Deutsche Bank’s global hedge funds business, DB Absolute Return Strategies, has reached a significant milestone in Australia, achieving more than A$224 million in funds under management for its flagship fund, Deutsche Strategic Value Fund. The multi-manager Fund, which invests globally, obtained record flows of over $35 million in July, split between retail and institutional investors.

”We’ve doubled our assets under management in the Deutsche Strategic Value Fund across the past 12 months,” said David Zobel, Asia Pacific Head of DB Absolute Return Strategies.

Mr Zobel explained that hedge funds are continuing to gain momentum as retail and institutional investors alike shift increasing portions of their portfolios to alternative investments. ”Our Fund is one of those unusual investments that appeals equally to retail and institutional investors, resulting in a highly diversified investor base,” he added.

”Investors like the fact that well managed, multi-manager hedge funds potentially add
performance, diversification and risk reduction benefits to a portfolio. The Deutsche Strategic Value Fund has checked positive to all these benefits, having delivered consistently positive returns since its launch in December 1999, with a much lower risk than global equities or global bonds.”

According to Bruce Murphy, Head of Retail at Deutsche Asset Management, “The current difficult market has crystallised the benefits of hedge funds as an addition to client’s portfolios, particularly in the face of global equity market weakness. We’re also seeing rapidly increasing interest in our second hedge fund offering, the Global Equity Opportunities Fund. Like the Deutsche Strategic Value Fund, this Fund has also weathered the market storms, with positive returns for international share investors.”

The success of the Deutsche Strategic Value Fund in Australia has been followed by some early success in New Zealand, where it was launched in March this year. Distributed in co-operation with Tower to both retail and institutional investors in New Zealand, the Fund has seen steady retail flows since its launch, and this month secured a mandate from its first institutional client.

A version of the Fund has also been developed for offshore investors, and has been attracting investment across the Asia Pacific region.

Deutsche’s DB Absolute Return Strategies group has been managing hedge funds for almost a decade. Today it is entrusted with managing hedge funds assets worth A$11 billion globally. The DB Absolute Return Strategies group has one of the world’s largest teams of absolute return investment specialists, with over 80 specialists based in offices in Sydney, New York, London and Tokyo.

The Deutsche Strategic Value Fund is a multi-manager, multi-strategy fund with a 4 Star rating from ASSIRT. The Fund aims to deliver consistent medium-term returns with low volatility and low correlation to the broader equity and fixed income markets by investing in a diversified range of
relative value and market neutral strategies globally. Its minimum investment is $5,000.



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