Goldman Sachs launches global long/short fund

Goldman Sachs JBWere Asset Management has announced plans to launch an international equities long / short fund in Australia.

The Global Flex Fund has been developed in conjunction with Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) Quantitative Equities Group, and will take both long and short positions in international equity markets.

GSJBWAM managing director Ian Ward-Ambler said the new fund’s investment approach would reflect an “optimal combination of overweight and underweight positions relative to the MSCI World (ex-Australia) index”.

In line with this approach, Ward-Ambler said the fund will “target a beta of 1 while maintaining full exposure to the global equities market, offering an effective solution to generate a higher level of return for a given level of risk”.

He said that “removing the ‘no-short’ option from the investing process would allow the fund to better reflect both the negative and positive views on individual stocks to generate out-performance”.

“In addition a global investment universe provides more opportunity to capitalise on mispriced securities,” he said.

The fund also offers a “greater opportunity for higher international portfolio returns through a more efficient portfolio construction,” he said.

It follows the launch of Goldman Sach’s Global Alpha Fund in July last year, also developed in conjunction with GSAM, which provides Australian investors with access to international hedge funds.