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Pride Investments launches new H-share fund

Former Marco Polo exec Lewis Wan opens his fourth China-themed hedge fund.
Pride Investments has launched a new H share fund in Hong Kong on October 22nd. Pride Investments is spearheaded by Lewis Wan, a former colleague of Aaron Boesky at Marco Polo Investments.

The æPride China FundÆ starts with assets of $ 5 million and targets raising assets of $30 million by the end of 2007. The fund has a projected Sharpe ratio of 2-3 and a target annual return of 100%. .

This long-only fund will by managed by Lewis Wan in Hong Kong together with Qi Jue and his research team in Shanghai. Qi Jue was previously the CEO of a trust company in china and before then had been a government official in the CSRC.

ôWe donÆt think China is over-valued at present,ö says Wan, ôand our new fund, the Pride China Fund is for China shares listed in Hong Kong, and that looks to grab on to the trend of QDII money that is likely to flow into Hong Kong.ö

At present Pride Investments has found success with Taiwanese investors and now believes it can extend its asset gathering into mainland investors.

ôI think we understand more about the behaviour and mentality of Chinese when seeking to invest QDII funds,ö says Wan. ôWe try to analyse what preferences those mainland investors have û right now thereÆs an interest in going into blue chips. A key theme there is blue chips receiving asset injections from parent company into the listco.ö

Pride Investments likes to describe itself as a æpolicy followerÆ. What it means by that is listening to the directives and policy intentions of the Chinese government, seeing what sectors it wants to promote and which areas of the capital markets that it wants to bolster, and then positioning itself accordingly. However, it does not take positions in A shares in Shanghai or Shenzhen.

The new fund has no prime broker at present. Custodian and administrator is Standard Chartered and auditors are Ernst and Young.

In total Pride Investments has $120 million in assets under management. The Pride of Treasure fund was brought over by Lewis Wan from his Marco Polo days. Alongside in their bullpen is the Pride of Dragon Fund, which invests in non-tradable shares and pre-IPO shares, predominantly issued by financial institutions.

Filling out the roster is the Pride Venture Capital Fund. A $40 million closed end venture capital fund that specializes in SMEÆs that aspire to join the Shenzhen SME board
¬ Haymarket Media Limited. All rights reserved.
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