Pictet Asset Management, part of Swiss banking house Pictet, has expanded its Total Return fund range with the launch of PTR- Agora, an equity market neutral fund with a long/short investment approach.

Pictet Asset Management, part of Swiss banking house Pictet, has expanded its Total Return fund range with the launch of PTR- Agora, a European equity market neutral fund with a long/short investment approach.

The fund invests in approximately 35 core investment strategies, each expressed through a combination of long and short positions that aims to remove market risk and extract alpha from identified catalysts.

The fund managers aim to identify catalysts that will have an impact on the share prices European large cap companies, including corporate restructuring and mergers and acquisitions activity, the firm said in a statement.

A three-member team, led by Elif Aktuğ, manages the fund. The other two members are Benoît Capiod and Vincent Ijaouane.  The portfolio managers have been managing the same European long/short equity strategy at Pictet AM through a Cayman-domiciled fund for over three years.

“We believe the availability and cost of financing, the strength of European corporate balance sheets, the search for non-organic sources of growth and the growing stability of the economic environment, all point to a continued pick-up in M&A activity,” said Aktuğ.