Jupiter is to launch a fund to invest in US equities, taking both long and short positions.
The fund will be managed by Darren Starr, a former hedge fund manager who joined the company from UBS in April 2018.
The fund will invest in between 40 and 60 stocks and come with a performance fee of 20 per cent of all outperformance of the three year US Libor rate.
A short position involves renting a stock from its owner, and selling it, then buying the stock back at a predefined period in the future, with the aim of making a profit.
Mr Starr has 10 years’ experience managing US equity long-short portfolios across roles at UBS, SAC Global Investors and Caxton.
Magnus Spence, head of alternative investments at Jupiter said: "The launch of this fund is an important step in our strategic initiative to continue to build out our liquid alternatives capabilities at Jupiter.
"Darren is a highly experienced US equity investor with significant expertise in equity long short investing and risk management. We are pleased to have him on board."
He said the liquid alternatives had grown rapidly over the past few years "despite generating fairly mediocre returns".
He added: "Many investors have been disappointed by the low levels of risk taking, the high fees and the elevated correlations with equity markets. The Jupiter US Equity Long Short Fund has been specifically designed to address these concerns. We believe it will be a valuable addition to the universe of liquid alternative funds."
Patrick Connolly, financial planner and head of communications at advice firm Chase De Vere, said: "There is huge demand for absolute return investments, especially at times when we are facing volatile stock markets and investors are worried about losing money.
"Volatility can provide some good investment opportunities for long short managers and Jupiter is a company which is focused on producing absolute returns.
"The merits of this fund will be determined by how it performs, although it is disappointing that it applies a performance fee if it out-performs the US Libor rate."
david.thorpe@ft.com
