Credit Suisse Asset Management has kick-started its alternative assets business in Australia by launching two Australian-domiciled funds of ...

Credit Suisse Asset Management has kick-started its alternative assets business in Australia by launching two Australian-domiciled funds of hedge funds.

These are the CSAM Global Long/Short Equity Fund which specializes in equities markets in US, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Italy and Canada, and the CSAM Global Diversified Strategies Fund, which offers investors access to a portfolio of hedge fund managers employing a range of strategies incorporating equity, bond and futures.

The majority of the investments for both funds will be managed by Credit Suisse First Boston Alternative Capital’s Hedge Fund Investment Group which has a 10-year history in the hedge und market and has over $8 billion in assets under management. The Australian operation will be responsible for evaluating the overall process from an Australian investor’s perspective, and the currency hedging relating to the funds.

CSFB's Alternative Capital director of hedge fund investments Tim Schuler said: “The reason we offered these two funds first is because they are designed to perform very different functions in a portfolio and in a lot of ways they could both be included in an investor’s portfolio and behave differently to one another. The Long/Short Equity program is really designed to be an international equities substitute or surrogate, whereas the Diversified Strategies portfolio’s return stream is supposed to be more of an absolute return vehicle.”

The long/short product will use between 15 to 25 managers while the diversified strategies product will employ around 50 managers. Both funds require a minimum investment of A$100,000 and will be available to both institutional and retail investors through master trusts.