U.K. hedge fund firm RAB Capital, which has USD1.5 billion under management, is readying an energy commodities fund for next year. This is likely to launch in the first quarter, said Michael Alen-Buckley, chairman, adding the firm has recently lined up managers for this vehicle. Contracts are being completed at present, he said, declining to give more details about the hires.
The fund will invest in commodity derivatives focusing on energy-related investments. The firm already runs an energy focused long/short equity hedge fund and had been looking at different strategies to exploit opportunities in this market, explained Samantha Robbins, a spokeswoman for RAB.
The publicly-traded firm stated that despite a shaky start to the year, pre-tax profits for the full year are likely to exceed its GBP10.6 million profit for the previous 13-months. Due to market conditions, RAB's performance in the first half of the year was generally pretty lackluster, said Alen-Buckley. "We were hoping that the second half would prove more successful. Well, it has," he ventured.
