Sergey Grechishkin and Andrei Taskin, who both worked at the US bank earlier this decade, are raising money for the Alcantara Russia and CIS Fixed Income Opportunities Fund.
The fund, which is regulated by the UK’s Financial Services Authority, is the first product launched by Alcantara Asset Management, the firm that the two partners founded last year.
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| outstanding amount of international bond issuance from the CIS |
Although there are several hedge funds investing in emerging Europe and global emerging markets Alcantara is rare in being exclusively focused on fixed-income instruments issued by the three biggest members of the CIS. "It’s a very under-serviced market," says Grechishkin. "There are very few specialists in CIS debt." With more than 230 liquid international issues with over $200 billion outstanding by more than 60 issuers, CIS debt presents a diversified mix of industry, currency, tenor and structure. Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine also have a combined $140 billion of local-currency debt outstanding, although for the time being Alcantara will focus exclusively on Eurobonds and credit-linked notes.
The fund employs a combination of actively managed long-only and relative-value strategies, although the strategy will be predominantly managed long only.