Quam launches new RMB class for hedge fund

Quam Asset Management is getting busy with new products and changes to existing offerings. It is renaming its Quam Greater China Fund as the Quam China Focus Fund, to clarify any ambiguity, because the fund actually doesn’t invest in Taiwan or elsewhere in the Greater China zone.

The $40 million fund will also be offering a new class to investors, which will be denominated in renminbi.

“We are in the course of finishing the documents to introduce a RMB class to the fund,” says Richard Harris, chief executive of Quam Asset Management. “As a Hong Kong entity we can use currency swaps within the fund to enhance our RMB exposure, so clients overseas can get liquid assets though our fund as well as having equity exposure.

"In Hong Kong, investors are probably dealing direct, say buying RMB bonds, but we at Quam have a European client following, and they can give us euro and we can convert that for them. It is mostly people with foreign currency who will have the interest in our RMB class, as they get an enhanced exposure to both the RMB and to the Chinese stock market.”

Also on the Quam burner is the Quam Silk Road Mongolia Fund, which is due for a March 2011 launch. This new long/short fund will have a Mongolian equity theme, and that means, for the most part, natural resources.

The Mongolian index is running hot. It was up 70% last month and 140% last year. However, approximately 90% of the Mongol Universe is listed elsewhere, such as in London, Toronto and Australia, where, according to Harris, valuations are far more enticing.

After its Mongol odyssey, next up for Quam, whose house theme for 2011 is wrapped around natural resources, is a new oil and gas fund product.