Lazard Asset Management has launched the Lazard Rathmore Alternative fund, which will be managed in tandem with the Lazard Rathmore strategy.
Lazard Rathmore is a global hedged convertible strategy that seeks absolute returns by allocating capital between two sub-strategies, including capital structure and convertible arbitrage as well as special situations and event-driven investing.
Bill Smith, chief executive of Lazard, said: "We are launching this fund in response to investor demand for a product that offers the opportunity for equity-like returns, with bond-like volatility, and very little sensitivity to interest rates.
"The Lazard Rathmore strategy has focused on delivering attractive risk-adjusted returns to investors across market cycles and the recent pick up in volatility creates an attractive tailwind for the fund."
The strategy, which was launched in 2007, has delivered an annualised return of 8.6 per cent.
Portfolio manager Sean Reynolds, who has 26 years’ experience, leads the strategy, supported by a team of 10 in New York. He said: "Our view is that the pick-up in volatility, which has been a feature of the market so far in 2018, is likely to persist for the foreseeable future.
"In a rising volatility environment, the opportunity to generate excess returns with little sensitivity to interest rates should appeal to investors."
Scott Gallacher, a director at Rowley Turton in Leicester, said: "This sounds attractive on paper and their ambition of offering equity-like returns and bond-like volatility is to be welcomed."
