Navigator.

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