Hedge funds showed mixed performance in November. Bramshott Capital’s European Fund, which suffered huge losses in the third quarter, recovered in the last two months with positive turn of 2.84 percent, bringing the year to date returns to 1.36 percent. The long/short equity fund manages $556 million in strategy. Volkswagen AG (FRA:VOW) (ETR:VOW), Bramshott’s largest holding was a significant contributor to performance. Odey Continental European has also gained from the same position in November, with +4 percent in returns. Bramshott was also up on its investments in Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA (VTX:CFR), a Swiss luxury goods company, while losing in ThyssenKrupp AG (FRA:TKA) (ETA:TKA) and GN Store Nord A/S (CPH:GN).
Notably the fund holds Electrolux (FRA:ELX) (STO:ELUX-B) in its top long holdings, a company that has been shorted frequently by several US hedge funds. Jim Chanos’ Kynikos Associates, Lone Pine Capital and BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) are shorting the company in Sweden. In addition to the holdings mentioned in the previous performance update, Bramshott is also going long on The Berkeley Group Holdings plc (LON:BKG), Aegis Group plc (LON:AGS), National Grid plc (NYSE:NGG) (LON:NG) and Phillips Electronics.
In contrast to Bramshott’s positive performance in November, Equinox Fund International detracted in the month with loss of -2.6 percent. However, the year to date returns look good with +11.8 percent. Equinox has minimal short exposure in equity, with only 7 percent invested in shorts, compared to 105 percent in long investments. The fund more than doubled its short exposure in Japanese equities while contracting the long portfolio in the market to half of the previous. The fund is net short in US treasuries and European bonds.
Equinox has total assets of $1.7 billion and focuses on long investments in undervalued companies and shorts in securities. Speaking of securities, Providence Investment Management was almost flat in November, with -0.2 percent and 10.9 percent YTD. The fund is bearish on the MBS market, and expects the cycle of good returns to end soon. Therefore its careful about investing in fixed income assets while waiting for a lucrative opportunity.
