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Former Zadig long/short equity manager Jonathan Herbert is continuing to hit the heights with his five-year-old Camox fund - generating the kind of punchy medium-term performance profile which investors that have mostly been in risk-averse mode ever since the 2008 crash are now starting to seek out once again
Jonathan Herbert
At the recent InvestHedge Forum in London, a panel of Europe's top hedge fund investors discussed the relatively muted performance of their hedge fund allocations - and admitted that their own risk-averse nature and demands for a steady return stream may well have contributed to the problem.
One fund that has proven its ability to provide great returns over the medium term - but whose assets remain fairly small - is Camox, a long/short European equity run by Jonathan Herbert that focuses on mid-cap stocks in the Alpine countries and has delivered a compelling performance since starting in 2008.
Previously based on the Zadig platform headed by former Voltaire man Laurent Saglio, Herbert span out last year to set up his own management company called Cologny Advisors.
This year's exceptional returns - the Camox fund is up by nearly 35% to the end of October - are no aberration. Since launching in February 2008 Herbert has outperformed during an exceptionally different period - annualising at 17.7% and generating a positive return (+4.9%) in 2008, with the only calendar-year loss being in 2011 when the fund was down by some 13%.
While assets - currently at around EUR 40 million - are growing steadily and heading towards the EUR 50 million threshold, Herbert believes that investors are still feeling the after-effects of the trauma caused by 2008 and that this has seen them avoiding the type of managers who have been able to make strong returns in what he calls "the most hated bull market in history".
He sees investors now starting to ramp up their risk tolerances, however, and a growing acceptance that an attempt to generate returns must necessarily entail the potential for short-term volatility.
But while this narrative has taken hold, he believes that it has yet to translate into any widespread action in terms of investor re-allocations. "Very recently we are seeing investors starting to push on the gas pedal,"...