The latest in fund and business developments from across Europe.

Pictet
Pictet Asset Management, part of Geneva-based Pictet, has expanded its Total Return fund range, launching the Pictet TR-Atlas Titan fund, a long/short global equity fund. 

The fund is a higher risk, higher return objective adaptation of the Pictet TR-Atlas fund.

Pictet TR-Atlas Titan aims to exploit mispriced stocks in developed and emerging markets by combining detailed top-down analysis with intensive bottom-up fundamental stock-picking. Pictet TR-Atlas Titan selects liquid companies identified through bottom-up fundamental research. The team adjusts portfolio exposure across regions and sectors using detailed, top-down macro analysis, including business cycle indicators and liquidity conditions.

This fund should appeal to investors who are willing to accept a higher level of risk in order to achieve higher returns. Pictet TR-Atlas Titan aims to deliver mid-to-high single-digit returns (net of fees) with mid-single-digit volatility, Pictet said. 

A team of Geneva-based managers, led by Matthieu Fleck, run the fund, which is UCITS IV compliant, with daily liquidity. It is registered for sale in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finand, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain and Sweden.

The fund is the latest edition to Pictet Asset Management’s Total Return fund range, which now has a combined AuM of $10.6 billion as at 31 August 2020.

First Trust
First Trust has launched the actively managed First Trust Low Duration Global Government Bond UCITS ETF, called more snappily as FGOV, on the London Stock Exchange. 

Initially listed on the Euronext Amsterdam last year, the ETF applies a rules-based methodology to select carry and value opportunities across global sovereign bond yield curves. The fund is aimed at wealth managers, discretionary fund managers, advisors and institutional investors, First Trust said in a statement yesterday. 

The fund's main goal is to generate income, while also capturing capital growth as a secondary target. The fund aims to minimise foreign currency exposures.

“In this now protracted environment of flat yield curves and negative interest rates across many fixed income markets, a disciplined approach that comes from utilising a rules-driven process becomes increasingly important,” Leonardo Da Costa, senior portfolio manager at First Trust Global Portfolios, said.

“This actively managed, currency hedged, factor-based ETF offers wealth managers access to real innovation in the fixed income space which, historically has been limited to the preserve of equity markets,” he added. 

The fund has a total expense ratio of 0.45.