Fund briefs

Axa hedge fund makes use of volatility differentials

French funds house Axa Investment Managers has launched a hedge fund to exploit arbitrage opportunities between volatility levels derived from the debt and equity of the same company. Axa Kappa exploits the fact that credit and equity give two different measures of the same underlying equity volatility. Axa currently manages E60bn in investment grade and high yield credit. The Dublin-domiciled fund is quoted on the Irish Stock Exchange in both dollars and euros. The minimum investment is E250,000.

Robeco to offer Russell fund range Dutch individual investors will be offered a multi-manager investment programme through an alliance between Rotterdam-based Robeco and US house Russell. Robeco will be responsible for product design, legal structuring and client service. Russell will take care of international manager selection, combination and monitoring.

Mellon taps into Portugal through BIG web presence Mellon Global Investments has signed an agreement with Banco de Investimento Global (BIG) to distribute its flagship Mellon Global Funds range in Portugal. BIG was created in 1999, and pioneered online investing in Portugal with a retail web presence, serving more than 25,000 affluent registered clients. It claims to offer objective, independent advice through 85 commission-based staff.

• Mellon Global Investments has asked us to inform readers of its Universal Euro Fund, which was not included in our Product Parade table of money market funds (PWM, May 2003). According to Mellon, the fund returned 2.3 per cent over one year and 10.39 per cent over three years. The fund range had $10.8bn (E15.4bn) at the end of March.