Chidem Kurdas
Fund of hedge funds manager and service provider Gottex Group has resumed an ambitious program to raise multi-asset investment vehicles in the US as well as in other countries. The new funds’ portfolio manager is William Landes, a former managing director at Putnam Investments.
Kevin Maloney, also a former Putnam managing director, is the second in command. He heads risk management at Gottex.
Mr. Landes joined Gottex in March 2008 but the plan to launch a series of funds that would allocate to both traditional and alternative managers was delayed by the financial crisis that erupted that year.
Now the firm is putting in place a master-and-feeder structure with a wide-ranging investment approach inspired by university endowments such as Yale’s and Harvard’s. The strategy comes in two versions—one invests in both traditional and alternative assets, the other only in alternatives, which run the gamut from real estate and private equity to commodities and hedge funds.
The real estate portion of the portfolio is to be managed by Duff & Phelps, a subsidiary of Virtus Investment Partners.
Joachim Gottschalk founded Gottex Group in 1986 in Switzerland. The firm expanded globally to become one of the largest fund of fund managers, with $15.6 billion in assets at peak before the wave of redemptions set off by the 2008 crisis. Currently assets are around $8 billion.
In 2009, Gottex broadened its focus in the US with the acquisition of Constellar funds. The launch of multi-asset investment vehicles continues a drive to broaden the business.
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