Alternative credit specialist CIFC has launched a long/short high yield UCITS fund managed by industry veteran Jason Horowitz, who has been running similar strategies successfully for over 10 years.

Mr. Horowitz joined the New York-based manager in January as Head of U.S. High Yield Bond Investments. He has been managing the strategy for CIFC since February 1, 2020, delivering a 12.69% net gain to the end of July, compared with a 0.18% loss for the wider U.S. high yield market.[1] The strategy made positive returns during March at the height of market anxiety around Covid-19.

The UCITS fund, which mirrors the existing strategy, is designed to seek high single-digit returns while protecting capital in down markets. The strategy is offered as a new sub-fund of CIFC Credit Fund ICAV, a UCITS structure domiciled in Dublin.

CIFC London MD Josh Hughes said: “CIFC believes that this is the right time for a strategy like this, which has shown over the long-term that it can deliver attractive returns in all weathers. Jason has 25 years of investment experience and is supported by CIFC’s strong credit research team. By launching the strategy within a UCITS fund structure we can open it up to a wider audience, including wealth managers and private banks, as well as European-based pension funds, family offices and other investors.”

Mr. Horowitz previously worked at Millennium Management. Prior to that he spent 13 years at Muzinich & Co., overseeing an award-winning long/short corporate credit hedge fund. He was joined at CIFC by Brandon Hole and Eric Seiden, who worked with Mr. Horowitz at Millennium Management as well.

Mr. Horowitz said: “I believe that the high yield market is well-suited for a long/short strategy because there are lots of market inefficiencies that create opportunities in either direction for those with the research capacity and technical expertise. CIFC has a 47-strong investment team, with 20 analysts who will all bring ideas to this strategy.”

The strategy offered in UCITS form will seek to capture returns from four areas: identifying long/short opportunities through fundamental credit research; exploiting long and short technical opportunities and inefficiencies in different segments of the high yield market; investing in dependable credit from short-dated bonds with low-volatility characteristics; and arbitrage.