CCAP.L Regulatory News (CCAP)

30 Apr 2007 07:05

Charlemagne Capital Limited30 April 2007 30 April 2007 Charlemagne Capital Favours Russian Domestic Equities Eastern European Hedge Fund Generates Strong Returns in Q1 Downturn Charlemagne Capital ("Charlemagne") the specialist emerging markets equityinvestment management group, predicts that Russian equity success stories arelikely to be domestic economy oriented in 2007. Charlemagne's OCCO EasternEuropean Fund ("the Fund"), a hedge fund investing in Eastern European equities,has increased its Russian gross exposure to 103%, a record high for the Fund,representing 59% of total gross exposure. Andrew Wiles, Portfolio Adviser to the Fund commented: "Current marketconditions lend themselves very well to our bottom up investment process withmarkets seemingly more valuation conscious. This supports our confidence inincreasing risk levels in the Fund via an increase in gross exposure as opposedto adjusted net market exposure. We continue to see major inefficiencies acrossEastern Europe and Russia providing the opportunity for generating alpha." The Fund returned 8.17% in 2007 to end of March versus the Eurekahedge EasternEurope and Russia Hedge Fund Index which was up 6.48% over the same period (withvolatility of more than twice that of the Fund). The Fund was up 3.27% inFebruary despite a fall in markets over the month, demonstrating that its stockpicking alpha strategy is capable of generating strong returns in down markets.Annualised returns are 16.4% with volatility of circa 8% since launch in 2002.The Fund is currently open to new investors and will close again once it reachesits targeted capacity. The Fund's star performer in March on the long side was Wimm Bill Dann, aleading producer of dairy and juice products in Russia and the CIS, whose sharesrose by 26.2% following well-received 2006 financial results. IMSG, the Russianbased London-listed advertising company also enjoyed an 18.8% rally in its shareprice. Both have contributed to the Fund's recent impressive performance. Theshort book also generated alpha with average performance below that ofrespective country indices, all via stock specific shorts. Charlemagne Capital's OCCO funds all employ a long / short equity strategy,investing across global emerging markets with a bottom up value approach and aimto produce consistent absolute and risk-adjusted performance by exploitinginefficiencies in the markets through both long and short positions. The fundsare managed with a maximum standard deviation of 12% per annum. The OCCO EasternEuropean Fund is non directional in contrast to most emerging markets hedgefunds which tend to have a long bias. The OCCO Eastern European Fund was thefirst hedge fund which Charlemagne Capital launched in December 2001. Enquiries Charlemagne Capital 020 7518 2100Varda Lotan, Marketing Director Smithfield Consultants 020 7360 4900John KielyGeorge Hudson Notes to Editors Charlemagne Capital is a specialist emerging markets equity investmentmanagement group. Charlemagne Capital Limited was admitted to the AIM market ofthe London Stock Exchange on 4 April 2006. Charlemagne's product range comprises mutual funds, hedge funds andinstitutional and specialist fund products primarily covering GEMs, EasternEurope, Latin America and Asia. Charlemagne Capital employs a range ofinvestment strategies including: long only, long/short, structured products andprivate equity. Charlemagne Capital's funds aim to exploit the inefficiencies inthe market via a strict bottom up approach and focused stock selection. The OCCO fund range is Charlemagne Capital's hedge fund range, consisting of theOCCO Eastern European, Global Emerging Markets, Asia and Latin America funds.All of the OCCO funds employ a long/short equity strategy investing acrossglobal emerging markets with a bottom up approach. The funds aim to produceconsistent absolute & risk adjusted performance by exploiting inefficiencies inthe markets through both long & short positions. The funds have a maximumstandard deviation target of 12% p.a. Through the strong long-term investment performance track record of itsprincipal funds, Charlemagne Capital has established itself as a market leaderin emerging markets investment management. Its performance has been recognisedthrough numerous awards and top rankings for its funds, including the 2005Standard and Poor's 5-year best performing fund award in Austria, the 2006 SwissLipper Leaders 5-year award winner for Emerging Markets Europe and an AAA-ratingby Standard & Poor's for its Magna Eastern European Fund (a sub-fund of MagnaUmbrella Fund Plc). This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange