Octopus shuts Absolute European fund as demand dries up

Investment director at the firm, Oliver Wallin, said the group had no plans to replace the fund, which first launched in June 2010 and at one point had £9m under management.

He said the £58m Octopus Absolute UK Equity fund and the Global Strategies multi-manager fund, which launched in November last year and also targets absolute returns, would continue to run.

“There are no plans to replace the Absolute European fund or broaden the range beyond what we have,” he said.

The fund delivered 3.8 per cent in the year to December 9, according to Morningstar.

“The fund did not reach the size we anticipated when it was in the product development phase and that is the main reason for deciding to close it down,” he added.

The Absolute European fund was mangaed by Thierry Serero until he left in May 2011 to join Duet Mangouste, handing the fund over to David Crawford. Mr Crawford also manages the Absolute UK Equity fund.

Late last year Octopus also made its chief investment officer and head of multi-manager Lothar Mentel redundant following a strategic review.

Mr Mentel was one of six staff to be made redundant, after the 200-strong boutique asset manager has carried out plans to reshuffle its staffing structure.

Managing director and founder at Octopus, Guy Myles, told Investment Adviser in December that some new roles had also been created as part of the review, which is aimed at making the firm’s quoted division “mirror” its unquoted division in terms of staff structure.

The quoted business, in which Mr Mentel worked, invests in assets such as equities which are quoted on a stockmarket and the unquoted business offers products such as VCTs which trade in unquoted assets.