Matrix Lazard Opportunities Fund
Management Company
Matrix Money Management
One Vine Street
London
W1J 0AH
United Kingdom
Sub- Investment Management Company – Lazard Asset Management LLC
Fund Manager
Sean Reynolds (Managing Director, Portfolio Manager/Analyst Lazard Asset Management LLC)
Contact Person
Lizzie Vickers
Contact Phone
+44 20 3206 7210
Launch Date
July 2010
Press Release
Matrix announced today the launch of its second UCITS III fund. The Matrix Lazard Opportunities Fund, is managed by Matrix Money Management, who has appointed Lazard Asset Management as its Sub Investment Manager. The Lazard Asset Management team, headed by Sean Reynolds, aims to achieve absolute returns through a combination of capital appreciation and income.
The Fund’s strategy seeks to generate returns through two sub-strategies: convertible arbitrage and special situations/event driven investing. The strategy aims to take advantage of situations where the team believes a security’s price diverges from its expected value and aims to provide superior riskadjusted returns when compared to broad equity and credit benchmarks.
Mr. Reynolds, Senior Portfolio Manager, leads a six person investment team, with deep experience in event driven, relative value and convertibles strategies. The team also has access to Lazard’s Global Investment resources of over 180 professionals including analysts and portfolio managers who provide fundamental insight into special situations and events.
KEY ATTRIBUTES
Greater Scope than Traditional Bond Funds
Can invest across a broader range of a company’s securities: bonds, convertibles, equities, credit derivatives.
Can go both long and short via derivatives.
Focus on Special Situations & Events
Larger range of investment opportunities than traditional bond funds.
Uncorrelated to traditional bond trades.
Special situations & events occur over a relatively short time frame, which leads to a high turnover of positions in the portfolio.
Commenting on the launch and the investment outlook, Sean Reynolds said:
"Matrix Group has developed a strong reputation for distributing absolute return focused products into the UK retail marketplace. The Matrix Lazard Opportunities Fund provides a unique vehicle for investors seeking an on-shore regulated fund that uses our convertible arbitrage and special situations, event-driven investment approach,” said Reynolds. “The investment team believes that the recent stock market sell-off has dramatically increased the strategy’s opportunity, especially in shorter dated credit securities offering attractive equity exposure. The team's expertise in this area should significantly differentiate us from the competition."
Mr. Reynolds and his investment team also manage a similar strategy to the one outlined above. The strategy returned +64.3% in 2009 and -9.6% in 2008, out-performing broad equity and credit benchmarks. Since launch in June 2007 the strategy has returned 18.5%% with an annualised volatility of 7.5%. *
*Since inception results represent the Lazard Rathmore Fund Ltd – Class A-2 for the time period 1
June 2007 – 31 May 2010 and are shown net of all fees. The performance quoted represents pastperformance. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
Commenting on the launch, Chris Merry, CEO of Matrix Group said:
“I am delighted to be teaming up with Lazard Asset Management to launch our second UCITS III fund following the launch last month of the Matrix Asia UCITs Fund. Sean Reynolds and his team have an outstanding track record. Stuart Ratcliff, CIO of our in-house investment team, has invested in the Lazard Rathmore Fund, the hedge fund on which the new UCITS Fund will be modelled, on behalf of our own funds of hedge funds. They first invested in July 2009 and over the period from investment to the end of May 2010 the fund has produced performance of 29.2%. The UCITS Fund will now make Sean’s investment expertise accessible to a much broader investor base.”
*Please note the returns shown are for the Lazard Rathmore Fund, not the Matrix Lazard Opportunities Fund. They are the returns of an offshore fund outside the UCITS framework and therefore are displayed only for the purpose of demonstrating Lazard’s investment strategy and experience. Compliance with UCITS regulations dictates that the portfolio of the Matrix Lazard Opportunities Fund and the Lazard Rathmore Fund will differ. Furthermore, the Matrix Lazard Opportunities Fund will have, among other factors, greater administration costs. Past performance is not a guide to future performance. Investors may incur substantial losses or lose their entire
investment.