London-based investment house RWC Partners has appointed Carmel Peters and Kirsty McLaren from Sofaer Capital as part of a drive to launch an Asian fund that can use derivatives to protect capital in a market downturn.

The fund, operating under UCITS III rules, will be called the RWC Asia Ascent Fund. It complements RWC Partner’s existing range of UCITS III funds managed by Miles Geldard. The RWC Asia Ascent Fund will have sterling, dollar, Swiss franc and euro hedged share classes which will be available in both a retail and an institutional form.  The sterling share class will have distributor status and all classes will be registered for sale throughout
Europe.

RWC said of its appointments that Ms Peters previously worked as the lead portfolio manager at Sofaer responsible for the Sofaer Capital Asia Hedge Fund. She has also worked in Asian equities and emerging markets at Putnam Investments, and acted as chief investment officer for Rothschild Asset Management in
Hong Kong.

Ms McLaren was the joint portfolio manager for the Sofaer Asia Hedge Fund and has over 13 years of experience in Asian and emerging market equities.  She initially worked with Ms Peters at Rothschild Asset Management before moving to JPMorgan securities on the Asian desks.

RWC Partners is an independent asset manager founded in 2000 which currently manages $2.5 billion. The company manages a range of funds and institutional mandates.