Co-founder of Gottex relocates to Hong Kong

Max Gottschalk, a co-founder of Gottex Fund Management, has moved to Hong Kong. He was already running the firm’s Asian activities as well as global marketing and will continue with those roles, the only difference being that he will be performing those tasks from Hong Kong.

Gottex was established by his father, Joachim Gottschalk, as a brokerage business in 1986. The son set up the Gottex funds-of-funds business in 1998, having worked at Bear Stearns on the derivatives desk.

Today Gottex manages $8.6 billion, which is down from its peak of $16 billion, but a bounce back from its post-crisis level of $7 billion, at which time it had encountered redemptions from investors (in common with other funds of hedge funds).

At present, 5% of Gottex’s assets under management come from Asian investors. Gottschalk’s target is to raise that percentage to 30%. Gottex’s co-mingled fund products as well as its bespoke managed accounts platform currently accommodate 22 hedge fund managers. (There are no Asian hedge fund managers yet, but that may change soon.)

The managed accounts platform, which is called Luma Solutions, has $1.4 billion in assets under management in Ucits and Cayman structures.

Overall, 60% of Gottex’s assets are now sourced from European investors. Gottex has deployed about $400 million in Asian exposure across various products.

It has one dedicated Asian product called Gottex Tiger Fund, which currently stands at $66 million. That fund had about 50 separate positions and was marketed as a diversification product.

Gottex recently spoke to investors and asked them to describe their optimal Asian product. They found that investors are looking to Asia to add spice and outperformance to their portfolios. So the Gottex Tiger Fund is getting a make-over, being taken up the risk curve to deliver mid-teens performance on 6-9% volatility and a more punchy strategy orientation of macro, event driven and long/short.