NewSmith eyes European large cap opportunities

Fund manager NewSmith has launched a UCITS long-short equity fund focusing on large cap European stocks. The fund will be managed by Jean Maigrot, European Equity Investment Leader at NewSmith. He has 28 years’ experience of trading European equities and joined NewSmith in 2007.

NewSmith said that cornerstone investors have committed $35 million in seed capital for the fund, which will be domiciled in Dublin and have daily dealing in four share classes: euro, US dollar, sterling and yen. NewSmith chairman, Paul Roy, said: “We have seen strong demand from investors for access to our long-short European investment strategy and this, together with the growing popularity of the UCITS structure, drove our decision to launch the fund.” Maigrot added that many European stocks are now trading at a discount to US equities. Along with the challenging outlook for European economic growth, this has created opportunities for long and short positions.