The Blue Ink-ubator fund, managed by Blue Ink Investments, one of South Africa’s leading providers of fund of hedge fund investment products – was named the best Fund of Hedge Funds at the 2010 HedgeNews Africa awards held on Thursday February 18 at the Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town.
The Blue Ink-ubator Diversified Fund is aimed at investing in high calibre, early stage managers with varying strategies, predominantly in South Africa.
The hedge fund industry competes in 10 categories and the awards are based on the best risk-adjusted returns generated during 2009 by South African and African-based hedge fund industry. The Blue Ink-ubator fund posted a total gain of 19.20% in 2009, following a credible gain of 10.25% the previous year at a time when local and global equity markets tumbled.
Research recently published by Blue Ink showed that the average South African single strategy hedge fund posted gains of 15.67% last year.
“The Blue Ink-ubator fund was only launched in September 2007, just as the financial crisis began to impact on equity markets. This award recognises the successful investment strategies employed by the early stage fund managers in which we invested,” says Thomas Schlebusch, Chief Investment Officer at Blue Ink.
Schlebusch says the Blue Ink-ubator fund pioneered a new investment strategy in the South African hedge fund space by identifying new fund manager talent, particularly those pursuing alternative strategies. “At its launch, the Blue Ink-ubator was the only fund of its kind in South Africa. Winning this award is a testament to the success of this new strategy and the hard work of our investment team.”
Blue Ink has been consistently recognised at the HedgeNews Awards. Last year, the company was a runner-up in the same category and in 2008, four of the six funds nominated were within the Blue Ink stable.
Esmarie Strydom, CEO of Blue Ink, says she expects another strong year for the hedge fund industry in 2010. “We were particularly encouraged with Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s commitment in the budget to introduce regulations for the hedge fund industry. This should help to get hedge fund products into the mainstream of institutional investment strategies”.