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15 Apr 2009

Offshore Emerging Market Firm Hires Hedge Fund Manager

FSA regulated specialist asset management firm, Silk Invest Ltd, has hired John Bates, former Head of Credit Research Africa at hedge fund Renaissance Capital, to spearhead its move into Frontier Fixed Income.

“We will offer a liquid Frontier Market Fixed Income product, "Zin Bekkali, CEO of Silk Invest, said " Although largely focused on Sovereigns, there will be a corporate element that will represent up to 20% of the portfolio.”

Daniel Broby, Chief Investment Officer says he is “delighted John is coming on board, having seen the quality of his work whilst we were together at Renaissance. He is truly one of the few people who not only know the universe inside out but he is also of the few able to capitalise on that knowledge to obtain equity like returns in the frontier fixed income space.”

Prior to his work at the Renaissance hedge fund, he was a senior Emerging Market Credit Analyst at ABN Amro in London and West LB. John has a ‘BA Hons’ from University College London.

“John is yet another high level hire that is in line with our policy of recruiting the best skillset in African and Arab markets,” Dr Heinz Hockmann, the Chairman of Silk Invest, said.

Legg Mason Launches Tactical Allocation Fund

Investment management company Legg Mason Inc. has launched a global multi-asset tactical allocation mutual fund named Legg Mason Permal Tactical Allocation Fund. The fund, which targets institutional and retail taxable and tax-exempt investors, will be managed by Legg Mason's fund-of-hedge-funds affiliate, Permal Asset Management.

Legg Mason said that the fund is an opportunistic and diversified product, which seeks to benefit from any market condition and to outperform a traditional 60/30/10 (equity/fixed income/cash) portfolio over a medium-term time frame.

"Permal has an expertise in asset allocation and a deep global perspective and we believe they can find opportunities in these markets to deliver value to our clients." Matt Schiffman, Head of Americas Retail at Legg Mason said, "This is an innovative way to bring their fund of hedge fund expertise to traditional asset classes in a mutual fund offering."

The asset allocation strategy is designed to exploit perceived inefficiencies or imbalances in equity, fixed-income or other asset classes in any region or country, said the Baltimore, Maryland-based mutual fund group.

The fund will invest primarily in both passive and actively managed investment funds, to include specifically, affiliated and unaffiliated open-end mutual funds, unaffiliated closed-end mutual funds and exchange traded funds and notes, as well as cash equivalents and alternative investments.