EUROPE – Adrian Farthing has been appointed by the Washington Financial Group to manage its new European hedge fund targeted at European, UK and US offshore institutional investors and funds of funds.

The fund will operate a market neutral long/short strategy comprising 30 pairs of European blue chip stocks and will complement a European fund already managed by Farthing.

Charles Tiar, chairman of Washington Financial Group, says: “ Our policy is to put in place the complete operational structure for selected managers and by creating this additional vehicle for Adrian we look forward to building on a successful working relationship that began in the mid-to-late 1990s with his management of a pan-European equities portfolio.”

The fund aims to achieve consistent long-term appreciation of around 12-18% a year, and minimum investment is e150,000.
The firm says that it has noticed an increasing interest especially in the pension fund arena for low volatility hedge funds in pension scheme portfolios.

Considering the liquidity of the fund and the underlining positions involved in the investment strategy, says the manager, the initial plan is to close the fund at around e500m, but this deadline might be extended.

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