Following the recent closure of Matrix Ucits fund platform, the assets of the Matrix Lazard Opportunities Fund have been merged into the newly created Ireland-domiciled Lazard Opportunities Fund.
Following the recent closure of Matrix Ucits fund platform, the assets of the Matrix Lazard Opportunities Fund have been merged into the newly created Ireland-domiciled Lazard Opportunities Fund.
This new vehicle is part of Lazard Global Investment Funds, an Irish-registered open ended investment company fully compliant with the Ucits regulation.
Matrix Group closed its Ucits platform later just over two years after its launch in March 2010.
The $230m platform included the Matrix Asia fund, the Matrix Lazard Opportunities fund, Cantab Quantitative Ucits fund and Matrix New Europe Ucits fund.
The Cantab fund moved off the platform and back to Cantab in July and the Matrix New Europe fund closed in May. Shareholders in the Asia fund received their stakes back in the form of cash.
The newly launched vehicle is a relative value capital structure and convertible arbitrage fund focused on special situations and events trading. It aims to generate returns by exploiting anomalies across a corporate’s securities. The fund offers weekly liquidity.
Mike Wariebi, head of alternative investments in Europe and the Middle East at Lazard Asset Management, said: “We anticipate significant demand for the fund as the market is seeing $90bn+ of convertible debt maturing over the next few years. We believe companies looking to re-finance debt and re-structure may create opportunities in special situations.”
The investment management team is led by Sean Reynolds in New York. It comprises six fund managers in total.
Reynolds said: “We anticipate ongoing periods of volatility spikes as markets digest political, economic and sovereign events. The fund is designed to take advantage of increased volatility via its current bias towards short-dated corporate credit.
“The emphasis on shorter-dated trades where outcomes are more definable provides appropriate exposure to the beta of the asset class, but also helps to cushion during periods of risk aversion from the alpha generation delivered via special situations.”
