South African Structured Hedge Fund Planned

LONDON (HedgeWorld.com) - INVESCO and Cadiz Specialised Management will jointly offer a capital-protected structured hedge fund to investors in South Africa.
Returns on the security, called the Cadiz Protected Hedge Fund Product, will be linked to the performance of INVESCO's Absolute Return Fund, a fairly new hedge fund, but an established approach, that was unveiled in an offshore version in September . That fund combines a bottom-up long/short U.S. equity market neutral approach with a top-down futures strategy in U.S. stocks and bonds.
Cadiz officials believe that South African investors will be attracted to a hedge fund strategy offered by an established name like INVESCO, said Evan Jones, director of Cadiz Specialised Asset Managment and head of Cadiz Retail Solutions, in an INVESCO statement. Cadiz' role will be to manage and distribute the product.
The offering features the INVESCO fund wrapped in a single premium, five-and-a-half year insurance policy offered by Metropolitan Life Ltd. The capital protection feature is managed by Barclays Bank plc, which will shift exposure out of the hedge fund and into low risk zero-coupon bonds should the hedge fund returns go negative. Potentially, the product could have as much as 150% of assets invested in the hedge fund or nothing, according to the statement from INVESCO.
Targeted returns are 8% to 12% a year after all fees. The INVESCO fund charges 1.5% annually and 15% of new profits. The team managing the fund has US$1.3 billion under management.